grub boot with sata_nv

[desau]

Hello all,

I just replaced my motherboard with an ASUS A8N-VM CSM, which uses the nvidia nforce 430 SATA chipset. I previously had FC4 installed on my SATA drive (dual booting with windows).

However, I cannot load into FC4 now .. when I select it from the GRUB menu, I get a kernel panic because it looks like it can't find the hard drive.

If I go into rescue mode, it tells me that it cannot find the hard drive and asks if I want to install additional drivers. When I select yes and scroll down to the bottom and select the nvidia sata_nv driver, it finds and mounts my FC4 partition no problem.

So .. my problem: How do I get grub (or is it initrd/kernel?) to use the sata_nv module to find my hard drive on normal boot?

Thanks,
-d

[SuperNu]

You are going to have to build a new initrd.img. When I moved my FC4 installation from a pata hard drive to a sata hard drive, I was getting errors booting into FC4 as well. You have to run [I]/sbin/mkinitrd --preload sata_sil --preload sata_nv --preload libata /boot/initrd.img <kernel module dir>[I] as root to build a new initrd.img. I have created a post here (http://forums.fedoraforum.org/forum/showthread.php?t=80680) outlining my struggles and solution. After you do this and install a new kernel, the new initrd.img file should include the proper sata kernel modules.

--SN

[desau]

groovy -- I figured it would be something like that. I suppose I'll have to do this every time I update my kernel, eh?

I hope this will get included by default in FC5.

I'll give it a try now -- thanks!
-d

[SuperNu]

You don't have to do this everytime you upgrade your kernel. Once you have the correct modules running, when you upgrade your kernel, mkinitrd will/should detect what modules you are running are necessary and place them in the initrd.img file. I only had to do this a few times for currently installed kernels. Once I upgraded, everything worked properly.

--SN

[desau]

Indeed -- you are correct. After I did this, then updated my kernel it still booted fine.

However, I'm having boatloads of other problems with this mobo (ASUS A8N-VM CSM) .. there's a pretty long thread over at the nvnews forum about this mobo working with Linux (or, more appropriately, not working).

My two remaining problems are that both sound and ethernet are very flaky -- they work sometimes but mostly don't.

I guess this is price you pay for bleeding edge.

Great mobo otherwise.. it's very fast in Windows.

Hopefully 2.6.16 will resolve some of these nforce 430 problems...

[steve941]

Have you tried the linux drivers on the CD? The motherboard CD should have linux drivers for the geforce and nforce.

[desau]

yep .. tried them .. they didn't help at all.

[eoan]

@desau - have you tried installing fc5 on your sata drive? I'm waiting for delivery of a gigabyte GA-K8N51PVMT-9 mobo which i believe has the same chipset as yours and I'd be greatful if you could give me any advice/ info on installing fc5 on a sata drive... Very new to linux, i'm afraid, so it'll have to be something of a dummies guide!

Thanks in advance...

[desau]

I am using FC5, which is better than FC4, although sound is still flaky -- only works out of the right channel.

Other than that, FC5 loads the sata_nv module by default, so I had no problem with booting.