it would be useful if you could send the output of lspci to me offline. there are many models of ich9. not all of them have the same properties.
i do have an ich9r controller: 0.31.2: 01.06.01 8086/2922 10 0:00001c51 16 1:00001c45 16 2:00001c49 16 3:00001c41 16 4:000018e1 32 5:d8d01000 2048 which works with some cavets. hot plugging does not work and if ports are skipped, drives after the skip are not accessable. > If I have AHCI mode enabled in BIOS: > - Booting the install CD only gets to: > PBS1...Bad format or I/O error don't know. pbs uses bios to do i/o. > - Booting using a floppy: > 9load seems to load fine, and it even detects the SATA controller > printing > sdiahci: drive 0 in state ready after 0 resets > (it does the same for drive 1, wich should be the DVD drive). that's normal. > But it only lists fd0 as valid boot source. i'd guess no suitable partition was found. > Following advice from people in #plan9 I disabled AHCI mode and went for > legacy mode: > - Install CD booted fine. I could even partition the hard disk. But it > can't copy files as it begins throwing lots of I/O errrors while copying > files. I tried with DMA enabled and disabled. it sounds like you have either a bad drive or a cable problem. i would replace the sata cable first. it is also possible that you are having a problem with power management. but i don't know how to tell if you're using the ide interface. > I switched back to AHCI mode and tried booting the floppy again. Now it > shows fd0 and sdE0!9fat as boot devices (9fat partiton is empty, so I > can't boot). It seems in AHCI mode it can access hard disk just fine, > but it can't access the DVD drive. > > Both hard disk and DVD drive are connected via SATA to the ICH9 controller. make sure they are connected to ports 0 and 1 of the controller. (either order.) - erik