Linux SATA Drivers for Compaq 6710 Laptop

[ultiPOS]

G'Day
Does anyone know if Linux SATA drivers are available for the Compaq 6710 series laptop?
HP claims that the model is certified for SuSe, but HP Support simply tells me that there is no support for Linux.
We are wanting to install Red Hat 8 and besides the SATA driver, expect to also run into trouble with the VGA drivers - but will cross that path when we get a sucessful install.
Thanks

[Steven E. Protter]

Shalom,

I'd believe HP support on this. If they say Suse is supported then it should work.

HP has a history of not providing Linux support on low end laptops. They recently began following this policy on desktops as well (dc7700).

Compaq laptops have been most difficult in this area.

You will have a better chance with a more recent release of Linux. Newer releases support more hardware in the kernel and make installs easier.

SEP

[John Collier]

Correct me if I'm wrong, but isn't SATA one of the things that should be supported in all of the recent Linux Kernels by default? I know for sure that my last two versions of Fedora (6 & 7) had no issues at all with my SATA-based notebook from HP (dv9335nr).

I am unaware of any extra 'drivers' that would be needed if you are using one of the newer kernels.

[ultiPOS]

Hi guys
Thanks for the input.
I have been advised to try Fedora and have downloaded the ISO to test. The only issue is that the application software we run on Linux has not been certified for Fedora, but circumventing that issue is my problem!

As passing comment, even Win XP does not support the SATA laptop driver and you have to load a special file as part of the XP install before the OS will 'see' the drive.

Thanks for your input - much appreciated!

Clive

[ultiPOS]

Update:
I have tried the Fedora 9 distro and it also
requires SATA drivers. At least it gets to the point of attempting to identify the SATA drive in the laptop.
Tried selecting several SATA drivers from the list...to no avail.

At this stage it sure looks like there is no wide support for Linux on the HP Compaq 6710b Laptops!

Geez - if only I had known

[Jesus-Perez]

Did you tried Knoppix 5.1.1?

http://www.knopper.net/knoppix/index-en.html

It works fine with the SATA HD in desktop HP Compaq dc7600 SFF. It is based in Debian.

[Stuart Browne]

Fedora 9? The lastest as John said is 7.

RH8 and RH9 are *WAY* too old to support any modern SATA devices.

[ultiPOS]

Yeeargh! I meant Fedora 7 - not 9.
I was looking at SuSe 9 CD's at the time
Yes, I sussed out the suggested distro - goes way back to 2005 - not even going there at this stage.

Just not sure how hard it is to get drivers written for the SATA. The drive itself is a standard Seagate 2.5" - just have to get Linux to talk to the hardware.

It would seem that anyone buying what is termed a lower end laptop, these is going to be problems with linux drivers. I would have thought that HP/Compaq would represent a brand that is more aware of the need to support open source.

An extra $1000 will likely buy me a linux-compatible Compaq!

Clive Browne

[John Collier]

Strange...

I have Fedora 7 on my laptop with nothing more than a SATA drive in it. I don't even think that they give the option in the BIOS to spoof an EIDE drive (not sure, never checked since it came with the latest Redmond Virus (AKA - Vista) and that is all SATA).

I don't understand how you can say that Fedora 7 doesn't support SATA...

Not my experience at all.

[Stuart Browne]

No, he's just saying that the SATA controller in the 6710 series laptop doesn't work with Linux.