On Mon, 2006-11-13 at 15:59 -0700, Shane Hathaway wrote: > Jeff Schroeder wrote: > > Kenneth wrote: > > > >> The local CompUSA has a cheap card which I can pick up tonight, but I > >> am not sure it would be compatible with Linux. > > > > Because the IDE card should really only be providing a BIOS link to your > > hard drives, I don't think you need to worry about compatibility with > > Linux or any other OS. As long as the card provides whatever > > hardware-level magic the BIOS requires to tell the kernel about the > > drive, you should be fine. > > I don't believe that's true. Although GRUB uses BIOS to load the > kernel, Linux doesn't use BIOS to actually talk to the drives. There > needs to be a Linux driver for the card.
True. You can disable your drives entirely in the BIOS and linux will still see them through its own drivers. You most definitely *do* need driver support for any IDE controller card you add. I've always had good luck with cards like the promise IDE 133. Michael > > However, there's a good chance the card uses a common chipset, so I bet > some driver in Linux 2.6 supports the card. The main risk is that you > might lose 15% of your purchase price and a couple of hours. That's not > a bad risk. > > Shane > > > /* > PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net > Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug > Don't fear the penguin. > */ > /* PLUG: http://plug.org, #utah on irc.freenode.net Unsubscribe: http://plug.org/mailman/options/plug Don't fear the penguin. */
