SATA/IDE strangeness (ATI chip)

Hello!

On my MSI motherboard there are the following devices:

0000:00:11.0 IDE interface: ATI Technologies Inc: Unknown device 437a 0000:00:12.0 IDE interface: ATI Technologies Inc: Unknown device 4379 0000:00:14.1 IDE interface: ATI Technologies Inc: Unknown device 4376

These are listed in the PCI ID database (not committed yet):

4376 Standard Dual Channel PCI IDE Controller ATI
4379 ATI 4379 Serial ATA Controller
437a ATI 437A Serial ATA Controller

The 1st SATA controller seems to work with the SATA_SIL driver from vanilla 2.6.11 (and none sooner, I tried), and I'm using it that way now. Since the Debian Pure64 CD doesn't come with that, it doesn't find a HD when trying to install with the CD.

I have the following problems:
------------------------------
* Though the SATA is configured in IDE mode in BIOS it does not show up as IDE within Linux and this does not change when the ATIIXP driver is loaded - ide2 is not recognized as a bus with connected devices. My SATA HD is listed by the BIOS to be channel 2 master, while CD-ROM on the Dual ATA is listed on channel 0, channel 1 is unused, so shouldn't the SATA drive show up as /dev/hde or something???
* How can I tune the ATIIXP driver via parameters or source modification so it recognizes the SATA controllers as devices to configure???
* How can I force ANY IDE driver to recognize these SATA drives in IDE mode?

This is a mail regarding this topic I'm confused about. The author seems to think, ATIIXP can do the 4379 as well:

http://www.ussg.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0412.1/1460.html

Please let me know if I can provide you with any additional data.

Thanks and with kind regards,
Oliver Korpilla

Hi,

Linux no longer use legacy/obsolete BIOS ordering/naming. You can name /dev nodes however you want using udev.

What for?

It can't (reliably).