Linux doesn't like SATA-II?

[Ken2012]

So, I installed Fedora Core 4 on my SATA-II (Seagate Barracuda), but when the installer is done and I reboot my system, the GRUB bootloader doesn't show up (normally prior to Windows loading). I've tried before on my old PATA HDD and the setup works just fine. Partition Magic confirms that the Linux partition exists, btw.

Any thoughts from the Linux followers here?

Thanks.

 

[Hector]

Maybe an updated distro would made the trick. I've no problems here using ubuntu dapper (previously running breezy withouts problems too).

 

[nutball]

Can't say I've had any problems.

What chipset / SATA controller are you using?

Have you configured the BIOS to boot from the SCSI device?

 

[Ken2012]

Can't say I've had any problems.

What chipset / SATA controller are you using?

Have you configured the BIOS to boot from the SCSI device?

nForce4 SLI

The SATA is my primary (bootable) HDD which contains my NTFS (Windows XP) partition.

 

[SPM]

I have never had a problem with SATA drives on Linux.

Did you put the Grub bootloader on the MBR of the SATA drive?

What do you actually see on the screen? Does Windows boot off the SATA drive or do you get any kind of message on the screen when booting?

You might try installing Linux on the PATA drive, and then see if it will access the SATA drive. This will at least tell you whether you have a problem with accessing the SATA drive or a problem booting off the SATA drive.

Also I presume you are not using RAID are you - some semi-hardware RAID setups require software drivers, and these may not be available for Linux on some controllers. If you have a low end RAID controller that uses a software driver to do the work, you are better off turning off RAID and using Linux software RAID which is usually faster and more efficient. The only benefit of using this cheap semi-hardware RAID is to share the disk data with Windows on a dual boot system.

 

[rashly]

Try Fedora Core 5. Kernel 2.6.15 has much better SATA support than previous kernels.

 

[Diplo]

nForce4 SLI

Quite a few nForce4 borads have two sets of SATA controllers - the Nvidia ones and then, often, Silicon Image ones too. Have you tried both, if available? I wonder if NCQ has anything to do with it?