Hi,

I was installing debian etch feom a dvd and when I get to the part where it tries to find the hard drives it cannot find mine this happens on both the gui and text installers. I have tried the drivers listed in the list and they do not work. I have tried different commands before installing they do not work. I have also tried changing the way my sata hard drive in configured to achi and that does not work. So can some one please help me. Thank you. Any help would be greatly appreciated.

P.S. I am trying to install the amd64 version.

My hardware.

Motherboard: Asus P5K3 Deluxe.
CPU: Intel Core 2 duo e6320 1.86 ghz running at 3.30 ghz.
Sata controller: Jmicron JMB363.
Hard Drive: Western Digital WDC WD800JD-00LUA0 80GB hard drive.
Hard Drive Firmware: 06.01D06.

Again Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

Try the 64bit installer at the url below.

http://kmuto.jp/debian/d-i/

Thank you. But I think I am going to use lenny.

you may run into the same problem

Why would I run into the same problem.

Because you have not addressed the underlying issue, you only used a different installation media. There is a possibility that your install CD doesn't have the right drivers for the SATA controller on your board, so trying different installation media is a good start.

The first thing I would do before I tried anything else is to pull the SATA cables from the HD and the board and plug them back in, maybe in a different port.

Then I would try a different cable, and then a different hard drive.

Plenty of times I've thought I had a driver issue when the dang cable was just loose or the poor sap plugged in the data cable but not the power >.<
You could have either problem. You need to narrow it down.

Well I am posting right now from the same computer I was going to install debian on and i am running windows right now and it sees my hard drive so i don't think my cable is loose.

I used this one when i could not get etch to work. I did install this one once and i got a gui on it and then it randomly screwed up and died. So i think I want to use a original debian disk.

FWIW I am using an AMD64 system and I had a similar problem. Using this installer got me a system up so I could add my etch DVD's to apt and install the rest.
I don't have internet on the box in question so this really helped.

try starting the install cd with the irqpoll option

installgui irqpoll

it worked with my p965 chipset, and after install i had no probs

You might also try the kernel parameter:

install libata.atapi_enabled=1

because there have been issues with recognizing SATA optical drives that have been resolved this way.