MSI P965 Neo mobo support

[saftaplan]

None of the Linux distro's I try to install with my MSI P965 Neo motherboard, recognize my LG HL-DT-ST DVD-RAM GSA-H20L PATA-drive and the Seagate ST3200822AS 200GB SATA-drive. I tried installing Gentoo 2006.0 x64, Ubuntu 6.06, Ubuntu 6.10 Knot 1, Fedora Core 5 x64, Fedora Core 6 Beta 2 (this one failing with a kernel panic), OpenSUSE x64 and Instlux Ubuntu, with no luck.

I think it's the JMicron JMB361 RAID controller, but I cannot just disable the controller in the BIOS, no device is recognized then (so the SATA and IDE-ports cannot work natively, I suppose?). Old Windows XP SP1 doesn't need a driver diskette and installs flawlessly
Since I use Linux as my main OS, it's quite a big problem. Is there any chance this board/controller will be supported in the next version of Ubuntu?

[KlausU]

I do have exactly the same problem, this is not an Ubuntu problem, I tried with alot of different distros.

Have a look at:
http://www.uwsg.iu.edu/hypermail/lin...07.1/1730.html

The "all-generic-ide" might be a chance.

PLEASE leave a post here when you have got anything to work! This really sucks, I was short before buying a SATA DVD, but now as I know the origin of the problem and more people have it to i hope it can be solved.

[saftaplan]

The all-generic-ide kernel option seems to work with Gentoo 2006.0. Thank you! Ubuntu 6.06 seems to be able to mount the root filesystem but still hangs after this step, OpenSuse gives the same error as before.

The ethernet card wasn't working yet (although the necessary r8169 module is included with Gentoo) but that was the least of my concerns. My harddisk is listed as /dev/hdi and my dvd-ram as /dev/hdk, probably because of the other SATA controllers on the board (although the SATA port I'm using is marked as SATA1 on the mobo). Installation was going fine, until I needed to install GRUB: it said that

/dev/hdi does not have any corresponding BIOS drive

So I added the line

(hd0)   /dev/hdi

to /boot/grub/device.map, ran install-grub /dev/hdi again and it gave no errors this time. I reboot and grub spits out "error 21", which apparently means grub couldn't find my disk after all. So now I'm stuck here with GRUB. I can't really try LILO because it isn't on the install CD, and to be honest, I don't really have high hopes for that one.
I'm sorry, I know this is a Ubuntu and not a Gentoo forum, but it's at least one distro where I could go a step further.

TIA for any further help

[Tamale]

Originally Posted by saftaplan None of the Linux distro's I try to install with my MSI P965 Neo motherboard, recognize my LG HL-DT-ST DVD-RAM GSA-H20L PATA-drive and the Seagate ST3200822AS 200GB SATA-drive. I tried installing Gentoo 2006.0 x64, Ubuntu 6.06, Ubuntu 6.10 Knot 1, Fedora Core 5 x64, Fedora Core 6 Beta 2 (this one failing with a kernel panic), OpenSUSE x64 and Instlux Ubuntu, with no luck. I think it's the JMicron JMB361 RAID controller, but I cannot just disable the controller in the BIOS, no device is recognized then (so the SATA and IDE-ports cannot work natively, I suppose?). Old Windows XP SP1 doesn't need a driver diskette and installs flawlessly Since I use Linux as my main OS, it's quite a big problem. Is there any chance this board/controller will be supported in the next version of Ubuntu?

Took me a while, but I finally fixed this exact same problem on my MSI Neo 865 motherboard by changing from "SATA Mode only" with "PATA Keep" enabled to "SATA + PATA Mode" in bios.

Hope this helps anyone who runs into the same problem.

[saftaplan]

I had already examined the whole BIOS but I couldn't find such an option. The only option I could set that had something to do with it was in which mode the controller should run, IDE/RAID/Disabled. In RAID, linux wouldn't detect my drives, not even with all-generic-ide, and since the PATA and SATA controllers are both connected to it, Disabled gave even worse results. So IDE mode it is.

Now for the GRUB problem, it's solved by changing the SATA port of the HDD. It was connected to the only JMB361 SATA port on the board, now it's connected to another port on the Intel controller. At first it gave some DMA and IRQ errors (but I could still work with it) so I added irqpoll next to the all-generic-ide option aready appended. I added these options in grub's menu.lst, and I have a working Linux system now!
I didn't get the ethernet port working yet (I compiled r8169 in the kernel, so not as a module, and it still gives no sign of life), and I didn't test the on-board sound, but at least that's listed in lspci as detected.

I still ask myself what Ubuntu's problem is, it still hangs with the irqpoll and all-generic-ide options enabled. But Gentoo will do for now I'll update if I get the ethernet card working.

[KlausU]

Today I have installed Ubuntu with some tricks from Windows/HDD/Grub... but however it is far from perfect because it seems impossible to install a real Kubuntu since the netboot images are Ubuntu only... argh.

I have tried alot with the bios options and no success. Also no idea why all-generic-ide wont work. I think I will go with the installed Ubuntu and try to replace the kernel... well or just gentoo itself.

Do you have gentoo installed now, does the IDE work with the lates kernel without additional boot options?

[saftaplan]

I tried 2.6.17.8 today from kernel.org (so not gentoo-patched or something) but it didn't work, not even with the boot options enabled, which is weird because the link you gave clearly states that it's no problem for versions "prior to 2.6.18rc1" (I did not disable AHCI, maybe I should try that).

Meanwhile I got the ethernet port working, which was fairly easy. Don't use the drivers from MSI's website but download them from the RealTek site, follow instructions in readme, execute modprobe r1000 and check if it is detected with ifconfig eth0. If it works, add r1000 to /etc/modules.autoload.d/kernel-2.6 and all should be fine.

And how exactly did you get ubuntu on your disk? By using the same method instlux uses (with grub4dos)? 'Cause I tried that and grub4dos failed, but it could be because my HDD was still connected to that JMB361 SATA port.

[Cynical]

This is a problem with jmicron controller support in the kernel, and has nothing to do with ubuntu obviously. The latest kernel (2.6.18) with the mm2 patch fixes the problem. By the time Ubuntu 6.10 is released there wont be any issues.

[saftaplan]

Ok thx for the reply Cynical
Everything I need from my mobo works for now except for the Realtek 883 (Intel HD Audio) soundcard. It plays sound with alsa, but it's very scrambled. Let's see if I can work out this last issue
Maybe this has got something to do with it, but my Turkish isn't fluent The link in the document doesn't seem to have much to do with it, I guess.

[meronb]

Since I'm having exactly the same problem (the grub-part), could give some more info on how you solved it? i'm using gentoo and my sata drive is connected to SATA1 on the mobo. Grub doesn't see it.Do I have to connect it to a different SAT-port?