How to configure and use libata SATA / PATA drivers

Configure your kernel as follows:

CONFIG_ATA=y
CONFIG_ATA_PIIX=y
CONFIG_ATA_GENERIC=y
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_SD=y
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_SR=m

You find those in "Device / Serial ATA (prod) and Parallel ATA (experimental) drivers" and "Device Drivers / SCSI device support" in menuconfig.

You need CONFIG_ATA_PIIX for current Intel chipsets - I got the hint from Serge Belyshev out from a thread on the ck mailinglist. It is a labeled a bit misleading:

[ ] ServerWorks Frodo / Apple K2 SATA support

[*] Intel PIIX/ICH SATA support <--- there

[ ] Marvell SATA support (HIGHLY EXPERIMENTAL)

 

The other PIIX related options are for older chipsets.

Above configuration should also work for SATA as well, ATA_PIIX does SATA and PATA.

You can and probably should disable the whole IDE driver subsystem ("ATA/ATAPI/MFM/RLL support") when you switch from old IDE drivers to the new libata PATA drivers:

CONFIG_IDE=n

You need to change the bootloader configuration, rename all /dev/hd* to /dev/sd*.

At least upto kernel 2.6.20 you also need to add the kernel boot option atapi_enabled=1 to get out of the box working CD-ROM support. Otherwise you manually need to load the module sr_mod with modprobe sr_mod. This option will likely become the default in 2.6.21 or 2.6.22