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

[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 at tmr.com>
   "We have more to fear from the bungling of the incompetent than from
the machinations of the wicked."  - from Slashdot