[NBLUG/talk] Installing an Ultra ATA/133 PCI card on Debian

Lincoln Peters sampln at sbcglobal.net
Sun Nov 30 13:06:01 PST 2003


On Sun, 2003-11-30 at 00:27, Lincoln Peters wrote:
> On Sat, 2003-11-29 at 14:47, Jeremy Turner wrote:
> > On Fri, 2003-11-28 at 19:20, Lincoln Peters wrote:
> > > So, how do I set up an ATA card on Debian?  Or how do I prove that it is
> > > incompatible with Linux?  I'm running stable (woody) with no packages
> > > from "unstable" or anywhere else.
> > 
> > What does the line say from `lspci`?  Also, what kernel version are you
> > using?
> 
> # lspci
> [snip]
> 00:0b0 Unknown mass storage controller: Promise Technology, Inc.:
> Unknown device4d69 (rev 02)
> 
> I'm using Kernel 2.4.18.bf2.4 (the 2.4 kernel that is available in
> Debian 3.0r1 "Woody").

Perhaps this additional clue would be helpful:

After the computer goes through its BIOS routines (POST tests, et al.),
I see two additional BIOS screens, one for my SCSI controller (which
works), and the other for my new ATA controller.  I noticed that when,
as the installation instructions for Windows suggested, I installed the
ATA controller but did not attach anything to it, its BIOS screen gave
me a message that said it would not install its BIOS, because it
detected no attached devices.  After I recovered my lost data on my
other hard disk (as I described in my last message), I re-conntected my
CD-ROM drive and attached the new hard disk to the ATA controller.  This
time, the ATA controller's BIOS screen detected the hard disk and
registered itself (it installed its own BIOS; not exactly sure what that
means).  However, Debian still recognizes it as the same "Unknown
device" it detected it as before.

I seem to remember that there are situations where, if more than one
device of a specific type exists on a Linux box, and the kernel code for
that type of device is *not* compiled as a module, only the first device
is detected.  Could this be what's happening with the ATA controller? 
I'm inclined to doubt it, because my motherboard has two onboard ATA
ports (both of which work), but I don't know the technology well enough
to be sure.




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