Greetings,

We'll buy server hardware soon to run a critical app that requires SL3. 
Upgrade to SL4 later is probably a go, but initially it must be SL3.

So SL308 would load with 2.4.21-47.0.1.ELsmp & yum update to 
2.4.21-50.ELsmp. 

The hardware may have Tyan S2925G2NR mobo which has nvidia nForce Pro 3400
chipset, with nvidia MCP55 SATA controller. 

Some hunting shows:

. SL3.0.8 release notes: Nvidia Nforce(motherboard chipset) drivers: 
  IDE is supported. NO SUPPORT for ethernet, audio, sata.

  That sounds bad. But:

. "Newer NVIDIA chipsets are AHCI, and use the ahci driver not sata_nv"
. both sata_nv & ahci drivers in SL3 
. both sata_nv & ahci driver said "production" maturity
. "libata AHCI driver ahci became available starting 2.4.29-preX ..."
(that's later than SL308 kernel)

Questions:

. would the version of the ahci driver in SL3 be older than the version in 
SL4? 
 
. If it is older, would an older ahci driver version in SL3 have any 
problem driving the nvidia MCP55 (or possibly even newer if a newer mobo) 
SATA controller?

. If ahci can't or won't, will SL3 understand to use sata_nv driver 
instead? 
And would sata_nv have any problem driving the nvidia MCP55 (or possibly 
even newer if a newer mobo) SATA controller?


many many thanks