sata_nv NForce3 SATA driver on installer

[matt whiteley]

On Sat, 09 Oct 2004 23:35:51 -0400, Robert L Cochran
<cochranb at speakeasy.net> wrote:
> I have a lot of PATA hard drives laying around. I really want to use the
> SATA controllers on my MSI K8N Neo2 Platinum motherboard, but I'm loathe
> to buy an SATA hard drive. Instead I bought a serial ATA converter that
> plugs into a PATA drive and turns it into an SATA drive. I chose the
> Highpoint RocketHead 100 Serial ATA Converter.
> 
> For the test drive, I plugged the converter into an older (around 1999)
> 25.5 Gb IBM drive and connected that to the SATA1 controller on the
> motherboard. I booted off the FC3 x86_64 CD 1 to start the installation
> process, entering 'linux askmethod' at the prompt and selecting an NFS
> Image installation method.
> 
> The installation soon comes to a halt. The installer says it can't find
> any hard drives. I come to a panel offering me the chance to select
> drivers that might do what is needed. There is nothing in the list for
> Nvidia or NForce3 SATA, although a bunch of other SATA drivers are
> provided for other chipsets.
> 
> Since the installer is offering me the chance to provide a driver --
> good! -- I run over to another machine to see if I can get the sata_nv
> driver on a floppy disk. I succeed, press F2 on the installer panel, and
> get this message:
> 
> cannot find /tmp/drivers/modinfo, bad driver disk
> 
> Can anyone tell me what this is about?
> 
> What's the correct method of providing an external driver to the
> installer -- how do I do that correctly?
> 
> And finally, even though I couldn't get the driver loaded for a fresh
> installation of FC3T2 -- a fully updated FC3T2 drive with the 603 kernel
> will boot just fine as an SATA device. I was pleasantly surprised.
> smartd fails at boot time, and my Logitech QuickCam 4000 suddenly isn't
> recognized, but what the heck -- my FC3T2 drive is on SATA, and seems to
> work just fine.
> 
> Thanks
> 
> Bob Cochran
> Greenbelt, Maryland, USA

I have a similar board, the MSI K8N Neo Platinum (7030) and am having
the same issue as you. I know that you need to make a driver disk with
a certain format (layout not file format) that contains other files
besides the modules. I am trying to find a good description for one
and will post a set of steps if one works.

-- 
matt whiteley <mattwhiteley at gmail.com>