SATA: Can't install Linux :(

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Carnival Forces

Supreme [H]ardness
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Feb 9, 2003
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I can't install Linux :(

I have a Maxtor DiamondMax Plus9 SATA 200GB HDD and Linux installations won't work.

I guess they can't see my HDD, since my BIOS doesn't either :p
my BIOS claims my IDE0 Master is my CD-RW Drive, and ..idk what to do..

my motherboard is a Chaintech ZNF3-150 (i have an A64 3200+)


also, should i create a swap partition for Linux, and how big should it be?

additionaly, i was trying to install Slackware, and it claimed (in the setup file) that i should make a "Linux" partition (type 82) and a Linux Swap Partition (type 83) (i think those were the numbers), however, when i select Target Partition (or w/e the place where you want to install it is called), it just blinks, and reloads the Setup menu :(

any help is greatly appreciated!
 
If your bios doesn't see the drive, then the mobo or the drive is shot.
Don't blame linux, unless you know for a fact that the controller should be supported. Slack 10 sees most everything now.

Swap is classically two or three times the amount of physical memory in the computer.

It blinks because it probably has nowhere to write a partition to if the harddrive is unseen.
 
i think you're wrong. and i wasn't blaming linux.

see, the BIOS for my HDD boots up after my regular mobo BIOS does, so i think that's why the mobo doesn't see it. So, of couse, Linux wouldn't either...i'm just trying to fix THAT. 'cause i figure if my BIOS will see the HDD, then maybe Linux will.

k, notes taken on the swap file.


yeah, that's what i thought..so how do i go about fixing it? :confused:
 
Read the output of "dmesg"... do you see it say anything about seeing your SATA controller & your drives? If not, the standard kernel isn't configured to see the chip.

Try booting using the 2.6 kernel (I haven't looked at it yet but slack 10 is supposed to have the option to boot 2.6 ).

Looking around, it seems that the SATA drive might show up as /dev/sdXX instead of /dev/hdXX which will be useful when it comes time to partition the drive...

As for the swap partition... yes, you do want one. Since your drive's at least 80GB, just make a 1GB swap and you should be more than fine.
 
slackware doesn't include a 2.6 to install from by default, but you can make your own ISO to do it.
 
if the motherboard won't recognize the hard drive, chances are the controller chip which the SATA drive is connected to is disabled (in the BIOS). i'd dig around in there and make sure the chip is enabled. if it is, check cable connections and power to the hard drive. do any other operating systems see the drive?

next up: linux and your controller (sil3114). the hard drive MUST be in either port1 or 2, because the linux driver can only work with those two ports (3 and 4 aren't recognized yet cause silicon image won't release hardware specs). make sure you are using a very recent 2.6.X kernel, 2.6.>=5 preferably. (slack 10 is 2.6.6 so it should work, assuming the devs built support in). from everything i've heard the driver is fully stable in 32bit and 64bit, i'm not sure which you're building. i know my 3112a is just about perfect under linux, but i cant personally verify the 3114 - only what people tell me.
 
Xipher said:
slackware doesn't include a 2.6 to install from by default, but you can make your own ISO to do it.
Click to expand...
yeah i can't seem to verify/deny this anywhere on the slackware site. i know slack10 has the option to install 2.6.7 but i don't know if the livecd is 2.4 or 2.6 based. while it's not very helpful if you want to use slackware, the latest gentoo livecds have 2.6 kernels on them. press F2 at the first screen and choose either smp kernel (the smp kernels are 2.6, the gentoo kernels are 2.4). one advantage of using gentoo is the 64bit branch is getting pretty mature if you wanted to try out a natively 64bit system. (of course, the 32bit athlonxp stages work perfectly too).
 
I know slackwares install uses 2.4, but there is stuff online about how to make a custom install cd using 2.6.
your right though, gentoo does include 2.6 in there recent install cd's.
 
yeah, slack uses 2.4.x; and after looking in the customs section (of the slack install) i couldn't find a 2.6.7 option (i know that kernel supports my HDD)

i just d/l'ed gentoo; might give it a try now, or when i get back from camp :(

thx for the help
 
my bad... I figured that like slack 7 (or was it 8?) which defaulted to 2.2 but had an option, at boot time, to bust out 2.4 (I think it was the "bare24.i" kernel).
 
yea, 2.6 is currently only in testing, since patrick still finds 2.4 better for stablity.
 
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