bios question on 8400

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

I have a Dimension 8400 with a SATA 250G hard drive and BIOS ver A03
(10-11-04). I partitioned 1/2 the empty space with no file system and
tried to install Linux on the unformatted partition. Two distros of
Linux (SUSE9.2 and Linspire) couldn't find a drive to install on.

Is my BIOS the current version?

The SATA operation RAID auto detect is AHCI (whatever that means???)if
RAID is signed, which it isn't, There is an alternative of ATA (I don't
know what that means either). Will I mess up anything if I change to
ATA? Will this allow Linux to find the SATA drive?

Any other ideas?

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

In the past, I have found Linux to lag somewhat in its support for newer
hardware. The first time was a number of years ago with a then-state-of-the-art
graphics card. The most recent was support of the nearly new Intel 82559
network chip by a Linux-based firewall a couple of years ago.

I don't think that the BIOS is an issue, altho a check at the Dell web site will
tell you if the BIOS is current. Instead, I would suggest looking for Linux
SATA drivers, which may or may not yet exist... Ben Myers

On Thu, 10 Feb 2005 08:23:45 -0800, Lenny Bruce <spam@devnul.com> wrote:

>I have a Dimension 8400 with a SATA 250G hard drive and BIOS ver A03
>(10-11-04). I partitioned 1/2 the empty space with no file system and
>tried to install Linux on the unformatted partition. Two distros of
>Linux (SUSE9.2 and Linspire) couldn't find a drive to install on.
>
>Is my BIOS the current version?
>
>The SATA operation RAID auto detect is AHCI (whatever that means???)if
>RAID is signed, which it isn't, There is an alternative of ATA (I don't
>know what that means either). Will I mess up anything if I change to
>ATA? Will this allow Linux to find the SATA drive?
>
>Any other ideas?

 

[Guest]

Archived from groups: alt.sys.pc-clone.dell (More info?)

On Thu, 10 Feb 2005 08:23:45 -0800, Lenny Bruce <spam@devnul.com>
wrote:

>I have a Dimension 8400 with a SATA 250G hard drive and BIOS ver A03
>(10-11-04). I partitioned 1/2 the empty space with no file system and
>tried to install Linux on the unformatted partition. Two distros of
>Linux (SUSE9.2 and Linspire) couldn't find a drive to install on.
>
>Is my BIOS the current version?
>
>The SATA operation RAID auto detect is AHCI (whatever that means???)if
>RAID is signed, which it isn't, There is an alternative of ATA (I don't
>know what that means either). Will I mess up anything if I change to
>ATA? Will this allow Linux to find the SATA drive?
>
>Any other ideas?
With Windows you need to make the SATA drivers available before
installation. Wouldn't surprise me if the same were true for Linux.
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