Well i finally got my server and all happy tried to install Debian and it failed. Very unhappy right now Was googling for an hour for solution but can't find anything! Server info: PRIMERGY Econel 100 P4 3.0 2xSATA wd 160GB disks More info here: http://facts.fujitsu-siemens.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=dspcontent&lid=26&page=1 Turned on PC, booted debian with 'linux26', bla bla, languages, detecting dvdrom,... network... and then when it comes to disks it failed. Partition not available cause no drives detected or something along those lines. I didn't touch a thing in bios and have not played with cd's that came with server. If i go on PC start into raid setup, i have two entries listed there under View Configuration.. so i left that alone.. Any of you guys know what on earth should i do? I have never done stuff with SATA before so that's probably why i'm all lost... Help wanted!
Do you have a hardware RAID controler? That could be the problem as most distributions do not have drivers for newer RAID controlers.
How to know if i have hardware controller? I'm afraid i can't open server case cause it has waranty label on it and i don't want to break it. Any way of finding out? Well i found this info: A SATA RAID controller is integrated on the system board; up to four SATA hard disk drives can be connected to the controller. RAID levels 0, 1 and 10 are supported for each LSI SATA software RAID. I did change last night in bios setting for RAID from 'raid' to 'compatible'. Installer did recognize only 1 disk as ATA and the system was installed. Somepeple said that i should try with etch or sid installer which has newer version of kernel. Since that is unstable version, i'm not sure if i want that on public server. But i'll give it a try to see if it does recognize disks..
Well since i have some time to play with it, i installed new ubuntu dektop version and it works without any problems, everything recognized, both SATA drives... I will also test the testing version of debian now and we'll see what happens there.. I'll probably have to compile newer kernel to make it work with stable release of debian.. Can i do this: Install stable debian using 'compatible' mode instead of 'raid' mode in bios. Install it on 1 hda, recompile newer version of kernel, change fstab from hda to sda, reboot to bios, change from 'compatible' to 'raid' and reboot debian? Is it worth of a try or even better, does this make any sense?
I don't think this will work... You can use a kernel from Debian unstable, that's what the HowtoForge server does... The kernels are stable. But if it works with Ubuntu, then I'd simply install Ubuntu's server version.
Well since i have a few days to play with it, i'll first try with debian, ubuntu is of course my second choice Anyway, i found custom kernel 2.6.14 with sata support and in installation my sata drives are detected! I'm SOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO happy right now! The kernel that works with sata drives: http://kmuto.jp/b.cgi/debian/d-i-2615.htm
