FC3 and SATA (un)support

[Alberto M R Davila]

Hi Aleksandar,

Thanks a lot for this comprehensive reply... I tried several things as
Fedora did not put any solution for this bug even I have seen on the web a
good number of SATA users asking for a solution ;-)

> > I keep having trouble to install FC3 in SATA HDs and have already
> submit
> > the bug to bugzilla:
> > 
> > https://bugzilla.redhat.com/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=136995
> > 
> > Could anyone kindly let me know abot any sucessful story of FC3 with
> SATA
> > HDs ? I wonder to know there would be a "simple" way for that... I
> know
> > "simple" is not always "simple" but any details of the simplest way
> would
> > be greatly appreciated.
> 
> I had no problems with SATA disks/controlers under Linux, as long as the
> 
> controler was listed as supported.  Those unsupported always worked when
> 
> set to parallel ATA emulation mode in BIOS.
> 
> Just couple of wild guesses, things to try.  Maybe it will help, maybe
> not.
> 
> Do you have fake-RAID support enabled in the BIOS by any chance?  If 
> yes, disable it.  It will not work under Linux, and it is software RAID 
> anyhow (Linux software RAID is usually faster and more reliable than 
> those fake-RAID stuff in BIOS).
> 
> You said you were able to install, but system hangs on boot.  This is 
> kind of strange.  Does Grub load the kernel and initrd and than things 
> hang, or it hangs right after POST before Grub takes over?

It was hanging exactly when calling:

Red Hat Nash version 4.1.18

> 
> If former, try booting from CD into rescue more (type linux rescue on 
> boot prompt), let Anaconda configure network and mount your Fedora 
> installation.  When you get shell prompt, chroot /mnt/sysimage, download
> 
> latest kernel update, rpm -ihv kernel-whatever.rpm, try booting with it.
> 
>   Maybe it will help, maybe not.

This is the only option that worked with me ealier today, just downloaded
the latest FC3 (2.6.10) kernel and installed after chroot /mnt/sysimage...
there was no need for "grub-install".


> 
> If later, check if Grub is installed at all.  Try reinstalling it by 
> hand (boot into rescue, chroot /mnt/sysimage, grub-install).
> 
> If nothing helps, you can always set SATA controler in BIOS to emulate 
> parallel ATA -- this always works (works even for Red Hat 7.x that does 
> not have any support for SATA).
> 
> Oh, one more thing.  This is not related to SATA (happens on systems 
> with PATA and/or SCSI too).  On some motherboards I hade problems with 
> race condition in init script (the one that loads drivers from initrd 
> image).  What exactly do you see on the screen before system hangs?  Is 
> it complaining about not able to mount root partition, not able to find 
> any disks, or something like that?  Remove "quiet" and "rhgb" options 
> from Grub to see if system is complaining about something like that.

Yes, there was a parameter in the boot loader as "...LABEL=/ rhgb quiet",
while in other systems it might be "... LABEL=/1 rhgb quiet". I removed
the "rhgb quiet" option from the boot then it passed the "Red Hat Nash
version 4.1.18" step but stopped later during :

ata1: dev 0 ATA, max UDMA/133, 156301488 sectors: lba48

Anyway, the newest FC3 kernel appears to offer real support for SATA HDs,
while the one included in the FC3 release sometimes does not.

Once again, thanks a million for the help and time.

Kind regards,

Alberto



		
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