Hi there Sluggers,

I have a double boot system which I am trying to turn into a triple-boot
one [hda is 20Gb Win 98, hdb 10Gb Deb Woody, hdc would be 40 Gb Potato
which I could use as a reliable home server]. Problem is that Woody does
not appear to be recognising the Promise Technology Ultra100 TX2
controller. It's BIOS appears during login and it appears under 
Start->Settings->Control Panel->System->Device Manager->SCSI
Controllers->+ in Win98 confirming that it has been properly loaded.

I have received advice (below) that current debian kernels do not
support ATA-100 controllers, which I find hard to believe.

I would like to run it past SLUG for a second opinion before
I try RH. I have tried contacting '[EMAIL PROTECTED]' for
information on any possible patches but they are not answering. 
Apparently even Buddhist countries stop for the solstice !

I'd be grateful for any advice,

Adam Bogacki,

[EMAIL PROTECTED]


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> > > > hdc might be using a different controller unsupported by the install
> > > > disk? (unlikely)
> ...<snip>...
> > > The controller is the Ultra 100TX2 by Promise Technology, Inc., 
> > > http://www.promise.com
> > > 
> > > Is there a problem with Deb install support ? (surely unlikely)
> > 
> > Surely unlikely?!? I don't even think ATA-100 controllers even existed
> > at the time the Debian install disks were created.
> 
> Hold on, 2.2r4 is the latest version and ATA-100 support has surely been
> included in the kernel ... (?)

... <snip> ...

2.2r4 is a point release (fourth revision) for the current stable Debian
release. This point release is based upon the 2.2 kernel. The 2.2 kernel
doesn't include ATA-100 support. A backport of the 2.4 kernel drivers
might be possible but it is highly unlikely the Debian team would
include them in a kernel that must be as stable as possible.

Even the next release of Debian will be based on the 2.2 kernel with the
ability to upgrade later. So your ATA-100 controller is unlikely to work
again.

That is why you may want to be on the lookout for custom install disks
that include support for your ATA-100 controller (like I can use the
ReiserFS UDMA66 install disks at DigitalTux.com).

However, it may be possible to get an older kernel to recognise your
controller in a compatibility mode. This is what I used to have to do
with my HPT366 controller (see the section "Enabling HPT366 without
UDMA/66 support"):

http://www.csie.ntu.edu.tw/~b6506063/hpt366/

Then I would later upgrade my kernel. This procedure may be directly
applicable to your controller.

Another way is to install onto another controller. Then move the disk to
the other controller after you upgraded the kernel and changed lilo.conf
and ran lilo.

You might also be happier investigating another distribution like RedHat
who have a tendency to use the latest available kernels in their more
frequent releases.

-- 
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