Linux won't detect my SATA.. Any ideas on a fix?

Question

I recently am trying to do a dual boot w/ XP and Linux on my Dell 8400.. Ive tried MANY differant distro's of linux and they ALL do basiaclly the same thing. They won't detect my SATA unless I fool w/ my bios. BUT when i do this, linux will work/install fine, but then XP won't work. If I change the Sata setting back to default in my bios.. XP works fine but then the version of linux I have installed won't detect the drive.

I read in the knowledgebase to try changing my drive settings in the bios it should work/help. I tried them all..(under Drives > Sata Just like it told em to do. These are the 4 that the knowledgebase is talking about. I have listed how they act if I mess with them.

Raid Autodetection / ACHI (XP loads.. Linux won't)
Raid Auctodetection / ATA (XP won't load.. Linux loads fine)
Raid On (XP loads.. Linux won't)
Combination (Raid / Pata) (XP won't load.. Linux loads fine)

This is driving me nuts. Anyone have any help or ideas?

sunset2000 · Answer

Grady-san

I have an identical hardware configuration and have been trying to set up a dual boot system for a couple of days with no success. Have not been able to locate a linux driver for the Intel SATA controller. Hopefully this problem will be resolved soon.

rolflist · Answer

Indeed, what should work is that you switch at startup the BIOS to "autoraid/AHCI" for windows XP and "autoraid/ATA" for Linux. Combination mode will recognize only the first SATA disk.
Read the SATA/AHCI story http://www.linuxmafia.com/faq/Hardware/sata.html and "google" ("linux sata dell 8400" or "knoppix dell sata") around at various linux fora if you like.

It has changed now with the new kernels (2.6.x with "extra's" or 2.6.11) where the AHCI controller should recognize the SATA drives.
What I did for installing SuSe 9.2 for a Dell Dimension 8400, with SATA/AHCI setup, is at
http://forums.us.dell.com/supportforums/board/message?board.id=sw_linux&message.id=5859

Installing other distro's such as Gentoo, Mandrake, Fedora etc on other (ICH6R AHCI) SATA controllers may be similar. Essence: SATA is not supported in standard linux distributions, until recently. Install via "autoraid/ata" and update kernel to 2.6.11.

For a LiveCD to test your PC you can try Kanotix 2005-1 (kernel 2.6.8-kanotix), from http://www.kanotix.org,
or the new Knoppix V3.8 (with a kernel 2.6.11, but german version), when available via http://www.knoppix.org, but for now google for "knoppix_v3.8".
Backup info: a torrent can also be found at http://www.winfuture.de/news,19477.html
or http://www.winfuture.de/downloadstart,1110994838,1349.html
or http://www.boegenielsen.dk:6969/

Knoppix boot on SMP PCs: knoppix lang=us acpi=off
On a US keybaord the "=" is at "Shift 0".

Message Edited by rolflist on 03-16-2005 04:20 PM

hansjorn · Answer

Thanks for your answers and links to Linux forums.

I would like to get the RAID-system to work - in which case I have 2xSATA + 2xSATA eg. 4 SATA-drives altogether.

In a dual boot situation if possible.

As I see it, the BIOS handles all requests, so the operating systems should not bother too much with Intel's setup of the Raid-system.

It's a clean solution adding double the capacity of a disk system, so I don't see no reason why it shouldn't work eventually.

But .. the switch between Windows and Linux should not have anything to do with the BIOS - but maybe this is not possible in a foreseeable future?

wouter29 · Answer

I just bought the new suse 9.3 because the old 9.0 did not recognize my SATA RAID. I've been told the new version had support for sata raid. But when i try to install 9.3 on my Dell Dimension 8400 with SATA disks the install wants to reformat all my partitions including the one with Windows XP installed.
the windows xp partition is a NTFS partition and i created two FAT32 partitions and i want to install suse 9.3 on one of them. I obviously do not want to format all partitions. I've changed the BIOS settings from Autoraid/AHCI to Autoraid/ATA but that gives the same problem during install. The Dell Dimension 8400 comes with a Intel 82802FR SATA RAID controller. and i have two 80GB harddrives connected.
How can i install suse 9.3 without having to format all partitions and loose my windows xp?

hansjorn · Answer

Just want to add, that with Ubuntu 05.10 Breezy Badger, it is now possible to install Linux on a Dimension 8400 with SATA-disks.

I succeeded using 3 out of 4 disks - when trying to use the 4th, the system broke - and I don't know the reason why the 4th one cannot run safely with the others.

I took off the RAID, that I originally used - and Ubuntu/linux recognized the disks perfectly.

Now I have been running Ubunt for a couple of months without problems - except for yesterday, when the cpu fan reported an error - probably something with a warning about high temperature in the box.

The next thing is of course to see, if the built-in raid can be used, but that doesn't really worry me, since Linux can do its own soft raid if needed.

The conclusion is, that Ubuntu 05.10 is quite capable of running on a Dimension 8400 with SATA disks.

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Linux won't detect my SATA.. Any ideas on a fix?

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