SATA DVD-ROM Might Not Be Detected With Linux* 5.1 When SATA Ports Configured

Documentation

Warranty & RMA

000007728

08/29/2017

Symptom(s):

With Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.1*, when SATA ports are configured as AHCI in BIOS, some untested SATA DVD-ROM might not be detected. The server can boot from installation DVD, but when selecting local CD-ROM as the installation method, the following error message displays:

No driver found
Unable to find any devices of the type needed for this installation type.
Would you like to manually select your driver or use a driver disk?

Installation can be done using other methods like USB DVD-ROM or network, but during OS boot, you can see error messages similar to this:

ata3.00: failed to set xfermode (err_mask=0x4)
ata3: COMRESET failed (errno=-16)

After OS boot, the SATA DVD-ROM cannot be detected.

Solution:

Use a DVD-ROM drive from the tested hardware list.

Or, you can try this workaround. These steps resolve the low hard drive performance issue when SATA is set to IDE mode.

Configure SATA mode as IDE in BIOS:

  1. Select Advanced > SATA Controller Configuration.
  2. Set Onboard SATA Controller as Enabled.
  3. Configure SATA as IDE.

If the operating system is already installed, then edit the /boot/grub/grub.conf file and add ide0=noprobe ide1=noprobe at the end of each line of kernel /vmlinuz-... definition.

If the OS is not installed, complete the following steps to install Red Hat Enterprise Linux 5.1:

  1. Boot from the installation DVD. Type linux ide0=noprobe ide1=noprobe as the boot option.
  2. Continue the installation, after files are copied and when it prompts for first reboot, press Ctrl+Alt+F2 to switch to text console.
  3. Type vi /mnt/sysimage/boot/grub/grub.conf.
  4. At end of each line of kernel /vmlinuz-...definition, type ide0=noprobe ide1=noprobe.
  5. Save grub.conf and press Ctrl+F6 to switch back to graphic screen.
  6. Reboot the system to complete the installation.