[lug] OpenLinux eDesktop 2.4 and Ultra ATA 100 controller

[Aaron Hayden]

RE: Subject: [lug] OpenLinux eDesktop 2.4 and Ultra ATA 100 controller

Here's the trouble:

-OpenLinux (apparently) cannot recognize your proprietary IDE controller,
and so cannot see the hard disk on it.

-Your UltraATA100 controller (promise?) is using a different LBA translation
scheme than your motherboard's controller.

-A workaround is to install to a separate harddrive on the default (onboard)
controller, and copy the entire partition over to the destination harddrive
on the fast controller.

This comes from help I wrote for Asus a while back, the process ought to be
the same for your pick of Linux and Windows2K:
-------------------------
Installing W2K/Pro on an Asus A7V ATA/100 Disk
I had a great deal of difficulty setting up the A7V with an ATA100 HDD and
Windows 2000 Professional. But after a week of fiddling, it is working.
Here's what I had to do:

Although the ATA100 Promise controller is on the motherboard, it is an
auxiliary controller to the A7V Primary/Secondary IDE controller and it is
not "seen" by the A7V BIOS. It has its own BIOS that executes after the
normal BIOS and the A7V must be told to boot from it. You do this in the
normal BIOS BOOT screen -- set the "Other Boot Device Select" field to
"SCSI/Onboard ATA Boot Device".

For me, that's all it took for the motherboard to attempt to boot from the
ATA100 controller. I then put my new Maxtor DiamondMax Plus 40 on the
controller and started to load W2K. Unfortunately, after loading the 4
startup floppies, you are dumped into a W2K setup program that can't
recognize the ATA100 controller. So, I put the Maxtor on the normal IDE,
loaded it up with W2K and then moved the HDD back to the ATA100 controller.
It attempted to boot, but the OS was corrupted.

Here's the catch-22: the Promise ATA100 controller can only boot from hard
drives built while on a Promise ATA100 controller. There is something about
a difference between LBA translation between the controller and the
motherboard. See http://support.promise.com/PCSFAQS/ID_PCS.asp?ID=48 for
details. So, the situation is this: W2K setup can't see the ATA100
controller yet Promise needs to have the HDD partitioned, formatted and
written while connected to the ATA100 controller. See
http://support.promise.com/techsupport/trouble/using_3rd_party_partition_uti
lit.htm for more information.  But, the following gyrations seem to work and
I now have a working W2K running off of the ATA100 controller:

I put the Maxtor on the ATA100 controller and used Partition Magic to
partition and format it.
I connected another drive on the normal IDE controller and installed W2K to
it. Actually, I found that in my configuration, I had to put the HDD on the
secondary controller -- the A7V BIOS didn't seem to recognize the primary
when the Maxtor was on the ATA100 primary. Go figure.
I installed the VIA drivers and the Promise drivers in W2K while attached to
the normal IDE controller.
I then used Partition Magic to copy the W2K partition onto the Maxtor that
was still attached to the ATA100 controller.

After that I could boot W2K from the ATA100 controller.
--------------------------

I wish you luck.  -Aaron H (aaron at saisho.net)