Eva Myers wrote:
> I'm having some trouble installing SL44 on a new machine from World of
> Computers.  As far as WOC are aware, the only difference between this
> machine and the one I was asking about in December is that the IDE
> DVD-RW drive has been replaced by a SATA drive because they were
> having difficulty getting a different version of Linux to communicate
> with the IDE drive.
> 
> However, the installation problems are quite different.  Rather then
> freezing when I boot from the boot CD without any kernel options, the
> install process claims that it cannot find any hard drives.  I tried
> using the all-generic-ide and pci=nommconf options - the hard drive
> was then detected, but the install process hung while formatting the
> root filesystem!
> 
> The relevant hardware details (copied from the quotation) are:
> 
> Motherboard + processor: Intel D965SSCK Core 2 Duo 6300 2MB cache
> Hard drive: 160GB - ST3160811AS -  7200rpm Serial ATA
> DVD drive: Samsung DVD RW (+/-) OEM Dual Layer/16xDVD+R,8xDVD+RW,16xRead-SATA
> 
> The Seagate website does not seem to have any hard drives with the
> exact model number above but does have a ST3160812AS-RK - could this
> be why the computer is behaving differently?  I was hoping they would
> also have a Linux driver to download but they didn't.
> 
> Is the change in the DVD drive at all likely to be the cause of the
> problem, and could someone please explain how to get the installation
> working?  Sorry for all the stupid questions.
> Eva.


In general, the oldest the hardware, the more possible to be supported by GNU/Linux. Also, 
when getting specific new hardware, it is useful to check whether its web site provides a 
driver for GNU/Linux (I have learned this first hand when I had to buy a new 56 Kbps 
fax/modem for SL 4.4. Had a Zoom but they did not provide a GNU/Linux driver for it, and I 
got a Tornado one that they provide a GNU/Linux driver for it.


SATA is a relative new technology, and I do not think there is/will be SL 4.x support for 
it, other than the drivers that SATA controller makers provide themselves. I think that 
the upcoming SL 5 will probably support SATA. I think you may have to wait for 5.

The same I think for Core Duo processor, I am not sure you will get a good multithreading 
with SL 4.x.


In the meantime waiting for SL5, you may use the latest Fedora Core, if you are talking 
about home use.