I can't speak for the benefits of SATA over PATA in general, but I have succeeded in setting up Linux on such a system (Intel ICH5 chipset, Seagate 120Gb SATA drive). Being my first linux install in a number of years, I struggled with the new hardware, but got it working in the end.
First main attempt involved installing debian woody on an old IDE drive in the same machine, upgrading the kernel to 2.4.22 (from memory) or better and then installing onto the new disk. The old IDE disk crashed on me before that process was completed.
Second main attempt involved trying an hdd Knoppix install. It was flaky for some reason I can't remember and couldn't figure out (probably not SATA related), so I gave up on that approach.
Finally, I discovered I could install Debian woody bf24 direct to the SATA drive, and updated to debian sarge and kernel 2.6.4. I had other problems with the setup, but I believe they were related to some combination of LVM (device-mapper), APM (I needed to turn it off) and possibly some ext3 bugs in earlier 2.6 kernels. I only just recently figured out the kernel options needed to get DMA working on the drive (55Mb/s is much better than 3Mb/s :) ).
In short, I don't see a benefit in going to SATA at this stage, especially if you don't want to run a nearly bleeding edge kernel. My knowledge of the potential benefits are minimal (first new personal computer _and_ linux install in several years made for a lot of catching up on what's new), so someone else may be able to offer more insight there.
HTH, - Rog
Andrew Lau wrote:
Hey everyone,
I'm stuck at a crossroads right now. My main Athlon 1.2 Ghz workstation with a Promise UDMA5/100 controller is probably on its last legs before retirement (its given me 3 years of loyal service -- looking to squeeze out 2 more). Seeing as it needs a new harddrive anyway, I'm really wondering whether paying an extra $20-$25 per harddrive and an another $70 for a Silicon Image Serial ATA Controller [1] is worth it. LKML posts also seem to give the general impression that overall SATA driver support under Linux is still preliminary.
Cheers, Andrew "Netsnipe" Lau
[1] http://www.everythinglinux.com.au/item/elsPCI-SATA-EX
-- SLUG - Sydney Linux User's Group Mailing List - http://slug.org.au/ Subscription info and FAQs: http://slug.org.au/faq/mailinglists.html
