Well, finally we decided to get some SATA for our fileserver. The only one available in the store we were was a "assmann" (har har) SATA 2 Channel controller with a Silicon Image 3112 chipset.
Same time, we choose to upgrade to a 2.6* Kernel - in this case, 2.6.7a6 (the a6 is a internal label of das werkstatt, and means alpha six).
First, to get ANY sign of life from the controller, you have to find the and enable the SATA drivers when compiling your kernel - they are a bit hidden in the Device Drivers ==> SCSI ==> x menue. Once you're there, uncheck all SATA chipsets 'cept for the "Silicon Image support".
Well, if you reboot now, you might experience a problem - we did. For some weird reason, the box booted from /dev/hda7 without problems, but when loading the SATA drivers, reassigning /dev/hda to the first SATA HDD (a Maxtor 200 GB in our case). Because of that, in the further boot procedure, the kernel could not mount the root file-system on /dev/hda7, because it magically was /dev/hdc7....
I recompiled the kernel with a different Chipset driver, and set a kernel setting (Forgot where - probably in the SCSI or IDE/ATA Device driver menues) to "Boot from IDE". Before compile, he will ask you (i think when leaving the menue) from where the system should boot, so i said On-board IDE there again. Reboot.
After this reboot, the SATA HDD was found as /dev/hde, while the system disk was correctly assigned as hda. Finally, i could fdisk (or cfdisk) /dev/hde, mkfs it, and reboot again - Disk up and running, controller working!
This method has some minor flaws, iam working on it. But you should get your SATA Controller with an Sil3112 Chipset to work with the stuff written up here.
- Gil