Installing linux on computer with Marvell adapter

Question

I recently reinstalled my computer and decided that I want to have a native installation of Linux side by side with windows (got tired of VMWare). The thing is upon installation (Debian) everything goes fine until the disc detection section - Linux can't find my western digital 1TB drive (IDE mode).

I don't have the installation disc with me now, but I think that when I changed the mode to AHCI everything worked, though Windows couldn't boot so this is not an option.

I have a Marvell 91xx controller.

Answer 1

Alright, I figured this out.

Debian installation somehow doesn't like IDE mode on the drive so i needed to go for AHCI. The thing was, Windows defaultly disables AHCI drivers after installing on an IDE drive so you need to enable them, following these steps:

1. Open regedit
2. Navigate to HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\services
3. Select msahci (left pane)
4. Change value of start from 3 (or 4) to 0
5. Reboot computer, enter BIOS and change drive mode to AHCI
6. Windows should now boot and install any additional drivers needed

This way I was able to boot Windows and make the Linux installation detect my drive at the same time. Hopefully it installed successfully, I didn't spot a problem with any OS (except a Windows was unable to boot error after the Linux installation, though the Start Windows normally option solved it)

Answer 2

Generally speaking, if you want to run both on AHCI (which you need for larger, newer drives) - you have to install after that mode is enabled.

So the unfortunate answer to your question to how do I get it to work? is that you should re-install Windows after setting the SATA to AHCI. That being said - you should notice an increase in performance on new drives (specifically decent SSDs).

I had a similar experience, and my suggestion above fixed it for me.

I did not find a way to get around it, however, that was around 5 or 6 months ago last I tried it.