The mainboard doesn't support what ?
What drivers are you looking for ?
You can easily check if Solaris recognize this partition with Belenix.

Jlliagre

This was almost 6-8 months ago. I could install Windows XP without any hassle on the SATA drive. It was not the thing I wanted. I wanted to install Mandriva Linux 64 bit version.

It was impossible. It refused to recognize the hardware. However, I don't recall exact details today. I asked a friend who knows more than me on these issues. He works as a networking expert for a few years. He works with Free BSD, Linux, Solaris. They install different software on different computers routinely. They encounter those problems very often.

He said there was nothing much to do. He suggested downoloading some other Linux version. I didn't find any 64 bit version in other distros,then. I firmly recall that SuSE didn't have any 64bit Linux.

I could have solve the problem if I found SuSE, Fedora or some other version of Linux. Today It exists.

As a matter of fact, almost 2 months ago. I downloaded the latest SuSE 64bit program, though I didn't install it.

I told you I have a extended partition called 'had5'. I probably will install SuSE on it. I must try to fix the SATA harddrive first. I would get another 180GB on my system. Probably Solaris will be an ideal operating system place on SATA.

By the way, 3 or 4 days ago, I downloaded the driver for SATA from the following site.


http://www.sis.com/download/download_step1.php


You were lucky. You installed different operating systems smoothly; so your hardware were 100% compatible. It is not the case always.

Belenix works fine on my system. Knoppix Live CD didn't work properly. I couldn't go to the Internet with it. It had some problems with my network card.

Belenix recognized my network card. Everything goes smoothly.

What I want to say is compatibility problems are always behind you.

SuSE Linux for x64 was certainly available 6-8 month ago, and I do not see what this has to do with SATA support
Solaris is ideal on any disk
A blank page for me.
Let's say I was more careful in buying my H/W than purely lucky.
Not sure about what you mean here.

Jlliagre

You said the following:
SuSE Linux for x64 was certainly available 6-8 month ago, and I do not see what this has to do with SATA support.

It may be the case some mainboards don't recognize certain distros of Linux. You can't install. That is what happned to me. It seems you have never come across similar problems. I am sorry I can't debate here.

I don't dispute that SuSE Linux x64 was available 6-8 months ago. I missed it. It may be I am not good at searching.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
http://www.sis.com/download/

Please look at the abobve.

1. Mark Linux.

2. Mark 'SATA & RAID

3. Mark 'SATA & RAID' again on the third column.

4. Click 'go'

Then you will find the following:


SATA Driver for Linux (Kernel 2.6.9 and later)
File Name sis18x_20060508.zip
Version v20060508
Release Date 2006-06-01
Support Products
SiS966L, SiS966, SiS965L, SiS965, SiS964, SiS180,
File Size 8KB
Support OS Linux,
[I surmise that this is the driver for my SATA hardriver. It was not there when I bought the computer.]

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
You said the following:

Let's say I was more careful in buying my H/W than purely lucky.
Yes, I would agree with you.

I think I must install both Solaris and SuSE Linux. First task would be to fix the SATA drive.

I'm splitting hairs, but that's the way around with your case.
Some O/S distributions may or may not recognize some mainboards and some hardware on these boards. The O/S and drivers evolve to fix that.
There are other cases where the H/W is the issue. BIOS upgrades or settings are the way to fix them.

Quote:

You can't install. That is what happned to me. It seems you have never come across similar problems.

You underestimate my experience.
I have met this kind of compatibility and support issue since more years than you can imagine .
No problem, that wouldn't have helped the SiS driver issue anyway. From what I understand, your problem wasn't about 64 bit support, but about SATA support.

sorry week on holiday.

well sort of, have them on different disks on same machine but I am not
dual booting as such.
but anyway linux drivers won't work in solaris

you maybe have a strange motherboard.

Hi,
Just a word of advice for those of you who want to install two or more operating systems on your PC but don't want to deal with the problem of partitioning your hard drives, and risk loosing everything in the process if you don't do things right, I suggest that you get a hard drive caddy with an extra bay or two, then buy as many hard drives as operating systems you want to install and that's it. You can install an OS on each individual hard drive, and depending on which operating you want to use, BEFORE YOU START YOUR COMPUTER, all you have to do is insert the caddy in your PC and you're ready to go. That's the way I have it. I use Windows (though very rarely, almost never) and Linux, and now I'm going to install Solaris 10 on a new hard drive. This would make your life a bit easier. Hard drives are very cheap now an I think it is better to use a new hard drive for every OS that you have on your PC.

Just in case some of you don't know what I'm talking about, there is a link that would help you get an idea about hard drives caddies:
http://www.maplin.co.uk/Module.aspx?...iteria=hard%20

By the way, these caddies are designed to work with different types of hard drives (IDE, SATA, etc.), so make sure you buy the one that works with your drive. And remember that you should not swap hard drives when the computer is ON, you MUST turn the PC off before doing that.

Regards,

The SiS965L sata chips has been around WITH a Linux driver for around to 3 years!!! And that driver has not made it into install package?

I have a sata drive I have used for about 6 month with SuSE 10.1 on a different motherboard. That mb failed and my new one has this sata chip. It will begin to boot, but fails to find /dev/sda2 and stops. The install DVD can NOT see the drive, with any of the installer boot options! So I installed the system on an IDE and it cannot see the sata drive either.

Sure, I can download and install the driver. How in %&^ does that allow me to install on a sata drive?

I believe you are in the wrong forum, as this looks like a SuSE question.