Well I have searched google, these forums, justlinux.com's forums and haven't found any solution, but many old posts stating this has been an issue. I recently downloaded Fedora Core 4, this is my first go at Fedora, or any Red Hat related linux, I've been running Slackware for a while now, but I wasn't using my SATA raid.

Anyway, I have a SATA RAID Silicon Image 3112A on-board (fakeraid) controller, that locks up the install when it tries to load the drivers. Here is the exact problem I have.

The installer starts and tries to load the sata drivers:

Loading sata_sil driver Disabling IRQ #11

It says the above and hangs. Anybody know where I can go with this. I have only SATA drives in this system now, they are striped, and half of the total stripe is dedicated to linux, while the other half is for windows.

You can not install Linux on a software (Windows) RAID array easily as installing it to a PATA hard drive. You have to use a PATA hard drive to first install Linux and then use dmraid to find the software RAID array. This is not Linux fault. Hopefully, your array has not been corrupted during the freeze.

BTW, backup your Windows partition before installing Linux.

I have a similar problem with the same mb (A7N8X-E Deluxe). However, I am doing a dual boot. Windows XP pro is installed on my SATA drive. I have 2 smaller IDE ATA drives on which I have installed Suse 9.3. I don't care whether or not Linux sees the SATA drive, and likewise don't care if Windows sees the linux IDE drives. I had to disconnect my SATA drive in order to install Suse 9.3 on the IDE drive. Unfortunately, When I reboot, I have to physically disconnect the power to my SATA drive for Linux to boot. Otherwise, I get the lockup and disabling IRQ 11. I've been trying to figure out how to be able to keep my SATA drive plugged in and be able to boot linux.

hi all,
see my post here:
sata 3112A clue