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flyingheath   09-20-2006 at 06:20:39 PM

Can anyone shed some light on a driver issue.
I have a new system with a Asus P5B Deluxe MB with the P965 chipset. Now this chipset does not support PATA drives so the motherboard has a JMicron chip to allow one PATA device. I my case it has a Plextor 716A DVD burner attached.
When I installed Windows XP it had no problems with this new chip and recognized the DVD drive.
Now with Linux (Ubuntu and SUSE) the DVD drive is not recognized due to a lack of driver for the JMicron PATA to SATA translation chip.
My question is, how can a five year old Windows XP handle a new chipset and install fine while an up to date disto of Linux cannot?
Does Microsoft have an in with all hardware? Does Microsoft have a catch all driver for unknown devices that just works?
I don't get it!

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Bronze Linux badge linux_0   09-21-2006 at 09:48:59 AM
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Some devices are almost impossible to write universal drivers for.

Also some chipsets in particular are very difficult or nearly impossible to write drivers for if the manufacturer of the chipset does not cooperate.

In this case I suspect something else is going on.

Please read this:

http://www.uwsg.iu.edu/hypermail/l [...] /1730.html

If you pass a boot parameter to the kernel at boot time instructing it to use the generic IDE driver for the JMicron chip it "should" work in theory.

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flyingheath   09-21-2006 at 02:21:35 PM
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Thanks for the input and the link. I was able to find more about the JMicron issue and other issues with the 965 chipset. As someone new to Linux I think I will have to wait until the next release of Ubuntu or SUSE to be able to properly install Linux on my box.

The more I learn about how hardware is dealt with the more I am facinated by and impressed with all the work that goes into producing GNU/Linux. :)

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Bronze Linux badge linux_0   09-21-2006 at 02:29:04 PM
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Quote :

Thanks for the input and the link. I was able to find more about the JMicron issue and other issues with the 965 chipset. As someone new to Linux I think I will have to wait until the next release of Ubuntu or SUSE to be able to properly install Linux on my box.

The more I learn about how hardware is dealt with the more I am facinated by and impressed with all the work that goes into producing GNU/Linux. :)





You have some other options as well.

0. Get an SATA DVD drive

1. Get a PATA IDE to SATA IDE adapter

2. Adjust the kernel parameters during boot ( I'm looking for them ).

3. Perform a network install

4. Perform a hard drive install

5. Install from a USB or FireWire drive

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flyingheath   09-21-2006 at 05:58:40 PM
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I have been playing with the idea of getting a SATA DVD drive, but I just built my system and cannot take back the PATA DVD drive.
I am going to investigate a PATA to SATA adapter and see what prices are like.
Thanks again for the input. :D

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Bronze Linux badge linux_0   09-21-2006 at 06:10:44 PM
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yw :-D

I believe once you install Linux using any method that works it will be a lot easier to tweak it so that the JMicron controller is configured properly.

Also it is possible the issue may have already been corrected since a patch has already been submitted for inclusion into the kernel.

If the patch has not been approved yet I'm sure it will be addressed very shortly.

Some distros like Fedora Core update very frequently.

PS USB to PATA IDE adapters and external enclosures are very cheap ( about $15 - $30 )

PPS SCSI would work too but it is quite expensive.

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