Installing Fedora Core 12 on a system with a IT8212 SATA Controller

[Iain Davis]

Hi.

I have a machine whose only hard drive is a SATA 160GB (Western
Digital). The SATA controller is an ITE IT8212 (a raid controller, but
I'm not using that feature).

The OS on the machine is Windows XP, but I'll be wiping that out and
replacing it with Fedora 12 Core. However, when I boot from the Fedora
12 DVD and run the installer, I reach the point where you select the
language, U.S. English, click next and it pops up a micro-dialog
saying its searching for disk drives...which it sits on for a long
while. Then the dialog goes away...but it doesn't progress to the next
screen.

I'm currently assuming that it can't find the SATA drive, but I was
hoping for some help, since I'm not comfortable with how Fedora's
install process works.

Thanks,

Iain

[Iain Davis]

On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 12:06 PM, Alan Cox <alan(a)lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk&gt; wrote:
> > > I have a machine whose only hard drive is a SATA 160GB
> (Western
> > > Digital). The SATA controller is an ITE IT8212 (a raid controller, but
> > > I'm not using that feature).
>
>  The IT8212 is a PATA controller not SATA. I guess they may have wired
>  SATA bridges to it. 
I should have clued in when you said this, but I didn't until I was
messing about in the case (prompted by Roger's comments about drive
searching):

The drive is NOT SATA. I relied on my memory of what I had done to the
hardware a couple of years back...and was completely wrong. I thought
I had put in a SATA drive & controller, but in fact it was this IT8212
PATA controller and the Western Digital WD1600JB (Caviar). A EIDE
drive. I guess I merely dreamed that it was a SATA controller/drive.
:)

So I mis-represented my problem in that respect, my apologies!

So far, I've not resolved the problem, though. I've so far tried
Alan's two suggestions and Roger's:

* I made sure the controller was in IDE mode (I _believe_ it was
before, but the controller's bios seems to default to RAID 0, rather
than what you had set the mode to, so I can't be sure)
* I tried the 'pata_it821x.noraid=1' boot option.
* Disabling any drives besides the DVD-ROM and the Caviar HDD. (Which
the only thing left was the floppy drive).

I'm going more closely examine how I have the hardware put together,
perhaps something will jump out at me.

Oh! One other thing I tried. I had a copy of Slackware 12.x laying
around, and experimentally booted up with slackware and took a look
with cfdisk, and I could see the drive. What I take from that is that
something about my hardware and the Fedora installer isn't playing
nice together and I just have to track down what...

Thanks again to the three of you (Fred, Alan and Roger) for your help.

Iain

[Bill Davidsen]

Alan Cox wrote:
> >> I have a machine whose only hard drive is a SATA 160GB
> (Western
> >> Digital). The SATA controller is an ITE IT8212 (a raid controller, but
> >> I'm not using that feature).
>  
>  The IT8212 is a PATA controller not SATA. I guess they may have wired
>  SATA bridges to it.
>  
> > machine I had to get the driver from the mfg web page and compile it
> > myself. But later (I think it was at the Centos/RHEL5 transition) I found
> > that there was a working driver in the system. So, I'd expect that Fedora
> > 12 would have it built in too.
>  
>  It does. One thing worth noting is that the chip has two modes. In the
>  RAID mode it doesn't support CD-ROM devices but handles basic raid stuff
>  itself via its embedded microcontroller. In non-RAID mode it behaves
>  exactly like a standard IDE controller. Both modes are supported. RAID 0
>  is generally best done using software RAID in Linux, RAID 1 there are
>  advantages to doing it either way. Some of the RAID firmwares are a bit
>  flakey so if you get a problem boot it with the device in non-RAID mode.
>  (if the BIOS won't let you set it then try 'pata_it821x.noraid=1' as a
>  boot option.
>   
Thanks, that sounds like a good way to get one of these into JBOD mode when the 
BIOS is a POS (r).

-- 
Bill Davidsen <davidsen(a)tmr.com&gt;
   "We have more to fear from the bungling of the incompetent than from
the machinations of the wicked."  - from Slashdot

[Roger]

On 03/01/2010 02:13 AM, Iain Davis wrote:
>  Hi.
>
>  I have a machine whose only hard drive is a SATA 160GB (Western
>  Digital). The SATA controller is an ITE IT8212 (a raid controller, but
>  I'm not using that feature).
>
>  The OS on the machine is Windows XP, but I'll be wiping that out and
>  replacing it with Fedora 12 Core. However, when I boot from the Fedora
>  12 DVD and run the installer, I reach the point where you select the
>  language, U.S. English, click next and it pops up a micro-dialog
>  saying its searching for disk drives...which it sits on for a long
>  while. Then the dialog goes away...but it doesn't progress to the next
>  screen.
>
>  I'm currently assuming that it can't find the SATA drive, but I was
>  hoping for some help, since I'm not comfortable with how Fedora's
>  install process works.
>
>  Thanks,
>
>  Iain
>      
Iain
I had that problem and found that it was searching for a floppy drive 
and another drive that had been removed from the system.
I went into the bios <del> at start up and made sure the floppy and 
drives were set to none except for the drive I wanted to install to.
Install went very fast after that.
Roger

[Iain Davis]

On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 12:06 PM, Alan Cox <alan(a)lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk&gt; wrote:
>  It does. One thing worth noting is that the chip has two modes. In
> the
>  RAID mode it doesn't support CD-ROM devices but handles basic raid stuff
>  itself via its embedded microcontroller. In non-RAID mode it behaves
>  exactly like a standard IDE controller. Both modes are supported. RAID 0
>  is generally best done using software RAID in Linux, RAID 1 there are
>  advantages to doing it either way. Some of the RAID firmwares are a bit
>  flakey so if you get a problem boot it with the device in non-RAID mode.
>  (if the BIOS won't let you set it then try 'pata_it821x.noraid=1' as a
>  boot option. 
Hmm. I have a belief that I'm not operating the controller in a RAID
mode, but I will double check. If I don't get anywhere in that
direction, I'll try the boot option you've suggested.

Thanks for your help. :)

[Alan Cox]

>  > I have a machine whose only hard drive is a SATA 160GB (Western
>  > Digital). The SATA controller is an ITE IT8212 (a raid controller, but
>  > I'm not using that feature). 
The IT8212 is a PATA controller not SATA. I guess they may have wired
SATA bridges to it.

>  machine I had to get the driver from the mfg web page and compile it
>  myself. But later (I think it was at the Centos/RHEL5 transition) I found
>  that there was a working driver in the system. So, I'd expect that Fedora
>  12 would have it built in too. 
It does. One thing worth noting is that the chip has two modes. In the
RAID mode it doesn't support CD-ROM devices but handles basic raid stuff
itself via its embedded microcontroller. In non-RAID mode it behaves
exactly like a standard IDE controller. Both modes are supported. RAID 0
is generally best done using software RAID in Linux, RAID 1 there are
advantages to doing it either way. Some of the RAID firmwares are a bit
flakey so if you get a problem boot it with the device in non-RAID mode.
(if the BIOS won't let you set it then try 'pata_it821x.noraid=1' as a
boot option.

Alan

[Fred Smith]

On Sun, Feb 28, 2010 at 09:13:43AM -0600, Iain Davis wrote:
>  Hi.
>  
>  I have a machine whose only hard drive is a SATA 160GB (Western
>  Digital). The SATA controller is an ITE IT8212 (a raid controller, but
>  I'm not using that feature).
>  
>  The OS on the machine is Windows XP, but I'll be wiping that out and
>  replacing it with Fedora 12 Core. However, when I boot from the Fedora
>  12 DVD and run the installer, I reach the point where you select the
>  language, U.S. English, click next and it pops up a micro-dialog
>  saying its searching for disk drives...which it sits on for a long
>  while. Then the dialog goes away...but it doesn't progress to the next
>  screen.
>  
>  I'm currently assuming that it can't find the SATA drive, but I was
>  hoping for some help, since I'm not comfortable with how Fedora's
>  install process works. 
I've got a (now on the shelf due to upgrading) motherboard that uses that
chip as a secondary ide/sata controller. Back when I ran Centos4 on that
machine I had to get the driver from the mfg web page and compile it
myself. But later (I think it was at the Centos/RHEL5 transition) I found
that there was a working driver in the system. So, I'd expect that Fedora
12 would have it built in too.

Now when I say "working", pls note that I wasn't using it as a SATA
controller, but rather PATA, so YMMV.

-- 
---- Fred Smith -- fredex(a)fcshome.stoneham.ma.us -----------------------------
                    The Lord detests the way of the wicked 
                  but he loves those who pursue righteousness.
----------------------------- Proverbs 15:9 (niv) -----------------------------