Current install with sata at IDE; Problems if changed to AHCI?<SOLVED>

[MCP]

I just decided to join the ranks of those using an ssd for the boot drive.  Before I purchased I found out that it works best if the sata controller is set to AHCI.

My question is if I set my bios to use AHCI now will my current install of PCLOS still work?  Or will it be dead because of an incompatability?

My current install is fully updated and running kernel "Linux 2.6.38.8-pclos1.pae.bfs"

I can work around this by using a second controller that is on my Gigabyte MB (GSATA) but I understand this is slightly slower and I'm trying to get more speed.

Please let me know what I'm in for before I jump in.  

MCP

[T6]

afik, ahci only gives you problems in windows if you activate it after the installation and you could need to install extra files

in linux, i haven't found information about it yet

[djohnston]

MCP,

The best way to find out is by doing it. If anything fails after setting AHCI in the BIOS, you can always change the BIOS settings back. As an aside, after replacing two motherboards, I found that my SATA drives would not boot unless AHCI was set. Didn't have that problem with the previous motherboards. YMMV

[Old-Polack]

AHCI is the preferred setting for all Motherboards with SATA controllers as it provides full use of SATA's advanced capabilities, (hot swapping and native command queuing) Earlier SATA equipped MBs added a BIOS compatibility mode, because WinXP predated SATA, so was not SATA-aware, and couldn't work with anything but ATA/IDE, or real SCSI. One of the later Service Packs provided drivers for WinXP to allow it to become AHCI/SATA-aware.

Both Vista and Win7 are fully AHCI compatible, if at the time of installation BIOS is set to AHCI mode. If it is not, then later reset to AHCI, Vsta and Win7 will experience booting problems for lack of loading the AHCI drivers. Registry changes are then necessary, to force it to load the AHCI drivers.

Linux has been fully AHCI compatible since kernel 2.6.19 onwards, with earlier kernels having patches available to add the AHCI module.

MCP:

Your present PCLinuxOS should boot with no problem once the AHCI mode is set in BIOS. At worst, you would need to boot your liveCD and rebuild the initrd image of the installed systems currently booting kernel, from a chroot environment, to add the AHCI module to those already being preloaded.

[Linuzoid]

I just switched mine to AHCI and I experienced no problems with PCLOS. I'm using a SATA 3.0 drive and a Gigabyte motherboard.  

[MCP]

AHCI is the preferred setting for all Motherboards with SATA controllers as it provides full use of SATA's advanced capabilities, (hot swapping and native command queuing) Earlier SATA equipped MBs added a BIOS compatibility mode, because WinXP predated SATA, so was not SATA-aware, and couldn't work with anything but ATA/IDE, or real SCSI. One of the later Service Packs provided drivers for WinXP to allow it to become AHCI/SATA-aware.

Both Vista and Win7 are fully AHCI compatible, if at the time of installation BIOS is set to AHCI mode. If it is not, then later reset to AHCI, Vsta and Win7 will experience booting problems for lack of loading the AHCI drivers. Registry changes are then necessary, to force it to load the AHCI drivers.

Linux has been fully AHCI compatible since kernel 2.6.19 onwards, with earlier kernels having patches available to add the AHCI module.

MCP:

Your present PCLinuxOS should boot with no problem once the AHCI mode is set in BIOS. At worst, you would need to boot your liveCD and rebuild the initrd image of the installed systems currently booting kernel, from a chroot environment, to add the AHCI module to those already being preloaded.

Well I gave it a shot.  Big problems.  I went into my bios and just changed to AHCI and then went to reboot.

Boot failed at the grub menu.  I get a message that says can't find gfxmenu.  So I go back in the bios and change back thinking that it would go back to the original.  NO GO!

So I'm posting this from a live cd and hoping this will be an easy fix.

Boot process seems to go O.K. until I get to grub then it reports that it can't find gfxmenu and then dumps me to a plain menu.  But when I try to boot from that it complains that it can't find anything to boot on that partition.

Thinking that the mbr got messed up, I've redone that twice, but still no solution.

Any Idea's how to fix?

MCP

[AS]

Hi MCP,

start to provide some info, from LiveCD open a terminal, su to root, and post the output of:

Code: [Select]

fdisk -l

[MCP]

Hi MCP,

start to provide some info, from LiveCD open a terminal, su to root, and post the output of:

Code: [Select]

fdisk -l

Disk /dev/sda: 251.0 GB, 251000193024 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30515 cylinders, total 490234752 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x623f1c4e

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *          63    30186134    15093036   83  Linux
/dev/sda2        30186135   490223474   230018670    f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5        30202200    38379284     4088542+  82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda6        55151208    61432559     3140676   83  Linux
/dev/sda7        61442703    92163455    15360376+   b  W95 FAT32
/dev/sda8        92163519   296963855   102400168+   b  W95 FAT32
/dev/sda9       296963919   422301809    62668945+  83  Linux
/dev/sda10      486223353   490223474     2000061   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda11      422316783   486223289    31953253+  83  Linux
/dev/sda12       38379348    55151144     8385898+  83  Linux

Partition table entries are not in disk order

Disk /dev/sdb: 750.2 GB, 750156374016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 91201 cylinders, total 1465149168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x27a9be4d

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1   *          63   102398309    51199123+   7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sdb2       102398310  1465144064   681372877+   5  Extended
/dev/sdb5       102398373   153276164    25438896   83  Linux
/dev/sdb6       153276228   161453249     4088511   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sdb7       161453313   213600239    26073463+  83  Linux
/dev/sdb8       213600303   633025259   209712478+  83  Linux

Disk /dev/sdc: 750.2 GB, 750156374016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 91201 cylinders, total 1465149168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x9e52c71d

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdc1   *          63   106494884    53247411   83  Linux
/dev/sdc2       106494885   212989769    53247442+  83  Linux
/dev/sdc3       212989770  1465144064   626077147+   5  Extended
/dev/sdc5       212989833   423939284   105474726   83  Linux
/dev/sdc6       634888863   845838314   105474726   83  Linux
/dev/sdc7       845838378  1056787829   105474726   83  Linux
/dev/sdc8      1056787893  1465144064   204178086   83  Linux
/dev/sdc9       423939348   634888799   105474726    7  HPFS/NTFS

Partition table entries are not in disk order

Disk /dev/sdd: 122.9 GB, 122942324736 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14946 cylinders, total 240121728 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x9350b296

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdd1   *          63   240107489   120053713+   7  HPFS/NTFS

[Linuzoid]

Try to reinstall grub from the LIVE-CD, you'll find it under More Applications>Configuration

[AS]

Try to reinstall grub from the LIVE-CD, you'll find it under More Applications>Configuration

One moment please ... first we need to verify a couple of things.

MCP,

which disk / partition is supposed to be the boot disk ? That one where grub is installed ?
Also, do you remember if GRUB was installed on MBR of one specific disk (which one) or if you installed GRUB on EBR of some specific partition ?

[MCP]

Try to reinstall grub from the LIVE-CD, you'll find it under More Applications>Configuration

Do you mean "redo MBR"?  If so I've already done that twice.

If you mean something else, there is nothing else that indicates reinstalling grub.

MCP

[MCP]

Try to reinstall grub from the LIVE-CD, you'll find it under More Applications>Configuration

One moment please ... first we need to verify a couple of things.

MCP,

which disk / partition is supposed to be the boot disk ? That one where grub is installed ?
Also, do you remember if GRUB was installed on MBR of one specific disk (which one) or if you installed GRUB on EBR of some specific partition ?

My current installation resides on sdb5.  I believe I installed GRUB to the MBR of that disc (sdb).  Before I installed PCLOS to this drive I first installed Windows7 on the first partition (sdb1).  So far it also will not boot saying it can't find the bootloader.  Since I have redone the mbr, would that indicate that grub may have been originally installed to the partition instead?

MCP

[AS]

Try to reinstall grub from the LIVE-CD, you'll find it under More Applications>Configuration

One moment please ... first we need to verify a couple of things.

MCP,

which disk / partition is supposed to be the boot disk ? That one where grub is installed ?
Also, do you remember if GRUB was installed on MBR of one specific disk (which one) or if you installed GRUB on EBR of some specific partition ?

My current installation resides on sdb5.  I believe I installed GRUB to the MBR of that disc (sdb).  Before I installed PCLOS to this drive I first installed Windows7 on the first partition (sdb1).  So far it also will not boot saying it can't find the bootloader.  Since I have redone the mbr, would that indicate that grub may have been originally installed to the partition instead?

MCP

OK,
would you check again your BIOS settings, to be sure that you have setup the second SATA port as boot device ?
(usually ports are numbered from zero, Sata0, Sata1, and so on ...)

[Linuzoid]

Try to reinstall grub from the LIVE-CD, you'll find it under More Applications>Configuration

Do you mean "redo MBR"?  If so I've already done that twice.

If you mean something else, there is nothing else that indicates reinstalling grub.

MCP

Yes, that is what I meant. Since it's a no go, AS is the person to pay attention too.

NOTE: I didn't notice you mentioned you had tried that already. Oh well.

[AS]

Try to reinstall grub from the LIVE-CD, you'll find it under More Applications>Configuration

Do you mean "redo MBR"?  If so I've already done that twice.

If you mean something else, there is nothing else that indicates reinstalling grub.

MCP

Yes, that is what I meant. Since it's a no go, AS is the person to pay attention too.

Nah ... I'm only preparing the info for Old-Polack