SATA problem

[Lennart Sorensen]

On Mon, Mar 21, 2011 at 09:30:36PM -0400, Christopher Browne wrote:
> I was wanting to add a couple extra drives to one of my systems, and
> apparently picked up the wrong sort of SATA controller.  Docs out on
> the "interweb" are a bit less up to date than seems useful.
> 
> I grabbed a Bytecc generic card:
> <http://canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=19_252_254&item_id=021549>
> 
> This is using a VIA 6421 chipset, which seems supported as part of the
> "sata_via" driver, but it doesn't recognize my drives.  That seems
> vaguely consistent with this:
> <http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=1600508>
> 
> Is there some particular cheap-ish controller I ought to go looking for?

For PCI express, JMC controllers are nice since they are AHCI compliant.

For PCI it's a bit trickier.

> FYI, here's current kernel info...
> wolfe:~# uname -a
> Linux wolfe 2.6.30-2-amd64 #1 SMP Mon Dec 7 05:21:45 UTC 2009 x86_64 GNU/Linux
> Perhaps I need to update to a rather newer kernel...

It seems that at least at this time, the via 6421 does not work with WD
drives under linux.  Reminds me a bit of Sil 3112A not working with early
seagate SATA drives either (although in that case it was Seagate's fault).

http://canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=19_252_254&item_id=008587
is a Sil based card.  Still only SATA I, but it should work with anything
other than seagate (and probably many newer seagate drives too, although
why you would want those I can't imagine).  I haven't had a problem with
Sil based cards under linux so far, although these days I go for AHCI
controllers myself.

http://canadacomputers.com/product_info.php?cPath=19_252_254&item_id=028984
looks even better.  Sil3114 controller.  Of course still only original
SATA speeds.

Promise used to make some PCI SATA II cards that worked with Linux,
but I don't know if they are made any more.

Basicly, PCI is dead.  Get used to it. :)

-- 
Len Sorensen
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