Finally installed (Gentoo) linux on Dell Inspiron 530 desktop

[Walter Dnes]

  I gave up on trying to get the integrated NIC working under linux.  I
slapped in an el-cheapo no-name PCI NIC with a Via-Rhine chip, and
things went swimmingly.

  I checked dell.com's support knowledgebase.  Only the most recent
kernels support SATA drives in IDE mode, and it looks like the Gentoo
2007.0-r1 kernel isn't recent enough.  After screwing around a bit, I
finally found a way to boot the install CD, after which I was able to do
the install.

***WARNING***
You will *NOT* be able to boot Windows in the following setup
(One... Two... Three... awwwwwwwwwwwwww)

- reboot and go into BIOS setup ({F2} key)
- go to "integrated peripherals"
- change sata mode from IDE to RAID
- save and reboot ({F10} key)
- go into BIOS setup ({F2} key). Yes again.
- comment; if you watch carefully during the boot, you may notice the
  "AHCI BIOS installed" message.
- go into "boot device configuration".  It will behave slightly differently
  thanks to "AHCI BIOS" being installed.
- set boot device priority.  Note; if you have more than 1 CD/DVD, you need
  to specify them separately, if you want to be able to boot off both of
  them. There are only 3 available slots, so I sacrificed the floppy.  This
  left me with the 2 CD/DVD drives and the hard drive as the boot order
- save and reboot ({F10} key)

  Now run the usual install, using the replacement NIC.  One thing to
note in kernel settings (I use "make menuconfig").

Device Drivers  --->
< > ATA/ATAPI/MFM/RLL support  --->
<*> Serial ATA (prod) and Parallel ATA (experimental) drivers  --->
<*>   AHCI SATA support

  The 3 items above
  1) turn off ATA/ATAPI/MFM/RLL support, which is no longer needed
  2) open up the ability to select SATA support
  3) supports the AHCI BIOS that is installed in RAID mode

  I have a working system that boots.  I'm now in the middle of copying
over directories from my current machine, so the Dell 530 can become my
"hot backup" machine.

-- 
Walter Dnes <waltdnes-SLHPyeZ9y/tg9hUCZPvPmw at public.gmane.org> In linux /sbin/init is Job #1
Q. Mr. Ghandi, what do you think of Microsoft security?
A. I think it would be a good idea.
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