Red Hat Knowledgebase

Release Found: Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3, Update 2

Symptom: When installing Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3, Update 2 to an IBM xSeries 336 system with a single Serial ATA (SATA) hard drive, the installer reports that no hard drives are found and the installation aborts.

Solution: Open the cover on the server and check to see if the SATA drive is attached to the second port on the SATA controller. If it is, then connect the drive to the first SATA port on the server's SATA controller. Please contact IBM technical support if you are not sure how to do this.

There is a problem with the ata_piix driver in Update 2 where it is unable to detect the drive on the second port if one is not connected to the first port as well.

This has been corrected in Update 3 of Red Hat Enterprise Linux 3. Installing with Update 3 does not require having to switch the SATA ports in order for the hard drive to be detected.