# ASRock 939DUAL-SATA2

## hooflungpoo

Hello,

I am switching from mandriva to a new distro and gentoo is that distro. I will be rolling it on 3 boxes: an asus based nforce2 mobo with a 2800+ barton, SiS 755 based ASROCK K8S8X mobo with an Athlon 64 3000+ ( original 2.0ghz model ) and a ASROCK 939DUAL-SATA2 w. X2 3800+ and 2gig DDR.

My questions revolved around this 939DUAL board. I have an eVGA 6800 AGP8x card that will be my primary card for quite some time. I will only play a few games through cedega 4.4 but the rest is development and applications. The 939DUAL has a PCI-E 16x graphics slot that at some point ( a year from now maybe ) will be populated when I push down the 6800 into my barton box ( the other AMD64 is a mythtv box with an HDTV Volari V8 video card ). Does anyone forsee a problem from changing from an AGP8X to a PCI-E card when they are on the same mobo? Both are native speed interfaces. I believe the ULI M1695 Northbridge takes care of the PCI-E while the M1567 takes care of the AGP8X. 

Furtheremore, does anyone know if the PCI-E based JMB360 SATA II from Jmicron will be supported? 

Another thought, does anyone know the implications for going from the socket 939 onBoard to the m2 daughter card will do to gentoo?

info about the 939DUAL can be found here

----------

## sspurrier

hoo,

   You wont have too much of an issue as long as you have support for the board....which is the bigger issue.  I just got my 939 Dual and so far im not having a whole lot of luck having either the x86 universal or amd64 universal install discs recoginizing the network card on the box.  Im thinking of throwing another nic in just to get it going but with this board being only 16 days old as of now I think there are going to be some headaches encoutnered..as this is the first board to use this chipset from ULi.  Im currently running a XFX 6600 GT in mine and its running under windows but no gentoo goodness yet.  ...If anyone has any sucess with this board please speak up as I want to ditch windows ASAP.

----------

## timmyjoe2

 *sspurrier wrote:*   

> hoo,
> 
>    You wont have too much of an issue as long as you have support for the board....which is the bigger issue.  I just got my 939 Dual and so far im not having a whole lot of luck having either the x86 universal or amd64 universal install discs recoginizing the network card on the box.  Im thinking of throwing another nic in just to get it going but with this board being only 16 days old as of now I think there are going to be some headaches encoutnered..as this is the first board to use this chipset from ULi.  Im currently running a XFX 6600 GT in mine and its running under windows but no gentoo goodness yet.  ...If anyone has any sucess with this board please speak up as I want to ditch windows ASAP.

 

The NIC is unsupported in the kernel at this time. Uli has posted drivers for the kernel on their web site.  check out :

ftp://www.uli.com.tw/driver/Linux_K2.6.x_Integrated132.zip

It is dated Aug 30, 2005.  It has the drivers for SATA Raid, HD Audio and the NIC.

----------

## timmyjoe2

I have found that the vanilla sources for the kernel version 2.6.14-rc1 has all of the latest Uli drivers.  I am in the process of testing them on my system.

Cheers

Tim

----------

## 118947

finally people who also use asrock mobos!   :Very Happy: 

I have an asrock939a8x-m and the same problem regarding the onboard network card.

Everything else works fine though, except maybe the onboard sata controller.

It works, but (under ubuntu) I got very low transfer-rates, dispite having dma enabled on the sata disk.

The same happened under windows, until I installed Ulis drivers, so I guess that the uli-satacontroller support under linux is not quite right yet.

I haven't been able to test the disks under gentoo yet, as I am unable to mount them (or any other device...)

See: https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-p-2736884.html?sid=3230fcec0805b789509070a763ef4509#2736884

 *Quote:*   

> I have found that the vanilla sources for the kernel version 2.6.14-rc1 has all of the latest Uli drivers. I am in the process of testing them on my system. 

 

Thank god (or the devs) for that. I currently can only access the internet using a pci-netcard, which is annoying, because it blocks a pci slot that I need otherwise.

I'll give that a try as soon as I've figured out how to change my root password as it was changed during upgrade and I haven't got sudo installed   :Sad: 

See: https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-p-2738538.html?sid=8d6b2545375534de605e52d1a2fbff9d#2738538

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## sspurrier

Tim thanks alot for the info, I wasted the last week tinkering with a PCIX GIGe card that seems to work but has wierd issues with the switch im using at home.  Ill try the 2.6.14 kernel and see if i can get the onboard working.  Anyone out there got their hands on the Beta Bios thats floating around?  I'm running 1.20 now and its a MASSIVE improvement over the 1.1 that the baord shipped with and i was wondering if the beta was worth chasing down.

----------

## TommyDrum

I've got the Asrock 939dual mobo, bought about a week ago. The "tulip" module, needed for using ethernet, doesn't work out-of-the-box, you have to patch the kernel, if earlier than 2.6.14-rcx. Here are the two patches needed:

http://www.kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/people/akpm/patches/2.6/2.6.13-rc2/2.6.13-rc2-mm2/broken-out/tulip-fixes-for-uli5261.patch

Seems like in 2.6.14 the module has been extracted from the "tulip" one, and now is standalone (uli526x I think)

As for the JMB360 SATAII, it is not supported at this time, as explicitly said on the kernel mailing list:

http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=linux-ide&m=112466031601779&w=2

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## luthree

I'm thinking about getting this board. How's sound support? There seem to be special drivers in the driver package. Do I have to compile a 64bit copy of the NIC module and copy it over on a floppy to the install environment? Or is there another way? This will be my first AMD64, so I'm really interested.

----------

## TommyDrum

Sound support is in the alsa package or the kernel, as module intel8x0. If you use external ALSA, then add this to your /etc/make.conf:

```
ALSA_CARDS="intel8x0"
```

...and emerge alsa-driver.

Works fine, although output is kind of noisy (as expexted from an onboard card, even disabling hlt in boot-up). Could be my setup though, so any of you with similar experience please post. Haven't tried some serious audio recording yet.

In regards of the ethernet module, I did the install through an older gentoo installed on my other hard disk, following guidelines in

http://www.gentoo.org/doc/en/altinstall.xml#doc_chap6

and patching kernel accordingly before make menuconfig. Should work fine, afterwards the module to be modprobed is tulip. If you use a 2.6.14-rcx then the module is called uli-something (can't recall, sorry, but anyway it is the only ULI under tulip drivers). Both can be found under Device Drivers --> Network device support --> Ethernet (10 or 100Mbit) -->  Tulip family network device support. The tulip module is  under "DECchip Tulip (dc2114x) PCI support ", while the ULI (2.6.14-rcx and up) module is the only one you will find under the tulip category.

Hope this helps!

 :Smile: 

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## luthree

Perfect... I am practically certain this is the board I'm going to get. I shouldn't have any problems with a 3500+ Venice, right? Just looking at the CPU compatibility with the Bios revisions. I want to be sure. 

Needless to say, I'm getting a new more powerful PSU: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=N82E16817709003

But, I really am thrilled to be getting this AMD, as it will replace the board that my power supply very very slowly burnt up.  :Rolling Eyes:  Stupid machine. I'll be kissing goodbye to my Prescott, the worlds worst core. Ever. So, no regrets.

Thanks for all of your help.

EDIT: Ahhh... http://www.asrock.com/support/CPU_Support/show.asp?Model=939Dual-SATA2 Friend Rev. E aka 'Venice' is supported...

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## zendmaster

I just installed this motherboard.  I got the NIC working using the ULI kernel patch from their website.  However I don't have DMA support.  When I run: 

hdparm -d1 /dev/hdb

I get:

/dev/hdb:

 setting using_dma to 1 (on)

 HDIO_SET_DMA failed: Operation not permitted

 using_dma    =  0 (off)

My Kernel settings for ATA are as follows:

 <*> ATA/ATAPI/MFM/RLL support                                                                                 │ │

  │ │                                   <*>   Enhanced IDE/MFM/RLL disk/cdrom/tape/floppy support                                                     │ │

  │ │                                   ---     Please see Documentation/ide.txt for help/info on IDE drives                                          │ │

  │ │                                   [ ]     Support for SATA (deprecated; conflicts with libata SATA driver)                                      │ │

  │ │                                   [ ]     Use old disk-only driver on primary interface                                                         │ │

  │ │                                   <*>     Include IDE/ATA-2 DISK support                                                                        │ │

  │ │                                   [*]     Use multi-mode by default                                                                             │ │

  │ │                                   <*>     Include IDE/ATAPI CDROM support                                                                       │ │

  │ │                                   < >     Include IDE/ATAPI TAPE support (EXPERIMENTAL)                                                         │ │

  │ │                                   <*>     Include IDE/ATAPI FLOPPY support                                                                      │ │

  │ │                                   <*>     SCSI emulation support                                                                                │ │

  │ │                                   [ ]     IDE Taskfile Access                                                                                   │ │

  │ │                                   ---     IDE chipset support/bugfixes                                                                          │ │

  │ │                                   <*>     generic/default IDE chipset support                                                                   │ │

  │ │                                   [*]     CMD640 chipset bugfix/support                                                                         │ │

  │ │                                   [ ]       CMD640 enhanced support                                                                             │ │

  │ │                                   [*]     PNP EIDE support                                                                                      │ │

  │ │                                   [*]     PCI IDE chipset support                                                                               │ │

  │ │                                   [ ]       Sharing PCI IDE interrupts support                                                                  │ │

  │ │                                   [ ]       Boot off-board chipsets first support                                                               │ │

  │ │                                   <*>       Generic PCI IDE Chipset Support                                                                     │ │

  │ │                                   < >       OPTi 82C621 chipset enhanced support (EXPERIMENTAL)                                                 │ │

  │ │                                   <*>       RZ1000 chipset bugfix/support                                                                       │ │

  │ │                                   [*]       Generic PCI bus-master DMA support                                                                  │ │

  │ │                                   [ ]         Force enable legacy 2.0.X HOSTS to use DMA                                                        │ │

  │ │                                   [*]         Use PCI DMA by default when available                                                             │ │

  │ │                                   [ ]           Enable DMA only for disks                                                                       │ │

  │ │                                   < >         AEC62XX chipset support                                                                           │ │

  │ │                                   < >         ALI M15x3 chipset support                                                                         │ │

  │ │                                   < >         AMD and nVidia IDE support                                                                        │ │

  │ │                                   < >         ATI IXP chipset IDE support                                                                       │ │

  │ │                                   < >         CMD64{3|6|8|9} chipset support                                                                    │ │

  │ │                                   < >         Compaq Triflex IDE support                                                                        │ │

  │ │                                   < >         CY82C693 chipset support                                                                          │ │

  │ │                                   < >         Cyrix CS5510/20 MediaGX chipset support (VERY EXPERIMENTAL)                                       │ │

  │ │                                   < >         Cyrix/National Semiconductor CS5530 MediaGX chipset support                                       │ │

  │ │                                   < >         HPT34X chipset support                                                                            │ │

  │ │                                   < >         HPT36X/37X chipset support                                                                        │ │

  │ │                                   < >         National SCx200 chipset support                                                                   │ │

  │ │                                   <*>         Intel PIIXn chipsets support                                                                      │ │

  │ │                                   < >         IT821X IDE support                                                                                │ │

  │ │                                   < >         NS87415 chipset support                                                                           │ │

  │ │                                   < >         PROMISE PDC202{46|62|65|67} support                                                               │ │

  │ │                                   < >         PROMISE PDC202{68|69|70|71|75|76|77} support                                                      │ │

  │ │                                   < >         ServerWorks OSB4/CSB5/CSB6 chipsets support                                                       │ │

  │ │                                   < >         Silicon Image chipset support                                                                     │ │

  │ │                                   < >         SiS5513 chipset support                

                                           < >         SLC90E66 chipset support                                                                          │ │

  │ │                                   < >         Tekram TRM290 chipset support                                                                     │ │

  │ │                                   < >         VIA82CXXX chipset support                                                                         │ │

  │ │                                   [ ]     IGNORE word93 Validation BITS

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## zendmaster

Ooops. guess I should read more.  It's supposed to be the ALI15x3.  Just trying it out.

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## zendmaster

Yeah adding the chipset support for IDE worked.  Now my load times aren't nearly as long.  Lan works well.  I am very pleased with this board and my AMD64 3700+.

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## luthree

Haha. I was wondering about DMA. Thanks. I can't wait for my parts to arrive, it should be soon.

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## Isaiah

Fired up the "Dual" last nite (no OS yet) - can hardly wait to start building with the X2 - W :Twisted Evil:  :Twisted Evil: F!!!

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## CdWhistler

I just got this board a couple of days ago due to the fact it had linux drivers.  I can't get the network driver to work properly. It is compiled and setup right. It gets loaded but it dosen't detect that a cable is plugged in. If I do a 'ifconfig eth0 down' then do 'ifconfig eth0 up' and setup my default route manually it works fine. It works fine in windows xp.

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## luthree

 *CdWhistler wrote:*   

> I just got this board a couple of days ago due to the fact it had linux drivers.  I can't get the network driver to work properly. It is compiled and setup right. It gets loaded but it dosen't detect that a cable is plugged in. If I do a 'ifconfig eth0 down' then do 'ifconfig eth0 up' and setup my default route manually it works fine. It works fine in windows xp.

 

Are you using the drivers from ULi or kernel 2.6.14?

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## CdWhistler

The kernel has no drivers for this chipset. Atleast not in 2.6.13-gentoo-r5.  They are the 132 drivers from www.uli.com.tw site.  I have tried it as a module and compiling it in.  Both act the same way.

eth0 comes up properly but it is not really "up". Gnome network monitor shows it as disconnected. But if you do a 'ifconfig eth0 down' the 'ifconfig eth0 up' it comes up.

Interesting note is that if I do a 'ifconfig -s eth0' right after gentoo brings the interface up it shows 

```
Iface   MTU Met    RX-OK RX-ERR RX-DRP RX-OVR    TX-OK TX-ERR TX-DRP TX-OVR Flg

eth0       1500   0 0      0      0      0  0      0      0      0 BMU

```

After I bring the interface down and up again it shows

```
Iface   MTU Met    RX-OK RX-ERR RX-DRP RX-OVR    TX-OK TX-ERR TX-DRP TX-OVR Flg

eth0       1500   0 0      0      0      0  0      0      0      0 BMRU
```

Notice the BMRU. The R stands for Ready. Found that in this doc: http://www.csl.mtu.edu/cs4451/www/notes/ch6_Configuring_interfaces.PDF

lspci lists this chipset as 

```
0000:00:11.0 Ethernet controller: ALi Corporation M5263 Ethernet Controller (rev 40)
```

For anyone that has this working normally is your chipset the same?

----------

## luthree

 *TommyDrum wrote:*   

> 
> 
> and patching kernel accordingly before make menuconfig. Should work fine, afterwards the module to be modprobed is tulip. If you use a 2.6.14-rcx then the module is called uli-something (can't recall, sorry, but anyway it is the only ULI under tulip drivers). Both can be found under Device Drivers --> Network device support --> Ethernet (10 or 100Mbit) -->  Tulip family network device support. The tulip module is  under "DECchip Tulip (dc2114x) PCI support ", while the ULI (2.6.14-rcx and up) module is the only one you will find under the tulip category.
> 
> Hope this helps!
> ...

 

2.6.14 contains alternate drivers. At least I think the drivers are different. I think that 2.6.14 is in portage, but I can't check until I can get my computer together.  :Crying or Very sad: 

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## PrakashP

I am using the inkernel network driver and it works fine beside follwoing: loink detection doesn't work. If cabel is unplugged, kernel loaded, cable plugged in, there is no way for me to get it going. Maybe removing module and reloadign would work - I have not tried as I compiled it into the kernel. But if everything is inside, it works great. I even get fastest ever measured link speeds between the uli and nforce2 nic: 11-12MB/sec which is at the limit of 100Mbit!

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## SaTaN0rX

i own the board, and i need to say a few things:

a) i compiled a kernel module for one of the 64bit installation disks. search bugzilla for it if you need it. this was a real pain in the ass.

b) the kernel driver thats in 2.6.14 and up is the same as the driver that can be downloaded from uli

c) i personally use udhcpc. this one runs a script for all kinds of actions, like bringing the interface up, etc.

   This script is called even before the dhcp messages are sent, so you can add there a "ifconfig eth0 0.0.0.0 up",

   and this will do the trick. but you _need_ to do this with udhcpc even if you are using an normal (not buggy) network driver ...

   so the scripts provided with the default install should suffice. but, RTFM... it's a couple of days ago since i did the setup, so i don't remeber...

anyway, i got a lot of problems with dhclient, so i dumped it. now that i read this, i doubt it was caused by the driver bug...

not networking related:

d) i didn't test onboard sound

e) uli sata works.

f) sata raid is only supported by a proprietary driver precmpliled for a few distro kernels => so mostly unsupported

g) JMB360 sata  II does _not_ work. jmicron claims it is ahci compilant, so i added it's pci ids to the ahci driver, but this doesn't work either.

    my kernel will find the device, but i can't access the harddisk.

h) AGP works like a charm. (as opposed to most other PCIe / AGP solutions)

just my  0.05.

----------

## rentonj7

Sorry if I'm being a little dense here, but I'm not really sure how to compile a kernel module into an install disk.  I searched the forums a little, but I wasn't able to find anything that seemed quite right to me.  Could you explain what you did to create a working install disk for this MB Satonorx?  TIA

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## PrakashP

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> anyway, i got a lot of problems with dhclient, so i dumped it. now that i read this, i doubt it was caused by the driver bug...
> 
> 

 

Works for me though quite slow. dhcpcd won't work.

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> d) i didn't test onboard sound
> 
> 

 

works

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> f) sata raid is only supported by a proprietary driver precmpliled for a few distro kernels => so mostly unsupported
> 
> 

 

You should use sw raid anyway.

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> g) JMB360 sata  II does _not_ work. jmicron claims it is ahci compilant, so i added it's pci ids to the ahci driver, but this doesn't work either.
> 
>     my kernel will find the device, but i can't access the harddisk.
> ...

 

Not true anymore. I bugged Jeff GArzik a bit after a JMicron employee told me what Asrock did wrong and now there is a patch which applies a quirk and everything works here.

----------

## zaphyr

I just bought one of these mobo's, it should arrive in a few days.

Then I will do a fresh 64bit install, and I'll post the results here.

----------

## zaphyr

ok, first problem: I do not get an IP from my router.

eth0 is detected though, and the tulip module is loaded according to lsmod. It even got the correct nameserver in resolv.conf. Where did that come from??

so why does it not get the IP as well??

----------

## zaphyr

th problem was that the live cd was using kernel 2.6.12, and I need at least 2.6.14 for the tulip drivers to work.

I am now using a PCI nw card, until I get the system up and running with the correct kernel and drivers.

----------

## zaphyr

after installing gentoo and upgrading the kernel, I can now use the onboard nw card with the tulip driver.

this is the only problem I have had with this mobo so far  :Very Happy: 

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## Malakai

Even with the new install cd, I cannot get DHCP to work. If I stop then start eth1 (it assigns it to eth1 and gives loopback 0 for whatever reason) it just hangs at starting dhcpcd, then all the lights but the power light on the modem go off. If I control-C out of the startup script everything goes back to normal.

I've been waiting a long time to install gentoo on my updated a64 system, this board (though a great board) just never wants to work. /sob

edit: don't have a spare nic, there has to be a way to get network manually just to get into my own system, which will work fine with my own newest compiled kernel. Anyone have a way? Someone said something about 'manual routing' to get the net up, care to explain how?

----------

## zaphyr

which kernel does the new cd use?

----------

## Nos_

I have not been able to get onboard sound working on this motherboard with alsa by driver or compiled in kernel.  It has been the only sore part of having this motherboard.  The tulip driver does work with newer kernels.

----------

## zaphyr

I am using the kernel drivers, and it is working just fine.

I am using the ALi M5451 PCI Audio Controller built as a module

----------

## Nos_

I thought I was certain that it used the M5455 chipset which is covered by the intel8x0 driver.  I'll check that when I get home in about two hours.  By the way this is with gentoo-sources 2.6.16.

edit: Tried Ali M5451 - no go doesn't detect it at all intel8x0 does however

edit2: Still can not get audio working does anyone have it working on 2.6.16

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## rapsure

I have the ASRock 939Dual-SATA2 board. I have everything working, but I am curious if others are having really noisy sound from the onboard sound. It's really bad for me. In fact it is bad enough that everytime I scroll down a screen, or play a game, or anything that cause the video to change or the hard drive to be accessed causes noise on the sound card. Really noise, and I am wondering if anyone else is having extra noise on the sound card.  :Rolling Eyes: 

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## sky99

Hi, all!

I can't have my sata drive working...

What module should i load for that?

I'm on 2006.0 with 2.6.16-r7.

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## pbardet

Is it possible for someone with this board to post the result of lsmod ?

I'm trying to get my ATA HD to work with DMA, but it looks like I'm not using the right module for this (alim15x3)

Also, I wouldn't mind having the list of modules used for audio and any other special modules needed. I suppose that should be it.

Thanks in advance,

If I can save a little bit of time by not having to guess module names, that would be great, since I've been experienceing so many other problems with this new machine and it seems that since I switched to a manual install from the amd64 install CD, they're gone (knocking on wood)

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## zendmaster

All my lsmod gives is this:

Module                  Size  Used by

nvidia               4544980  12

amd64_agp              10372  1

hdparm gives:

 multcount    = 16 (on)

 IO_support   =  0 (default 16-bit)

 unmaskirq    =  0 (off)

 using_dma    =  1 (on)

 keepsettings =  0 (off)

 readonly     =  0 (off)

 readahead    = 256 (on)

 geometry     = 24321/255/63, sectors = 390721968, start = 0

So you can see my DMA is on.

from dmesg I get:

ALI15X3: IDE controller at PCI slot 0000:00:12.0

ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:12.0[A] -> GSI 19 (level, low) -> IRQ 20

ALI15X3: chipset revision 199

ALI15X3: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later

    ide0: BM-DMA at 0xff00-0xff07, BIOS settings: hda:DMA, hdb:DMA

    ide1: BM-DMA at 0xff08-0xff0f, BIOS settings: hdc:DMA, hdd:pio

The ali M15x3 is the right module.  Make sure that hdparm is turning dma in by default I'm guessing.

I just looked at /etc/conf.d/hdparm and it has the line:

pata_all_args="-d1"

And of course check to make sure hdparm is loading by default.  rc-update add hdparm default

As far as other modules go:

I don't use the onboard sound

The network module is under the tulip cards

----------

## pbardet

Thanks for the message,

From dmesg, I get:

```
ALI15X3: IDE controller at PCI slot 0000:00:12.0

GSI 23 sharing vector 0xE1 and IRQ 23

ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:12.0[A] -> GSI 19 (level, low) -> IRQ 23

ALI15X3: chipset revision 199

ALI15X3: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later

ALI15X3: port 0x01f0 already claimed by ide0

ALI15X3: port 0x0170 already claimed by ide1

ALI15X3: neither IDE port enabled (BIOS)
```

This ("already claimed") may explain why alim15x3 doesn't run.

In my hdparm, I don't have the pata_all_args line you have, but all_args="-d1" which should be OK. the pata/sata lines are introduced in newer versions and are supposed to only offer different configs between both standards.

Finally, my rc-update:

```
             hdparm |      default
```

From your lsmod, I suppose you compiled the module into your kernel.

Basically, except the dmesg thing, I don't see anything different from your setup. I'll have to take a look into this.

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## pbardet

Recompiling the kernel with the driver built-in did the trick.

When it's a module, the kernel uses the generic ide driver, and then, it's impossible to replace it by the module. But when it's built-in, the generic driver is not used and the right driver is used. I guess the install CD has everything compiled in but genkernel does not, even though it's supposed to mimic a LiveCD kernel. Taht will teach me once more to trust genkernel.

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## zendmaster

Yeah I should have mentioned that I had the module compiled in.  Glad to hear you got it solved.

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## gentoo_newguy

Has anyone got the sata working on these boards yet 

???

----------

