<div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Sep 29, 2009 at 7:48 AM, Scott Evans <<a href="mailto:scott@vk7hse.hobby-site.org">scott@vk7hse.hobby-site.org</a>> wrote: <blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="border-left: 1px solid rgb(204, 204, 204); margin: 0pt 0pt 0pt 0.8ex; padding-left: 1ex;"> <div> After a few select swear words I managed to get it working by including into the grub options 'pci=noacpi' and the ServeRAID Controller was discovered! </div></blockquote></div> ACPI has been a problem ever since it started to work well enough not to be disabled by default. UDMA 100 and 133 are similar in that hardware detection will result in attempting faster transfers than hardware can sustain (often a matter of the IDE cable). PAE is yet another example, VIA CPUs often lack the capability and a substitute kernel must be installed. Atheros WIFI chipsets went through long periods of instability. Hardware detection - HAL and dbus - can be time savers on most hardware but challenging at the margins. The huge availability of solid old iron on the surplus market is tempting. The last round I managed to resist temptation and bought new kit for the last server for the princely sum of $309 for quad core, 4GB RAM, 1TB SATA disk, about the same as a decent old iron server. The kernel on the Alternative install CD is generally accomodating, progressively turn off ACPI, APIC, LAPIC, often you will make it. A Google search is often a shortcut to a successful install. But if you have useful work to do and value your time and have some urge to be green look at new kit and consolidating servers. Jim Tarvid -- <a href="http://ls.net">http://ls.net</a> <a href="http://drupal.ls.net">http://drupal.ls.net</a> The path to God starts with a simple act of kindness.