sata_nv NForce3 SATA driver on installer

[Robert L Cochran]

On Sun, 2004-10-10 at 10:07 -0700, matt whiteley wrote:
> On Sat, 09 Oct 2004 23:35:51 -0400, Robert L Cochran
> <cochranb at speakeasy.net> wrote:
> > I have a lot of PATA hard drives laying around. I really want to use the
> > SATA controllers on my MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum motherboard, but I'm loathe
> > to buy an SATA hard drive. Instead I bought a serial ATA converter that
> > plugs into a PATA drive and turns it into an SATA drive. I chose the
> > Highpoint RocketHead 100 Serial ATA Converter.
> > 
> > For the test drive, I plugged the converter into an older (around 1999)
> > 25.5 Gb IBM drive and connected that to the SATA1 controller on the
> > motherboard. I booted off the FC3 x86_64 CD 1 to start the installation
> > process, entering 'linux askmethod' at the prompt and selecting an NFS
> > Image installation method.
> > 
> > The installation soon comes to a halt. The installer says it can't find
> > any hard drives. I come to a panel offering me the chance to select
> > drivers that might do what is needed. There is nothing in the list for
> > Nvidia or NForce3 SATA, although a bunch of other SATA drivers are
> > provided for other chipsets.
> > 
> > Since the installer is offering me the chance to provide a driver --
> > good! -- I run over to another machine to see if I can get the sata_nv
> > driver on a floppy disk. I succeed, press F2 on the installer panel, and
> > get this message:
> > 
> > cannot find /tmp/drivers/modinfo, bad driver disk
> > 
> > Can anyone tell me what this is about?
> > 
> > What's the correct method of providing an external driver to the
> > installer -- how do I do that correctly?
> > 
> > And finally, even though I couldn't get the driver loaded for a fresh
> > installation of FC3T2 -- a fully updated FC3T2 drive with the 603 kernel
> > will boot just fine as an SATA device. I was pleasantly surprised.
> > smartd fails at boot time, and my Logitech QuickCam 4000 suddenly isn't
> > recognized, but what the heck -- my FC3T2 drive is on SATA, and seems to
> > work just fine.
> > 
> > Thanks
> > 
> > Bob Cochran
> > Greenbelt, Maryland, USA
> 
> I have a similar board, the MSI K8N Neo Platinum (7030) and am having
> the same issue as you. I know that you need to make a driver disk with
> a certain format (layout not file format) that contains other files
> besides the modules. I am trying to find a good description for one
> and will post a set of steps if one works.
> 
> -- 
> matt whiteley <mattwhiteley at gmail.com>
> 

Matt -- I found this email which led me to what appears to be a set of
excellent how-to-create-driver disk web pages (posted by David Kewley)
and a driver disk development kit made by Red Hat's Doug Ledford:

http://www.ussg.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0404.3/0107.html

I've downloaded the code and will start playing with it later today
since I'll have the time.

Bob Cochran