Serial ATA problem

[Aleu]

Hi guys,

I have a big problem. I just got a new PC (Dell OPTIPLEX GX280 series) and I have problem with booting Knoppix 3.4 (the lates one) and 3.6 on it. If I use 3.4 then it stops on INIT process if I use Kernel 2.6.6 or boots fine with kernel 2.4.26, but it does not detect my SATA drive. If I use Knoppix 3.6 it detects my SATA drive, but it right after that I get Kernel Panic on both kernels 2.6.7 and 2.4.27.

How can I boot into Knoppix with my SATA drive recognized correctly?

Thanks.

[eon]

I'm not sure I will be that helpful to you. I am interested in this topic myself though. SATA support in linux is new and undergoing advancement. Here's a link to supported boards & devices:

http://linux.yyz.us/sata/sata-status.html

plus there may be other info in links from the site. I've used SATA in OSX/darwin but haven't changed my drives in linux.

Also this site seems to have a post that sata drives may not be as fast as they're advertised to be. Can anyone provide more info on that?

[jonny5]

I am having issues because I need a Linux Boot cd that works with the ICH6 controller in the GX280. Currently, Knoppix crashes (version 3.7 - 2004-12-08) when it gets to the init process. It detects everything else fairly well, but then halts at INIT. I am not exactly sure what information would be helpful, but I can tell you that it tries to run everything through the tmscsim.o module for scsi interaction. I don't know if picking a different module would work here or if any other module would even make a difference.

If someone has more experience working with this kind of stuff, please let me know. Help needed!!!

[cleary]

I'm also doing some work with the GX280s.

In order to get the sata disks to work with the 2.4 kernel:
* Get into the bios setup (F2 at boot)
* Choose Drives->Sata Operation->Combination
then it should detect them fine.


Using Knoppix 3.7 (downloaded 17/12/04) and the IDE emulation thing set above,
if I boot using

knoppix26
it hangs at the following line in the boot process

INIT: version 2.78-knoppix booting
and won't go any further. It doesn't reboot or or throw any errors, it just hangs :(

I've been previously using Morphix ( http://www.morphix.org ) LiveCDs, and a 2.6 kernel basemodule has been released for that too but it crashes in a similar section on the GX280

As a side note, the project I've been working on has received a bit of coverage in Computerworld (and Linuxworld) Australia
http://www.computerworld.com.au/index.php/id;1058410056;fp;16;fpid;0

I'm currently in the process of migrating the setup to Knoppix from Morphix :)

[cleary]

A quick update:
The GX280s will boot with the 2.6 Kernel :D

* Get into the bios setup (F2 at boot)
* Choose Drives->Sata Operation->Normal
* Boot using the code

knoppix26 acpi=off

BUT there are issues.
This way, the SATA disks are detected and the mouse works, but the (USB) keyboard, and usb flash drives do not.

If you set the sata operation to combination (see post above) then it will still boot with

knoppix26 acpi=off

BUT There are other issues - the keyboard and mouse work fine, but no hard disks or usb flash disks are detected :(


At least we're getting somewhere :D