[NBLUG/talk] Installing an Ultra ATA/133 PCI card on Debian

Lincoln Peters sampln at sbcglobal.net
Sun Nov 30 19:44:01 PST 2003


Having done some more research using Google, I found mixed reports about
this ATA controller: some said that it worked, some said that it was a
"piece of crap".

This may be of interest to Linux users who are interested in CompUSA's
hard disk/ATA controller bundles, as they do not know if the controller
is compatible with Linux!  It did not work initially, but I tried
compiling a new kernel for myself: version 2.4.23 (the newest as of a
few days ago).  I kept all of the kernel options except those I know I
do not use (RAID, FireWire, etc.), and I compiled the following directly
into the kernel:

1. PROMISE PDC202{46|62|65|67} support (CONFIG_BLK_DEV_PDC202XX_OLD)
2. PROMISE PDC202{68|69|70|71|75|76|77} support (CONFIG_BLK_DEV_PDC202XX_NEW)
3. VIA82CXXX chipset support

The third option will probably be unnecessary for most users (it's the
chipset of my motherboard's onboard IDE controller).  I am not yet sure
which of the first two options was the necessary one for my new ATA
controller, although I will experiment with it further as soon as I have
time.

Of course, more work in the way of hdparm will be necessary to get
optimal performance out of this thing.

I plan to return to CompUSA and let them know that this works on Linux,
should any other Linux users approach them and ask if they work.  If
anyone here is interested in it, let me know and I'll continue to post
my findings!


Lincoln Peters
<sampln at sbcglobal.net>




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