8.04 can't detect SATA drive, 7.10 was fine

[jr mcfly]

My 7.10 installation was all working perfectly, but for some reason I decided I just had to have 8.04. I upgraded using the alternate CD, and everything seemed to go fine, but when rebooting with the new 8.04 kernel (2.6.24-19-generic) it fails because it can't find my hard drive.

The hard drive is a Seagate SATA drive. Here is the output of lshw -C storage:

*-storage
description: SATA controller
product: VT8251 AHCI/SATA 4-Port Controller
vendor: VIA Technologies, Inc.
physical id: f
bus info: pci@0000:00:0f.0
logical name: scsi0
version: 00
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: storage pm msi ahci_1.0 bus_master cap_list emulated
configuration: driver=ahci latency=32 module=ahci
*-ide
description: IDE interface
product: VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE
vendor: VIA Technologies, Inc.
physical id: f.1
bus info: pci@0000:00:0f.1
version: 07
width: 32 bits
clock: 33MHz
capabilities: ide pm bus_master cap_list
configuration: driver=VIA_IDE latency=32 module=via82cxxx

Based on other problems in the forums, I've tried the following:

There are settings in the BIOS for the SATA controller - I can set it to AHCI, RAID or IDE. Behavior is unchanged regardless of which setting I choose.

I have tried the kernel parameter "all_generic_ide", but the behavior is the same with that as well. (I've tried various combinations of BIOS settings with this parameter, to no avail.)

The 7.10 kernel (2.6.22-15-generic) still works, fortunately, so my PC isn't a boat anchor, but I would really like to complete the upgrade and get everything working on 8.04. Any suggestions on how to solve?

thanks in advance!

[balcis]

Got the same problem with ASUS A8V-MX and the via vt8251 chipset. Help please!

[balcis]

up!! still the same problem, 8.04 and also pardus couldn't detecet my sata drives as 80gb seagate and 750gb WD7500aaks. none of them and so i can not install it? any solution, any recommendation?

here's some of my installation screenshots while ubuntu is trying to detect mydrives, it says like "failed to recvoer some devices, reyrying in 5 seconds":

http://img179.imageshack.us/my.php?image=shot0347.png
http://img365.imageshack.us/my.php?image=shot0351.png
http://img365.imageshack.us/my.php?image=shot0354.png

[caljohnsmith]

How about when you boot your Live CD, press "F6" at the first main menu for extra boot options, and then add:

pci=nomsi
To the end of the boot line. Then continue with "try Ubuntu without making changes", and check if Ubuntu can see your SATA HDD. If not, how about going into your BIOS and enable "AHCI" for your SATA drive if possible, or if you don't have that option, try "RAID" if you have that. Then try booting the Live CD again with the "pci=nomsi" parameter again. If that still doesn't work, let me know which HDD-related BIOS options you have, such as "auto-detect", LBA, CHS, RAID, AHCI/HCI/EHCI vs. IDE, IDE-emulation, legacy IDE, native IDE, ACPI, DMA, etc. We can work from there if you want.

[dips0502]

pci=nomsi should most defintely work. I have the same ASUS A8V-MX and the via vt8251 chipset..I was suggested the same and it did recognize my Sata Drives...

[balcis]

How about when you boot your Live CD, press "F6" at the first main menu for extra boot options, and then add:

pci=nomsi
To the end of the boot line. Then continue with "try Ubuntu without making changes", and check if Ubuntu can see your SATA HDD. If not, how about going into your BIOS and enable "AHCI" for your SATA drive if possible, or if you don't have that option, try "RAID" if you have that. Then try booting the Live CD again with the "pci=nomsi" parameter again. If that still doesn't work, let me know which HDD-related BIOS options you have, such as "auto-detect", LBA, CHS, RAID, AHCI/HCI/EHCI vs. IDE, IDE-emulation, legacy IDE, native IDE, ACPI, DMA, etc. We can work from there if you want.

with "sata" mode, pci=nomsi worked! i was waiting so long, thank you very much! but so what's the problem, why normal setting didn't work?

[caljohnsmith]

with "sata" mode, pci=nomsi worked! i was waiting so long, thank you very much! but so what's the problem, why normal setting didn't work?
Glad to hear that worked OK; I'm not sure why you have to disable MSI (Message Signaled Interrupts) in order for the SATA drive to be recognized in Linux, I just know that it works for most people. Cheers and good luck with your installation. :)

[sanemanmad]

Hello All,

Hopefully someone offer some tips/guidance on this little dilemma I am facing. I have two new HDD that I need to install. 1 WD 500GB, 1SG 320GB - Both SATA, Currently I have two IDE drives 1 Toshiba 20GB and 1 NonBrand DVD-ROM (Ubuntu identifies them as /dev/sda and /dev/scd), What I would like to acomplish is to add these new drives (Be it LVM or mounting in fstab, I dont care at this point) and still be able to boot normally (ie. 20GB drive contains OS).

Each time I boot into BIOS the mobo sees the drives, but I cannot get any installer to pick them up. (I did boot Gparted and Format these drives ext3, so I know they have valid partitions) If I disable the SATA controller in BIOS it doesnt see the drives, If I disable PATA controller, I cannot boot onto CD for install or into a drive (ie 20GB has OS installed already).

Other options, With the MOBO set to use SATA in AHCI mode (and the 20GB drive disconnected) I tried (F6) at boot and options acpi=off, noacpi, no1acpi, also even tried sata_mv in /etc/modprobe.d/options, or adding pci=nomsi at boot. So far nothing bot errors, Either exceptions:Emask tons of numbers, then installer cannot find any drives, or even once my cd-rom? :) .

Same results when following same methods above with MOBO using SATA controller in SATA mode. :( . I can't wait until it all does work though :) So far I have invested lots of hours attempting to add these drives.

At one point I will tell me (installer) cannot find any drives and prompts me to choose a (list) driver. IDK what to choose and the few I did try don't seem to be correct.


Specs:
HDD1:
HDD2:
MOBO:

Let me know if the output of any log(s) are needed to assist.



If anybody runs into the initramfs: ash term, simply type exit (maybe like 5 times) and it will resume boot.

update, I downloaded the 8.10 64 and 7.10 64 bit alternate server cd's and burned them to iso, using normal methods.

My BIOS is set to boot SATA into AHCI mode and I added pci=nomsi to the end of the boot and VOILA! I was looking at a partioner that had all my drives and I was thrilled. Right now I am verifying my backups and will be doing a fresh install of 8.10 64bit server if all goes as planned.


------UPDATE------

It works!

[Trismegister]

Just in case this is useful to anyone on a later Ubuntu with GRUB2.

I am running Ubuntu 10.4 Lynx.
So to add the pci=nomsi kernel parameter ( which saved my sanity ... thanks! to the above posts) you need to edit the /etc/default/grub file and add the kernel parameter to the line:
GRUB_CMDLINE_LINUX_DEFAULT="quiet splash" line, then run:
sudo update-grub