distro with SATA support? and some more questions.

[transke]

hi

which distros have support for SATA and which don't?

which distro has the most manual configuration of hardware? with manual I mean without GUI's or OK buttons. I do not like GUI anymore because of bad experience with them and I like the idea of a computer controlled from a from a command line...

which distros have the best support newbies? and which offer the most control? I for example I get a feeling that I get much more than I need and want at the expense of what I really need and want, like simplicity and more efficency. I think that Windows only wants to make people like me think computers are difficult and linux is even more difficult, but I found out that there is really more logic in linux. For example you do not have to press "start" to stop.

Seems to me like mandrake and fedora are moving to the last category. Or am I wrong?

T.S.

[XiaoKJ]

support for SATA is built into the kernel or at least as a module. All major distros will have them installed, or you may want to compile your own drivers for them. a best bet is to get one with 2.6.x kernel.

All linux distros allow you to change settings from the command line. there is no need to rely on GUI editors at all.

Finally, MEPIS is evidently the best distro for newbies ever -- its a ive cd so there is no need to install. I will say that FC and MDK lose to MEPIS or any Livecd desktop solution because of automatic hardware recognition and no need to install.

Please search next time -- all these answers are dotted all over the net and this forum

[saikee]

When I check my hard disk the following distros support SATA

Fefora Core 2
Suse 9.1
Knoppix 3.4
Mandrake 10
Yoper
Kanotix
Blag

They all have Kernel 2.6 as XiaoKJ suggested

Haven't tried them all but the Slackware 10 I am using now has 2.4 kernel and there is no SATA picked up when I issue fdisk -l command. I installed the distros without the SATA initially and add one in when I need the data.

If one doesn't want to bother answering questions during installation a Live CD is the one to go for. Knoppix CD can be inserted into a computer and up and running in 3 minutes without asking one question after pressing the return key

If one doesn't want a GUI pressing Ctrl+Alt+F1 should drop him/her into a full command mode at any time, if the terminal mode in the desktop isn't good enough.

[transke]

maybe this should be moved to another forum? How do you do that?

I liked slackware. Much because I could fix a problem that I have been bothered with ever since I wanted to change to Linux: too big desktop. But this also means I could not use my SATA disks.

Is it possible to install Slackware10 on a PATA disk , get a driver for SATA, and then move slackware with the new driver to the the SATA disks?

Or to have a floppy with the driver and load them before installation?

T.S.

[XiaoKJ]

I think yes. but the floppy thingy may give problems

[arkaine23]

2.6.8 offers some improvement in support of some sata controllers

Yoper 2.1's got 2.6.8 by default.