Linux machine about to be built. Help

[FastRedPonyCar]

OK gang, I'm fixin to build a linux machine. I ordered teh stuff a while ago on new egg so hopefully it'll be here monday of next week. Here's the deal

I'll be using the AMD 2600+ with an Abit NF7-S2 motherboard. I also ordered a western digital SATA hdd for the box.

Is there anything special that I should know about SATA drives with linux?

Will I be able to just put all the stuff together, hook up the hdd, enable sata in the bios, boot up and pop the linux install cd in the drive and go from there?

Also, I'll be using a geforce 3 TI500 card. Is there anything special that I'll need to do in order to get the drivers up to date?

Thanks for any help guys
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[FastRedPonyCar]

bump....anyone? I know SOMEONE has a SATA hdd with linux!
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[energyman76b]

SATA is tricky, some chipsets are supported, some are not. There is a lot of work to get a more or less complete SATA support. You should ask google and kernel-Docs ;o)

[devast]

I use sata, it's not that bad, but there is no SMART info from the disk... but i like it Make sure you use the libata kernel driver under the scsi section, the one in the ATA section is not the one you need. Good luck! ps: i've got this type with nForce2 :0000:01:09.0 RAID bus controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VIA VT6420 SATA RAID Controller (rev 50)

[Compholio]

Originally Posted by FastRedPonyCar

bump....anyone? I know SOMEONE has a SATA hdd with linux!

I'm assuming you have the WD740GD, it's a VERY nice drive. It works great on my system (ASUS SK8N w/ Promise Controller and kernel 2.6.8), but I have heard that some controllers are poorly supported under Linux.

[FastRedPonyCar]

It'll be the only drive so for the time being, I'm not worried about the RAID settings. I was just questioning whether or not something special had to be done in order for linux to recognize that it was a valid harddrive and able to install the OS onto it.

I'll be installing mandrake 10. Anyone else used this one?
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[kmare]

I installed one mandrake at work with SATA disk and it found it like any other disk... but it was an intel chipset... an as far as I know they are well supported by the linux kernel....
Oh, sata works on my nforce2ultra too... and like devast said, make sure to enable the right sata driver in the scsi section... but I think your distro will handle it...