Dell 8300 SATA - can't find harddisc

[Belip 0]

I'm completely new to Linux and I'm trying to install SuSe 9.0 live-eval to my new Dell 8300 (SATA Raid 0). It's a dual boot with XP (Powerquest Bootmagic). Linux istalls or starts and put something on the hard discs but does't boot when I restart (if I choose XP it starts). I suspects that it has something to do with the Promis Fast Trak controller card but I'm not shure.

 

Does anybody have any suggestions?

 

Thanks in advance.

[danleff 0]

Not an unusual problem. SATA is not supported in the stock kernels as a whole. If the system is set up with a SATA drive and it is enabled in the bios, Linux will have problems with it.

 

Quote:

I suspects that it has something to do with the Promis Fast Trak controller card but I'm not shure.

 

So do youi have a controller card, or are you speaking about onboard?

 

Quote:

It's a dual boot with XP (Powerquest Bootmagic).

 

This should not make any difference, since you are using the live cd.

 

However, if you chose to do a hard drive install, Linux will not like BootMagic.

 

You do have the boot sequence set to boot from the CDROM first?

[Belip 0]

Thanks for your reply.

 

Quote:

So do youi have a controller card, or are you speaking about onboard?

 

It's a controller card. A Promise Fast Trak controller card, 2+0 Stripe/RAID0 SCSI

 

Quote:

You do have the boot sequence set to boot from the CDROM first?

 

When I install I install from the CDROM. But when I reboot I change to the hard disc.

[danleff 0]

I do not know too much about the SUSE live cd, but, did you use an option to install to the hard drive, or is it running only from the CD?

 

The idea of the live cd is that it does not auto install to a hard drive, unless you specifically choose an option to do so, or used a method to install to the hard drive.

 

Your bootloader is still BootMagic, or is lilo or grub installed? Either way, is there an option on the boot menu to choose SUSE vs. Windows, or not?

 

If this is really a hard drive install, did you choose a partition (or did it give you a choice to install to the ext2 or ext3 partition)?

 

From an article on the SUSE live cd;

 

Quote:

IDE RAID controller

 

Do not use SuSE Linux 9.0 LiveEval on systems with a Promise IDE RAID

controller. Linux has difficulties to recognize your Windows RAID setup.

 

As long as you're using the Promise controller as a normal (UDMA) IDE

controller, there are no problems, however.

 

Here is the article;

 

http://www.lankum.com/store/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=248

[danleff 0]

OK, from the same article;

 

Quote:

To use the SuSE Linux 9.0 LiveEval CD insert it into your CD-ROM drive and

boot from it.

 

The installation program will look for free space on your first hard

drive ('C:') and create these files:

 

suselive.swp: a swap file; only if you have less than

about 160MB main memory

suselive.usr: this will be your /home directory

suselive.900: the current configuration

 

If the installation program does'nt find enough free disk space your

configuration will not be saved. This means, you'll have to go through the

setup procedure every time you boot this CD.

 

So, the promise controller will not work and if it did, if the first hard drive is totally NTFS, this will not work either.

[Belip 0]

Thanks again for taking the time to help me.

So if I understand you correctly; forget it it's not possible to install SuSe on my hardware.

 

The reason I choosed SuSe was that it has received good reviews.

 

Do you have any suggestions on other distributions that's manageble and with a good hardware support?