[ubuntu-uk] IDE interface not recognized on a DG965 Intel motherboard

[Eamonn Sullivan]

Hi all, I made a classic error when assembling my own home server: I
forgot to check for Linux compatibility on all of the components.
Well, actually, I did, but made a last-minute decision, without
checking, to go with a different Intel motherboard because it had more
expansion. That stupid decision means all forms of Ubuntu (Dapper,
Edgy, latest daily builds of Feisty) can't find the IDE interface
where the CD/DVD drive is installed. The installation program loads
and starts, but then asks me where the CD drive is...

Before I start down a long and windy road of learning how to trick the
install program into loading from a USB pen drive or over the network
(which will be complicated in my setup at home), I wonder if anyone
else has run into this problem and can tell me of any magic spells
(i.e., boot options/bios settings) that can get this working?

Some details are in the bug report I've filed:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+source/linux-source-2.6.20/+bug/89228

My setup is as follows:

- Intel DG965RY motherboard
- Pentium D 820 dual core processor
- Lite-On CD/DVD writer on IDE (set as master, the only device on IDE)
- Three Seagate Barracuda 7200.10 320GB hard drives, SATA-300
- 2GB of RAM in four 512M modules.

Everything appears to be recognized, including the on-board Intel
Ethernet and graphics. The only "unknown" in lspci is the following:

02:00.0 IDE interface: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. Unknown device
6101 (rev b) (prog-if 8f [Master SecP Sec0 PriP PriO])
     Subsystem: Marvell Technology Group Ltd. Unknown device 6101
     Flags: bus master, fast devsel, latency 0, IRQ 10
     I/O ports at 1018 [size=8]
     I/O ports at 1024 [size=4]
     I/O ports at 1010 [size=8]
     I/O ports at 1020 [size=4]
     Memory at 90100000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=512]
     Capabilities: [48] Power Management version 2
     Capabilities: [50] Message Signalled Interrupts: Mask- 64bit-
Queue=0/0Enable-
     Capabilities: [e0] Express Legacy Endpoint IRQ 0

The text interface of the server-install (latest Feisty daily build)
loads and I'm asked to choose my language and keyboard. But then it
says it can't find my CD drive and I can't get beyond that point.

Google turns up various options for booting: all-generic-ide,
pci=nommconf, acpi=off -- none of that works.

I've also changed the bios a few times, trying native, legacy and AHCI
mode on the SATA drives. Linux seems to like AHCI the best, but
unfortunately, it doesn't affect the visibility of the CD drive at
all.

Has anyone run into this before and overcome it? Or am I too far off
in the bleeding edge?

Thanks in advance,

-Eamonn