Messages

1

Installation issues / Re: Installation - Partitioning Issue

« on: February 20, 2012, 03:15:49 am »

In the BIOS settings, I found a few mysterious options, apparently features of the Intel Z68 Chipset:

PCH SATA Control Mode = Can choose from:

• IDE ... Disables RAID for the SATA controllers and configures the SATA controllers to IDE mode
  
• RAID(XHD) ... Enables RAID using Gigabyte's "eXtreme Hard Drive" utility.
  
• ACHI ... Configures the SATA controllers to Advanced Host Controller Interface (AHCI) mode. Allwes the storage driver to enable advanced Serial ATA features such as Native Command Queueing and hot plug.
  

SATA Port0-3 Native Mode = Can choose from:

• Disabled ... (Legacy IDE mode) In Legacy mode the SATA controllers use dedicated IRQs that cannot be shared with other device. Set this option to Disabled if you wish to install operating systems that do not support Native mode.
  
• Enabled ... (Native IDE mode) Enable Native IDE mode if you wish to install operating systems that support Native mode. (Default)

The default was set as:

• PCH SATA Control Mode = IDE
• SATA Port0-3 Native Mode = Enabled (Native IDE mode)

Since you guys seem to be talking about compatibility issues with newer stuff, I tried:

• PCH SATA Control Mode = IDE
• SATA Port0-3 Native Mode = Disabled (Legacy IDE mode)

That seemed to be the most non-cutting-edge mode :-) But no luck with LinuxMCE 810 in this mode.

Meanwhile, i've always thought it strange that my hard disk showed up in the BIOS listed under "IDE Channel 0 Primary Master" when the hard disk is SATA, not IDE. I guess it must be some sort of bridged mode, and since it's the default BIOS setting, I assumed it's fairly standard to bridge SATA to IDE this way (?).

So I tried:

• PCH SATA Control Mode = AHCI
• SATA Port0-3 Native Mode = Disabled (Legacy IDE mode)

With this mode, I noticed the hard disk no longer appears as detected within the BIOS setup menu (the IDE list), however... during the normal boot sequence, there's an additional screen that pops up after POST, titled "AHCI Bios efi" which appears to detect the hard disk there. Albiet with a warning that "this version recognises Hard Disk and CDROMS only" (Not sure what else I'd be plugging into the SATA ports anyway?!). Oh well...

Anyway, I went onto the LinuxMCE installation, and lo-and-behold, it recognises the hard disk!!!! Huzzah!

For completeness's sake, I also tried:

• PCH SATA Control Mode = AHCI
• SATA Port0-3 Native Mode = Enabled (Native IDE mode)

And this also works in LinuxMCE!

So "PCH SATA Control Mode = IDE" was the cause of my problem...

2

Installation issues / Re: Installation - Partitioning Issue

« on: February 19, 2012, 03:41:15 pm »

Thanks for replying!

I tried Ubuntu 11.04, and was able to see the disk as /dev/sda, so I used fdisk to partition it...
First I tried two 1TB partitions... then I tried three partitions of approximately 600-700MB each.

...still nothing showing up on the "Prepare Partitions" screen during LinuxMCE/Kbuntu install!

Is it the size of the partitions that matters or the size of the whole hard disk? And what's the limit?

If I go buy a smaller hard disk to boot LinuxMCE from... will I be able to use this 2TB hard disk as a secondary hard disk in the same machine?

3

Installation issues / [SOLVED] Installation - Partitioning Issue (SATA controller mode compatibility)

« on: February 19, 2012, 05:11:39 am »

Hello!

I'm attempting to install LinuxMCE 8.10 on a new HTPC... I boot the LinuxMCE DVD using an external USB DVD drive, and choose LinuxMCE from the menu. I get as far as the "Prepare Partitions" screen, which doesn't list any hard disks or partitions.

Clicking any of the buttons (except "undo partition changes") seems to do nothing: i.e. create new partition table, create new partition, edit partition, delete partition.

If I click "undo partition changes", the cursor goes into busy mode (the two balls orbiting around each other) indefinitely.

I have a Gigabyte Z68MA-D2H-B3 motherboard with a Western Digital Caviar Green WD20EARX 2TB hard disk plugged into the first SATA port.

I was succesfully able to install Ubuntu 11.10, which detected the hard disk fine, but Kubuntu 8.10 from the same LinuxMCE DVD has the same issue (can't seem to detect the hard disk).

Any ideas?