On Sunday 14 December 2008 9:29 am, Tony Alfrey wrote:

I run eSATA drives on SuSE 9.1. I found that I needed a SATA controller that had linux drivers available for it on the SuSE CD. Here are websites that list SATA drivers and matching chipsets.

http://linuxmafia.com/faq/Hardware/sata.html http://linux-ata.org/driver-status.html

Silicon Image chipsets are supported. I use a model SD-SATA150R two-port card from SYBA. There were actually linux drivers for the chipsets on a CD that came with the controller, but I also had SATA drivers on a SuSE CD. You will need the sata_sil or sata_sil24 driver. When I installed 9.1 on a fresh drive, the installation asked me if I needed some drivers and I pointed it to these and everything was fine. I might add that I also dual boot this box with an IDE drive for windoze and SATA drives for several linux distros. Other than the SATA controller and the SuSE 9.1 CD, that was all I needed to make SATA work.

Thanks! On order: "1 internal port, 1 e-SATA, SiI3132 Chipset, PCI express SATA II card" From the first link you gave: Silicon Image 3124/3124-2 (chip in 4-port SATA-II PCI-X cards) and 3132 (chip in 2-port SATA-II PCI Express cards) (Silicon Image, Inc., formerly CMD Technology, Inc.) — libata's sata_sil24 driver (production quality) supports Silicon Image 3124 (2005-08) and also the follow-on 2-port PCI Express SATA-II successor chip, the Silicon Image 3132. (Per 2004-07-08's libata status report, Silicon Image provided Garzik with docs and sample hardware.) SuSE 9.3 has sata_sil.ko but no sata_sil24.ko: # l /lib/modules/2.6.11.4-21.17-smp/kernel/drivers/scsi | grep sil -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 16368 May 3 2007 sata_sil.ko Hope it works! Bob -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

Robert Paulsen wrote:

On order: "1 internal port, 1 e-SATA, SiI3132 Chipset, PCI express SATA II card"

From the first link you gave: Silicon Image 3124/3124-2 (chip in 4-port SATA-II PCI-X cards) and 3132 (chip in 2-port SATA-II PCI Express cards) (Silicon Image, Inc., formerly CMD Technology, Inc.) — libata's sata_sil24 driver (production quality) supports Silicon Image 3124 (2005-08) and also the follow-on 2-port PCI Express SATA-II successor chip, the Silicon Image 3132. (Per 2004-07-08's libata status report, Silicon Image provided Garzik with docs and sample hardware.)

SuSE 9.3 has sata_sil.ko but no sata_sil24.ko: # l /lib/modules/2.6.11.4-21.17-smp/kernel/drivers/scsi | grep sil -rw-r--r-- 1 root root 16368 May 3 2007 sata_sil.ko

Hope it works!

According to the kernel source, sata_sil does not support SiI3132 chip, whereas sata_sil24 does. Also, the hardware you mentioned in your original post (Initio id 1622), is supported by the sata_inic162x driver, but you'd need a kernel upgrade. /Per -- /Per Jessen, Zürich -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

Robert Paulsen wrote:

On Monday 15 December 2008 4:10 am, Per Jessen wrote:

...

According to the kernel source, sata_sil does not support SiI3132 chip, whereas sata_sil24 does.

Where can I get the sata_sil24 driver for SuSE 9.3? I can't find my SuSE 9.3 DVD/CDs. I have moved three times since installing SuSE 9.3 and the DVD and/or CDs have been lost.

The current kernel has the right drivers, that's all you need. I know that's not what you want to hear, but that's the story. /Per -- /Per Jessen, Zürich -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

On Mon, Dec 15, 2008 at 2:57 PM, Robert Paulsen wrote:

On Monday 15 December 2008 1:22 pm, Per Jessen wrote:

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Robert Paulsen wrote:

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On Monday 15 December 2008 4:10 am, Per Jessen wrote:

...

According to the kernel source, sata_sil does not support SiI3132 chip, whereas sata_sil24 does.

Where can I get the sata_sil24 driver for SuSE 9.3? I can't find my SuSE 9.3 DVD/CDs. I have moved three times since installing SuSE 9.3 and the DVD and/or CDs have been lost.

The current kernel has the right drivers, that's all you need. I know that's not what you want to hear, but that's the story.

I may end up sticking with the USB interface and move to the eSATA when I upgrade -- maybe this will push me over the edge. I've been putting it off for a while.

Looks like 11.1 is what I should go for. Can I assume the NVIDIA driver will be available? Any other potential gotcha's?

Bob

If stability is your concern, 11.0 with KDE 3.5 has seemed very stable to me. Much better than 10.1/.2/.3. And it should have plenty of eSata drivers. 11.1 is still an unknown and will be for a month or two. (ie. I like to see a release in the field for a while before I consider it stable.) My impression is that the main reason to jump to 11.1 is to get a better version of KDE 4. But many are saying the 11.2 release next August, possibly with KDE 4.3, will be first high quality release of KDE 4. (If even that is good enough to satisfy the naysayers.) 11.2 should also have the mdadm 3.0 release which I find intriguing for my servers. Thus 11.1 is more of a KDE 4 experiment for me than something I want to upgrade stable systems to. Greg -- Greg Freemyer Litigation Triage Solutions Specialist http://www.linkedin.com/in/gregfreemyer First 99 Days Litigation White Paper - http://www.norcrossgroup.com/forms/whitepapers/99%20Days%20whitepaper.pdf The Norcross Group The Intersection of Evidence & Technology http://www.norcrossgroup.com -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

On Sat, Dec 27, 2008 at 9:47 PM, Robert Paulsen wrote: <snip>

MY QUESTION:

The card is a 32-bit/33mhz PCI card (not PCI express) and claims to support 3.0Gbps. I thought that the PCI bus was not fast enough for 3.0Gbps and PCI express was required. Am I missing something? Am I simply wrong about the PCI bus' capabilities?

Bob

In reality there are 2 basic modes: Sata-1 and Sata-2. The most obvious difference is speed, but sata-2 offers some other features you might want to use. For some reason, controller / disk manufacturers like to claim 3Gbs capability, when they really mean Sata-2 compatibility. ie. Not only "faster" but also other enhanced features. As to speed on PCI, I think you are right. The only thing you really get is access to the other enhanced features. (ie. NCQ for one is only supported on SATA-2 drives.) Also, a single sata drive can NOT saturate a 1.5Gbs connection, so more speed is not needed for point to point connections. Sata has something called PMP. aiui, it is like a sata-hub. You connect one side to your controller and the other side to a number of different sata-drives. With PMPs in use the controller / hub connection can saturate a 1.5Gbs link, so you would want to use 3.0Gbs for that config. Greg -- Greg Freemyer Litigation Triage Solutions Specialist http://www.linkedin.com/in/gregfreemyer First 99 Days Litigation White Paper - http://www.norcrossgroup.com/forms/whitepapers/99%20Days%20whitepaper.pdf The Norcross Group The Intersection of Evidence & Technology http://www.norcrossgroup.com -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org

On Sun, Dec 28, 2008 at 11:39 AM, Robert Paulsen wrote:

On Sunday 28 December 2008 9:15 am, Greg Freemyer wrote:

...

On Sat, Dec 27, 2008 at 9:47 PM, Robert Paulsen wrote: <snip>

...

MY QUESTION:

The card is a 32-bit/33mhz PCI card (not PCI express) and claims to support 3.0Gbps. I thought that the PCI bus was not fast enough for 3.0Gbps and PCI express was required. Am I missing something? Am I simply wrong about the PCI bus' capabilities?

Bob

In reality there are 2 basic modes: Sata-1 and Sata-2. The most obvious difference is speed, but sata-2 offers some other features you might want to use.

For some reason, controller / disk manufacturers like to claim 3Gbs capability, when they really mean Sata-2 compatibility. ie. Not only "faster" but also other enhanced features.

As to speed on PCI, I think you are right. The only thing you really get is access to the other enhanced features. (ie. NCQ for one is only supported on SATA-2 drives.)

Also, a single sata drive can NOT saturate a 1.5Gbs connection, so more speed is not needed for point to point connections.

Sata has something called PMP. aiui, it is like a sata-hub. You connect one side to your controller and the other side to a number of different sata-drives. With PMPs in use the controller / hub connection can saturate a 1.5Gbs link, so you would want to use 3.0Gbs for that config.

I am confused by all of the above. Both the drive and that card claim 3Gbps. Are you saying that the drive really doesn't (can't?) xfer data at 3Gbps?

The drive can provide bursts of data a 3Gbps, but it cannot maintain it for any length of time. Not even if you do a pure sequential read or write. If the drive has a write cache, then you can fill the cache at 3Gbps, but you cannot get data to the actual platters that fast. I'll let you calculate how long it takes to fill a 16MB cache at 3Gbps, but not very long.

You say that I am right (presumably about PCI bus not supporting 3Gbps), but then seem to imply the PCI bus will support multiple drives that add up to over 1.5Gbps?

I should have said that even with PCI-express 3Gbps is wasted unless you have multiple drives hanging off of a single port via a PMP (hub/switch).

Sorry for being dense!

Bob

-- Greg Freemyer Litigation Triage Solutions Specialist http://www.linkedin.com/in/gregfreemyer First 99 Days Litigation White Paper - http://www.norcrossgroup.com/forms/whitepapers/99%20Days%20whitepaper.pdf The Norcross Group The Intersection of Evidence & Technology http://www.norcrossgroup.com -- To unsubscribe, e-mail: opensuse+unsubscribe@opensuse.org For additional commands, e-mail: opensuse+help@opensuse.org