[NTLUG:Discuss] Re: ATA controllers and Linux?

[Dan Carlson]

I've used Promise Ultra ATA/33, 66, 100, and 133 controllers under various
linux distros going back three or four years, and never had any trouble
with them.  With sufficiently old kernels you might have to patch the
kernel or even switch to a later version.  With any kernel and distro from
the last couple of years I don't think you should have any problems.

The drives should show up and behave as normal ide drives, just with higher
device letters, typically starting at hde and going up from there.
Depending on the details, you may need to provide kernel command line
options to tell it the details of the drive parameters.  You can do this by
adding "hdX=<cyls>,<heads>,<sects>" options to the append line in your
lilo.conf file, or however your boot loader passes options to the kernel.

Of course, this being ide, you can always have problems that result from
putting two drives that don't like one another on the same channel.  The
Promise controllers are no better or worse than any other in this regard,
since this appears to be more of a drive issue than a controller issue.

Maxtor's later controller cards (just the 100 and 133, I think) are
actually relabelled Promise cards, but they tend to have lower prices in
retail stores.  You can find both the Promise and Maxtor cards on eBay (new
and used) for pretty good prices, if you don't need to get it "right now".

Dan Carlson

----- Original Message -----
From: "Chris Albertson" <alb at chrisalbertson.com>
To: <discuss at ntlug.org>
Sent: Monday, December 09, 2002 10:54 AM


>
> Does anyone have experience with ATA controllers and Linux? I'm wondering
if
> I'm going to have any problems getting Linux installed on a HD running on
an
> ATA conroller board (PCI) when it's the only HD on the system. Will the
drive
> show up like a normal IDE hard drive, or am I going to have extreme
> difficulties?
> I'm planning to run Mandrake 9.0 by the way.
>
> Thanks in advance for any help on this.
>
> --
> Chris Albertson
> alb at chrisalbertson.com
>
> 186,300 miles per second. It's not just a good idea, it's the law.
>
>
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