Unix SATA Issues

[LWA]

Guys,
As I am not having much luck with installing Windows Vista (see this thread), inspired by Directhex's posts about running games under Unix, I decided to give Unix a go.

I downloaded both Suse 10.1 and unbuntu 6.06. Little did I know that I would see similar isses that I saw when attempting a Vista install - they all do not see my SATA hdd.

Now I have tried a number of changes to my BIOS (amongst other things) but I am still stuck at this point. I have tried googling but this still did not sort out my problem. I have read certain articles on Compatability Mode but I cannot see this in my BIOS.

System details:
Shuttle ST20G5 (ULi M1573 SATA controller)
SATA Maxtor 200GB Diamond Max
1GB RAM
X850 GTO2

Any help with this would be very much appreciated.

Regards,
Leon

[ikonia]

I've done some reading on this not having access to one of the chipsets myself.

this chipset appears to have "some" support in the default kernel tree and also some 3rd party drivers.

take a look at this article http://linuxmafia.com/faq/Hardware/sata.html and search for your chipset, its not a great report to be fair. as far as Linux is concerned, its using the sata_uli driver which is to be frank - rubbish as its in very early release/beta state.

I've checked out the latest git libata subsystem - and uli driver hasn't progressed at all. So basiclly its still a pretty early / poor state driver.

Instead of using a.) an OS your not familier with (linux) b.) an OS in VERY early beta state why not try a known and developed OS such as XP - find the correct driver and prove your disk/controller is working proplery.

then you can move on - to installing vista (don't know why you seem so desperate to do this at this moment in time) or Linux - again don't know why you seem to be pushing this when you don't appear to have even looked into compatability yet let alone usability.

Lets confirm your hardwares fine first before messing with beta/unfamilier OS's

[LWA]

Ikonia many thanks for your reply - perhaps I should of given you some further details to prevent you thinking I don't know whether my hardware works.

I have been using this shuttle for approximately 9 months with Windows XP installed on it. The SATA issue does not rear its head in this case, it is simply a matter of inserting the windows cd, pressing F6 for installing the SATA drivers (floppy supplied by Shuttle) and inserting the disc when prompted.

The reason why I am looking at Vista/Unix is simply that I felt like a change. I have used Unix before but only on IDE drives and so I have not encountered this problem - hence me asking for help.

I hope this goes someway in further explaining the situation.

[atrull]

I'm running ubuntu on sata and ULi M1573 in the past & NF4 now .. no issues. the m1573 ironicaly had far less interrupt noise than this nf4 from asrock.

[LWA]

Atrull, is this the latest version of ubuntu? Seems strange that it worked for you and not for me if we have the same SATA controller.

[geezerone]

Ubuntu 6.06 (Dapper) is the latest release.

[LWA]

Yep that's the one I have, I'm going to download a couple of live cds and see how I get on.