On Fri, Nov 12, 2004 at 02:25:14PM -0500, Professor Robert C.Berwick wrote: > > Hi Friends, Hello Bob,
> I too have wrestled for the past 3 months with getting Linux (of any > sort!) onto the Dell Dimension 8400.\ > I've tried *every* possible brand, too. > At last, I've succeeded. > The issue seems to be this: the Dell 8400 has an Intel ICH5/ICH6 > (software raid) controller. > Any linux that does not have an appropriate driver for this will fail. > So they all do - until now. > (Note that even so, they *can* be installed if you switch the bios to > "PATA compatbility mode" - ie, parallel ATA > but that defeats the purpose of SATA - it is emulating a normal ATA > drive, the I/O goes down > a factor of 10, at least.) > > It seems a few weeks ago, Red Hat released Update 3 of their RH > Enterprise System > Version 3 linux. This Update 3 patched the ata_piix driver so that > it *does* handle > ICH6. It can boot and install RH linux successfully on my Dimension > 8400, properly recognizing > the drive partitions as sd* (rather than hd*). > 'doze even dual boots. > > OK: so that is a solution, albeit not a completely happy one for Debian > fans like myself. > But it does show that this is all that is required. > Someone in the Debian community ought see to patching the ata_piix > driver for ICH5/ICH6 drives. (ata_piix works > for lots of SATA types, but not this one) > > Hope this is of some help, > if you find out more, please do tell me - i'd like to use Debian. Who > should be informed about this? I did yesterday a succesfull install on a Dell SC420. It uses the ata_piix module. So I expect the Dell 8400 can also be installed with Debian. Give it another try. Use recent versions of the software. (Your message can be read as if you where 3 months in a loop with the same software version of debian-installer.) When the SATA controller in the 8400 is not discovered properly, then load the kernel modules manually and provide us with the output of `(lspci ; lspci -n ) | sort ` Or write a bugreport like http://bugs.debian.org/280020. > Best, > Bob Berwick Geert Stappers P.S. What was the reason for both addressing the mailinglist debian-boot and serveral prive persons?
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