opensuse 11.4 AHCI trouble

English Install/Boot/Login
#1

Hello,
After some time, I decided to change the HDD connection from IDE hard to AHCI via BIOS. So I re-installed linux and windows from scratch.
Firstly I install windows. Everything went fine up there, windose worked out of the box. Then I installed linux. The installation had no problem, getting into KDE I could even see the disks and access em. But once I reboot the BIOS can not read discs which means that I can not go into any OS. I cleared CMOS and returned the original IDE settings and then I was able to peel off the BIOS screen and load the grub. I do not want to go back to IDE, the difference in speed is noticeable especially in games.
The solutions that I think is to put a liveCD and re-install grub. Will it help?
May I perform a kernel update? and if so how because I can not get in linux? I do not know what kernel openSUSE wears, the truth is that it’s relatively old DVD …
I saw in the same forum that I may have conflict between windows and linux AHCI controller (or something) is that true?

Thanks a lot! :smiley:

#2

There can be issues. Though I never have them in Linux.Are you able to set:bios settings:IDE as CompatibleSATA as AHCI ?Are you using SATA HD’s?

#3

I have 2 SATA HD’s one with Sata 1.5 Gb/s and one with 3GB/s if I understand correctly.
My mobo is Asus P5K deluxe and it has the following options for hd drives.
Disabled/Compatible/Enhanced IDE, AHCI, RAID. Until recently i was using Enhanced IDE with no problems.

#4

Would it be possible for you to install and test Linux in AHCI mode with only one HDD?

#5

is the 1.5 or 3 gig drive the boot?

#6

I think the OP was talking about the speed, not the size of the HDDs.

#7

On 2012-02-17 20:26, DhmhsL wrote:
> But
> once I reboot the BIOS can not read discs which means that I can not go
> into any OS. I cleared CMOS and returned the original IDE settings and
> then I was able to peel off the BIOS screen and load the grub. I do not
> want to go back to IDE, the difference in speed is noticeable especially
> in games.
> The solutions that I think is to put a liveCD and re-install grub. Will
> it help?

If you say the bios can not read disks, then I don’t think reinstalling
grub will help

–
Cheers / Saludos,

Carlos E. R.
(from 11.4 x86_64 “Celadon” at Telcontar)

#8

You mean re-install linux or just unplug windows hd and see if it boots?
Well i did the latter but it didn’t changed anything :S. I would like to avoid re-install linux all along. I think 2 installations within a day is enough :stuck_out_tongue:
@gogalthorp
I was talking about transfer speeds nevertheless the 3gig/s drive is the boot

#9

Unplugging a HDD after Grub is installed doesn’t help. When you install openSUSE, it scans the HDDs and writes the file /boot/grub/device.map before installing Grub. This file tells Grub which HDD is the first BIOS device (hd0) and which one is the second (hd1). The HDD to boot is then written in the bootloader, meaning if the order changes, it won’t find the disk. It also make a huge difference if you install Grub in MBR (not openSUSE’s default) in term of finding the second stage of Grub. In MBR, Grub is able to read the filesystem (through stage 1.5), while in a VBR, it can only rely on blocklists, the offset of the stage2 on the disk. Since the disk geometry is handled differently in IDE and AHCI mode, this can not work when you switch from IDE to AHCI or vice versa. This might sound a little bit complicated but anyway, the easy test is to install Linux on a single HDD connected to the frist SATA port and being the only HDD, and install Grub in MBR. This is what I would do if I had to answer the question: Does this mainboard have issue with Linux in AHCI mode?

  • AHCI is normally not an issue under Linux. On the contrary, in several cases, you have to use AHCI, as booting in IDE mode doesn’t even work (anymore). You’ll find posts in the forum, where switching from IDE to AHCI solved boot problems.

  • If is a BIOS issue, updating the BIOS is more likely to help than trying another Linux kernel.

#10

You can try to replace the SATA cable too (!)

#11

Well,
If i switch to IDE mode both windows and linux work fine.
In AHCI if I unplug the linux drive, I can boot to windose ( linux drive is the boot ) but with linux drive on, bios try to detect ahci drives with no success
I don’t know if that helps but in ahci mode with linux drive unplug i tried also an ubuntu 9.04 liveCd i had and it booted as it supposed to be.
Sorry if i write useless info but i have never see such a confusing error

#12

Nothing happened :mad:
I will bother with it tomorrow. I’m :yawn: right now :slight_smile:

Thank you everyone for your help!

#13

To help you:
this is the findgrub results:


Find Grub Version 3.6.2 - Written for openSUSE Forums

 - reading MBR on disk /dev/sda                       ...
 - reading bootsector  /dev/sda1   *  (LINUX)         ... --> Legacy GRUB  found in /dev/sda1   => sda1   0x83 (openSUSE)
 - reading bootsector  /dev/sda2      (LINUX)         ...
 - reading bootsector  /dev/sda3      (LINUX)         ...
 - reading bootsector  /dev/sda4      (Extended)      ...
 - reading bootsector  /dev/sda5      (LINUX)         ...
 - skipping partition  /dev/sda6      (swap)         
 - searching partition /dev/sda7      (NTFS)          ...

 - reading MBR on disk /dev/sdb                       ...
 - searching partition /dev/sdb1   *  (NTFS)          ... --> Windows7/Vista Loader found in /dev/sdb1

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
You can add the following entry to /boot/grub/menu.lst :

###Don't change this comment - YaST2 identifier: Original name: WindowsBootLoader###
title Windows on /dev/sdb1
    rootnoverify (hd1,0)
    map (hd1) (hd0)
    map (hd0) (hd1)
    chainloader +1
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 - searching partition /dev/sdb2      (NTFS)          ...

*note I have add a windows entry from yast and I don't have a prob

and this is fdisk -l results


Disk /dev/sda: 250.1 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders, total 488397168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x49568221

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *        2048     1060863      529408   83  Linux
/dev/sda2       327163725   488392064    80614170   83  Linux
/dev/sda3         1060864    69224447    34081792   83  Linux
/dev/sda4        69224448   327161855   128968704    f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5        69226496   218097663    74435584   83  Linux
/dev/sda6       218099712   222291967     2096128   82  Linux swap / Solaris
/dev/sda7       222294016   327161855    52433920    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

Partition table entries are not in disk order

WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on '/dev/sdb'! The util fdisk doesn't support GPT. Use GNU Parted.


Disk /dev/sdb: 74.4 GB, 74355769344 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 9039 cylinders, total 145226112 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x0f8004b0

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sdb1   *        2048      206847      102400    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT
/dev/sdb2          206848   145223679    72508416    7  HPFS/NTFS/exFAT

Furthermore, motherboard provides the jmicron361 driver or something for raid connection etc. idk if that helps just mentioning.

#14

I think there is a little bit more than IDE/AHCI issues here. (?)

#15

Maybe, i dunno what this is tbh… :rolleyes: I am curious thought, I though that this is because that drive was partitioned by windows

and since /dev/sdb is the windows hd and is not involved in boot, I supposed that this is not the problem. :S

#16

Now i saw your post tryagain, i think grub is not installed in MBR. Before installing linux I changed hard disk priority in bios ( I put the linux/grub drive first ) so maybe this has to do with anything?

#17

I did a quick search and I found that this is the new partition tables schema. And also that Grub1 fails to read it at most time. Especially if you have too many partitions. But grub2 can read the fs successfully. So if I install grub2 will i have some good news ?

#18

I don’t understand your fdisk output, and I wish somebody could explain it. To me, either sdb doesn’t have a GPT and in this case it should not issue this warning, or it has a GPT and in this case it shouldn’t look like this. A GPT would have either a protective MBR or a hybrid MBR, an that’s all fdisk (which doesn’t support GPT) would be able to display.

A protective MBR looks like this:

# /sbin/fdisk -l

WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on '/dev/sda'! The util fdisk doesn't support GPT. Use GNU Parted.


Disk /dev/sda: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
256 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14536 cylinders, total 234441648 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x9080940a

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1               1  4294967295  2147483647+  ee  GPT

A hybrid MBR looks like this:

# fdisk -l

WARNING: GPT (GUID Partition Table) detected on '/dev/sda'! The util fdisk doesn't support GPT. Use GNU Parted.


Disk /dev/sda: 250.1 GB, 250059350016 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 30401 cylinders, total 488397168 sectors
Units = sectors of 1 * 512 = 512 bytes
Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes
Disk identifier: 0x00002652

   Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1               1      409639      204819+  ee  GPT
/dev/sda2          409640   352469031   176029696   af  HFS / HFS+
/dev/sda3   *   352731176   488134983    67701904   83  Linux

In both cases, you see a partition with ID “ee”. This is not the first time I see Windows HDDs which claim to use GPT but look like MBR partitioned.

#19

I’d start with lilo (should be an install option) and then if you want move to Grub2. But niether LILO or Grub2 are supported by Yast thus kernel upgrade are going to be a problem and you must know how to fix by hand. If I were you I’d put the Grub on the other disk and have a small 100-500 med boot partition there, the rest should work on the GPT partitioned drive. Or simply wipe the GPT partitioning and use the old style partition scheme on this problem drive.

Let use know if you need help when you dicide on which way you want to do it.

#20

If you changed hard disk priority in BIOS before installing, it’s OK. But if you changed it back after installing, it is NOT. In fact, you should never play with hard disks order nor with AHCI/Legacy IDE settings in BIOS once the differents OSes are installed. If you switch HDDs order, Grub won’t find the right disk anymore, and if you switch SATA mode, the geometry will be handled differently and Grub won’t find the offset of its stage2 anymore. If it’s installed in MBR, it might still work or not.