Why, yes! Yes, there is a reason! For example, when I boot the Fedora Core 4 disc, the install proceeds to the point where it says "Loading sata_sil driver...Diabling IRQ #11" (the last part in white text on black background, showing up after a few seconds), where it hangs. This happens to other recent distributions. On the behind-the-scenes screen (via Alt-F4) is a screen full of nasty messages including, but not limited to, "irq 11: nobody cared!".

So, I figured maybe a distribution somewhere between Red Hat 9 and FC4 might work. I've been trying. The latest fun is the Debian netinst CD image. Someone gave me a copy he burned some time ago, and I just downloaded my own copy and burned it, and both hang at exactly the same place with a md5sum error! I've tried 3 different CD-ROM drives and the two discs and it's weird that they both fail at the exact same spot.

Anyway, as I said in my previous message, I did get FC1 running (kernel 2.4.22), but while it *seemed* to work, when I ran md5sum on a directory of the mirrored SATA drives with a number of large files, I get non-reproducible results. I.e. different md5sums for the longer files on different runs. Eeek. That can't be good! I'm running out of options and patience.

If I can get Debian sarge running, I'll try that (kernel 2.4.27).

Yes, I've read the status reports, and I am depressed.

----- Original Message ----- From: Gilles Detillieux grdetil@scrc.umanitoba.ca Date: Monday, November 14, 2005 10:33 am Subject: Re: [RndTbl] Update on SATA woes

Hey, Kevin. Is there any reason you're sticking with older Linux distros like RH9 & FC1, rather than using the newer 2.6 kernel- based distros like FC4? My own experience with SATA-based systems has been a bit spotty, even with the 2.6 kernel.

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