(UNSOLVED) Can't get older PCLOS to see new SATA drive.

[besonian]

I have another problem similar to the one I had earlier this week -

http://www.pclinuxos.com/forum/index.php/topic,83135.0.html

The solution to that (the refusal of PCLOS to see a SATA DVD writer) was to force it to use the relevant SATA module by putting a line to it in modprobe.preload.
The problem I had this time is that I'm upgrading - or trying to upgrade - a KDE system (dual boot with XP) I put in two years ago on an MSI motherboard with a Sempron 2400+ processor. The mobo has two SATA data cable connections on it, so my plan was get a new SATA drive for one of them on which I'd install the latest LXDE. But I've hit the same problem, though it seems more intractable this time. I cannot, whatever I do (a line in modprobe.preload and for good measure in modules)  get the original OS or a new live LXDE live CD to see this new SATA drive. And if I can't see it via a live CD, then I'm not going to do a lot of installing on it   Is there - there must be, he says - a way of forcing the OS to see this drive? It's running - I can feel it with a finger and it gets warm. It does not appear in the BIOS, but then there's no place for it to appear there - all the BIOS confirms is that the SATA controller is enabled. I've tried two SATA drives in it - one I know to be working - and the result in both the BIOS and with the Live CD is exactly the same.

Anybody got any thoughts? If this isn't going to work I'm going to have to resort to an IDE drive - and the owner will have to wait another week. Such is life.  

[DeBaas]

Check in BIOS if you can change from IDE compatible modus to AHCI modus.

[besonian]

Thank you DeBaas. What is AHCI and how might that help? Actually, I doubt I can make changes like that. Although I installed PCLOS on this machine only two years ago, I think I built it almost five years ago. Compared with modern BIOS's it doesn't seem as versatile. On top of that, I'm beginning to wonder if perhaps there might be some problem with the SATA contacts on the board. If that's the case it could be a different ball-game altogether. Anyway, got to go to bed now. Goodnight, world.

[DeBaas]

Do you have a link to the motherboard manual ?
So we can have a look at the BIOS settings.

[fred0843]

If the Motherboard is a A Socket or a 754 Pin.I do not think you will get a sata Drive to work.I have a Aopen 754 pin and have never got the sata to work.

[besonian]

I had in the end to change tack. I suspect you were right fred0843 that I was never going to get it work. At least, not within any reasonable time scale. And DeBaas, there were no BIOS settings that accorded with your suggestion. But the reason I suddenly had to re-think it all was that in all the boot-ups and downs and fiddling with one thing after another, I started to get a sense - that feeling you get in your water - that the mobo was on the blink anyway, and that the thing was progressive. When it came to the point where it wouldn't boot even into the BIOS though the drive was spinning up - at that point I decided I hadn't got the time that was going to take to sort out - even if it were sortable out. In order therefore to get something usable back to the client I dug out an old MSI KT3Ultra - wonderful board in their time - put her Sempron in it (I know it's not supposed to take a Sempron but with the FSB running at 166 it seems stable) and have re-installed LXDE on the existing IDE drive. Meantime I'll do some more test on the old mobo, but if it really has gone belly-up - which I think it has - then it'll be a new computer for the client in the new year. Thank you guys for your input. It helped me come to the decision I did.

[GOTHBITES]

If the Motherboard is a A Socket or a 754 Pin.I do not think you will get a sata Drive to work.I have a Aopen 754 pin and have never got the sata to work.

Hello I have a MSI 754 motherboard and look at the bottom of my signature my board is about 5 years old.  It seems that you may have to flash your bios to update it. That if you have a floppy disk laying around.  I have installed 2007 and on and it picks up both my sata drives. 

[besonian]

Gothbites, that's interesting. And you may be right that that's what mine needed. But like I said, I really didn't have the time - or the energy by then - to go into that. Nor I think would I have risked someone else's mobo in BIOS flashing. I just had to get something sorted so did what I did. I've since had time now to thoroughly check the mobo out (not the SATA connectors) and - perverse as computers can be - it's now working perfectly in a test machine. So I have to say that in the end I still don't really know what the problem was. Frustrating. 

[Was_Just19]

Check in BIOS if you can change from IDE compatible modus to AHCI modus.

Yes, this has been the cause of quite a lot of hassle ......  the manufacturer setting the BIOS to see the SATA drives in "compatibility" mode (as PATA drives) so that Windows could access them.

Check the BIOS thouroughly for some setting about 'compatibilty mode' or whatever that manufacturer might have called it.

Turn it off ....  and the SATA drives should be correctly visible.

[besonian]

That's interesting. And it reminds me that I came across this once before in a Toshiba laptop. But I've re-checked the BIOS of that mobo and all I can see relating to the drives is 'Enable Sata' - which I had enabled from the start. Are you suggesting there might be some other tweak that might be relevant? Or are you even saying that maybe the sata needs to be disabled, working on the assumption that when it's 'enabled', it's enabled in pata mode? (I think that's what I mean  )

[Was_Just19]

That's interesting. And it reminds me that I came across this once before in a Toshiba laptop. But I've re-checked the BIOS of that mobo and all I can see relating to the drives is 'Enable Sata' - which I had enabled from the start. Are you suggesting there might be some other tweak that might be relevant? Or are you even saying that maybe the sata needs to be disabled, working on the assumption that when it's 'enabled', it's enabled in pata mode? (I think that's what I mean  )

I would not care to guess what way that MOBO BIOS is set up .......  but it surely might be worth trying all possibilities to see what might happen.

[besonian]

Quite so. I haven't the time at the moment to put in a SATA drive and try with sata disabled, but I will and report back.

[MerReady]

As much as you may not like it, I think you will have to do a bios update. I may be a linux noob, but I can tell you after hundreds of computer builds that socket A boards with sata controllers went through alot of bios upgrades. A lot in part for the sata controller. Depending on when you got the MSI board and what version it is, it may be behind by as much as 5 updates or maybe more if it a early version. Since we don't know what model you have I can say MSI is one of the "better" motherboad manufactures so the likely of a bios upgrade that could fix the problem is pretty good, but we still need to know what motherboard model you have for us to help you better.

Now if there is a bios update then what your most likely going to be looking for is a setting to choose between Raid, Sata or ACHI, or IDE (PATA). Thats asumming your board has raid which I think most sata boards have. I don't think I ever seen a non raid sata board. Once set to IDE any sata drive should show up as a ide drive and work fine in linux. But like what has been previously said, check for a bios update. The settings I described might not be there now, but after an update they could be. Plus flashhing a bios isn't as bad as you might think. Of all the bios flashes I have done I have only had 1 bad flash and thats because I tried install a custom bios and that bios was the wrong one for the board i was putting it on.

[Was_Just19]

Once set to IDE any sata drive should show up as a ide drive and work fine in linux.

That appears to be what the problems were caused by ....  maybe on some particular boards ......  but there were lots of reports of Linux failing to use SATA drives when set to PATA in BIOS (to help older versions of Windows recognise the drives I think -- don't use Win!)

regards.

[MerReady]

Once set to IDE any sata drive should show up as a ide drive and work fine in linux.

That appears to be what the problems were caused by ....  maybe on some particular boards ......  but there were lots of reports of Linux failing to use SATA drives when set to PATA in BIOS (to help older versions of Windows recognise the drives I think -- don't use Win!)

regards.

I know what you are talking about. I had the same problem with trying to run PCLinuxOS 2007 on a Asus board using sata drives. I could not make it work. Now go forward to today and that same board is in my daughter's computer running PCLinuxOS 2010 KDE with sata drives using the last bios version Asus put out. The point I was trying to make is that if besonian wants to get sata to work he is going to have to be willing to flash the bios if there is a update available. The drivers that are in today's kernals are much better than years ago, but better driver are not going to help if your still using a sata controller with outdated firmware that can only be updated via a bios flash.