Install Suse 9.2 on Precision 380

Question

I have recently tried to install Suse Professional 9.2 on a Precision 380.  Unfortunately, the OS does not recognize the SATA controller durring install.  The Dell box has an Intel 82801 GR/GH ICH7R/DH SATA raid controller.  There are no drivers available for Suse from Intel and the ata_piix kernel module does not recognize the hard drives.  I have tried to switch the SATA controller to 'combination' in bios, but the only thing that does is created an unrecoverable error while the had drive is being formatted.  I have tried most ideas and so far nothing has been successful.  The closest I was able to get was to complie a new kernel (2.6.14) and install using that.  The only problem with this is that I must turn off the USB controller in order for it to work properly.  Please let me know if there are any solutions to this install problem.

Mack_75 · Answer

Hi:

You can try booting with SLAX from USB Drive, and run the SUSE installer on it.

Or, if you have an other machine with SATA Controller compatible, you can try attaching the Hard Drive disk on this machine and install it in the second machine.

Or may be, if you're a geek bit, you can try installing SUSE on other machine, and making a Stage4 for Gentoo and install it through Gentoo LiveCD.

Good Lock and wath the source be with you.

Regards

Jc

wilsonm1 · Answer

Neither one of those solutions seem to make a difference.  SLAX even seems to have more problems recognizing the computers hardwared than Suse 9.2, but that is beside the point.  Currently it seems as though I have been able to install Suse 9.2 on a Dell Precision 370 with no problem, recompile the kernel to 2.6.14 and load that image onto a Dell Precision 380.  This solves the SATA drive recognition problem but eliminates USB support.  If I have the USB controller turned on in bios then the PS/2 support is gone.  I would like to hear if anyone has had this problem before and if there is some solution to it.  Perhaps a kernel module or patch.

warnking · Answer

Have you tried upgrading to the most recent BIOS (A04 as of today)? The previous versions appearently head bugs in the USB support. I do not have any firsthand experience with the old BIOS as I only bought my machines very recently and the latest version was already installed.

FWIW I could switch SATA to combination mode in the BIOS and install Debian sarge (both i386 or the unofficial amd64 port) with the official installation media. Of course, then I needed to compile a new kernel (I chose 2.6.14) to be able to switch back to AHCI mode (combination mode was limited to a 3 MB/s throughput..). Did not have any USB problems with this BIOS version at all.

wilsonm1 · Answer

I installed the new BIOS upgrade, but that did not fix the problem.  Suse 9.2 still cannot see the SATA hard drives during install.  When I switch to combination mode Suse will see the hard drives, but installation fails when trying to partition the hard drives.  It also fails when trying to install the OS without partitioning.  Installing kernel 2.6.14 did fix the problem for the 380, but it eradicates USB support.  I think its more a kernel issue than anything else.   Unfortunately I have not found a way to fix the kernel problem yet.

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Install Suse 9.2 on Precision 380

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