I gave up on trying to get the integrated NIC working under linux. I slapped in an el-cheapo no-name PCI NIC with a Via-Rhine chip, and things went swimmingly.
I checked dell.com's support knowledgebase. Only the most recent kernels support SATA drives in IDE mode, and it looks like the Gentoo 2007.0-r1 kernel isn't recent enough. After screwing around a bit, I finally found a way to boot the install CD, after which I was able to do the install. ***WARNING*** You will *NOT* be able to boot Windows in the following setup (One... Two... Three... awwwwwwwwwwwwww) - reboot and go into BIOS setup ({F2} key) - go to "integrated peripherals" - change sata mode from IDE to RAID - save and reboot ({F10} key) - go into BIOS setup ({F2} key). Yes again. - comment; if you watch carefully during the boot, you may notice the "AHCI BIOS installed" message. - go into "boot device configuration". It will behave slightly differently thanks to "AHCI BIOS" being installed. - set boot device priority. Note; if you have more than 1 CD/DVD, you need to specify them separately, if you want to be able to boot off both of them. There are only 3 available slots, so I sacrificed the floppy. This left me with the 2 CD/DVD drives and the hard drive as the boot order - save and reboot ({F10} key) Now run the usual install, using the replacement NIC. One thing to note in kernel settings (I use "make menuconfig"). Device Drivers ---> < > ATA/ATAPI/MFM/RLL support ---> <*> Serial ATA (prod) and Parallel ATA (experimental) drivers ---> <*> AHCI SATA support The 3 items above 1) turn off ATA/ATAPI/MFM/RLL support, which is no longer needed 2) open up the ability to select SATA support 3) supports the AHCI BIOS that is installed in RAID mode I have a working system that boots. I'm now in the middle of copying over directories from my current machine, so the Dell 530 can become my "hot backup" machine. -- Walter Dnes <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> In linux /sbin/init is Job #1 Q. Mr. Ghandi, what do you think of Microsoft security? A. I think it would be a good idea. -- [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list