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Can't install debian on a HP Compaq nc6320

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I tried to install debian on a HP Compaq nc6320, but the debian installer did not detect the harddrive. I need help.

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Is is a laptop or a

Submitted by pinniped on Tue, 2006-08-29 17:06.

Is is a laptop or a desktop?
What type of interface does the HD have? EIDE (older, still most common) or SATA (newer, getting very popular). A link to the manufacturer's product page would be helpful too; sometimes we need to see what chips it's got inside.

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HW Details

Submitted by bullert on Wed, 2006-08-30 02:46.

It is a laptop. The HD is a Fujitsu MHV2080BH (SATA).
I used the debian stable train.

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drivers

Submitted by pinniped on Wed, 2006-08-30 17:02.

The problem is probably with the SATA drivers - if the chip is new enough, drivers may not be available in 'stable'. But even if the drivers are available, sometimes they are not automatically loaded by the hardware discovery tool. Here are a few things to go through:

1. Try an install, but make sure you specify linux26 at the boot prompt, rather than just pressing enter. The default kernel is 2.4 and since SATA drivers are backported to that kernel, it usually doesn't have the driver you want.

2. Hardware is discovered at the "detect network" step, so make sure you haven't skipped that.

3. If there are still problems, press [alt][F2] to get a second terminal, then:
cd /lib/modules/$(uname -r)/kernel/drivers/scsi
ls sata*
that will list available SATA drivers, and use 'modprobe' to load the appropriate module, for example:
modprobe sata_sil
Then [alt][F1] to get back to the installer

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