I'm installing debian on an Acer Aspire 1 D257 notebook for someone, and the installer won't recognise the hard disk. all i get from the installer is "No disk drive was detected. If you know the name of the driver needed by your disk drive, you can select it from the list." followed by a selectable list of mostly-ancient drivers, all irrelevant. i've tried the squeeze, wheezy, and sid installers (all pretty much the same, except for minor variations in the kernel*)...and tried both amd64 and i386 for each (the CPU is a 64-bit quad-core Atom N570). anyone have any ideas? lspci says: # lspci 00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation N10 Family DMI Bridge (rev 02) 00:02.0 VGA compatible controller: Intel Corporation N10 Family Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 02) 00:02.1 Display controller: Intel Corporation N10 Family Integrated Graphics Controller (rev 02) 00:1b.0 Audio device: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family High Definition Audio Controller (rev 02) 00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family PCI Express Port 1 (rev 02) 00:1c.1 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family PCI Express Port 2 (rev 02) 00:1c.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family PCI Express Port 3 (rev 02) 00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 02) 00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #2 (rev 02) 00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB UHCI Controller #4 (rev 02) 00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 02) 00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 Mobile PCI Bridge (rev e2) 00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation NM10 Family LPC Controller (rev 02) 00:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation N10/ICH7 Family SATA AHCI Controller (rev 02) 00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation N10/ICH 7 Family SMBus Controller (rev 02) 01:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL8101E/RTL8102E PCI Express Fast Ethernet controller (rev 05) 02:00.0 Network controller: Atheros Communications Inc. Device 0032 (rev 01) 03:00.0 Unassigned class [ff00]: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. Device 5209 (rev 01) the Intel ICH7 should be well-supported. here's the syslog from when i run the Detect Disks menu option: Feb 10 09:17:18 main-menu[4292]: INFO: Menu item 'disk-detect' selected Feb 10 09:17:19 net/hw-detect.hotplug: Detected hotpluggable network interface eth0 Feb 10 09:17:19 kernel: [ 407.101140] libata version 3.00 loaded. Feb 10 09:17:19 kernel: [ 407.116877] ahci 0000:00:1f.2: version 3.0 Feb 10 09:17:19 kernel: [ 407.116918] ahci 0000:00:1f.2: PCI INT B -> GSI 17 (level, low) -> IRQ 17 Feb 10 09:17:19 kernel: [ 407.117004] alloc irq_desc for 28 on node -1 Feb 10 09:17:19 kernel: [ 407.117011] alloc kstat_irqs on node -1 Feb 10 09:17:19 kernel: [ 407.117038] ahci 0000:00:1f.2: irq 28 for MSI/MSI-X Feb 10 09:17:19 kernel: [ 407.117116] ahci: SSS flag set, parallel bus scan disabled Feb 10 09:17:19 kernel: [ 407.117172] ahci 0000:00:1f.2: AHCI 0001.0100 32 slots 4 ports 3 Gbps 0x3 impl SATA mode Feb 10 09:17:19 kernel: [ 407.117184] ahci 0000:00:1f.2: flags: 64bit ncq ilck stag pm led clo pmp pio slum part Feb 10 09:17:19 kernel: [ 407.117196] ahci 0000:00:1f.2: setting latency timer to 64 Feb 10 09:17:19 kernel: [ 407.117714] scsi0 : ahci Feb 10 09:17:19 kernel: [ 407.118134] scsi1 : ahci Feb 10 09:17:19 kernel: [ 407.118390] scsi2 : ahci Feb 10 09:17:19 kernel: [ 407.118661] scsi3 : ahci Feb 10 09:17:19 kernel: [ 407.119536] ata1: SATA max UDMA/133 abar m1024@0x56204000 port 0x56204100 irq 28 Feb 10 09:17:19 kernel: [ 407.119550] ata2: SATA max UDMA/133 abar m1024@0x56204000 port 0x56204180 irq 28 Feb 10 09:17:19 kernel: [ 407.119557] ata3: DUMMY Feb 10 09:17:19 kernel: [ 407.119562] ata4: DUMMY Feb 10 09:17:19 net/hw-detect.hotplug: Detected hotpluggable network interface lo Feb 10 09:17:19 kernel: [ 407.600033] ata1: SATA link up 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 SControl 300) Feb 10 09:17:19 kernel: [ 407.601999] ACPI Warning for \_SB_.PCI0.SATA.PRT0._GTF: Return type mismatch - found Integer, expected Buffer (20090903/nspredef-1006) Feb 10 09:17:19 kernel: [ 407.602016] ata1.00: _GTF unexpected object type 0x1 Feb 10 09:17:19 kernel: [ 407.602351] ata1.00: ATA-8: WDC WD3200BPVT-22JJ5T0, 01.01A01, max UDMA/133 Feb 10 09:17:19 kernel: [ 407.602365] ata1.00: 625142448 sectors, multi 16: LBA48 NCQ (depth 31/32), AA Feb 10 09:17:19 kernel: [ 407.604433] ata1.00: _GTF unexpected object type 0x1 Feb 10 09:17:19 kernel: [ 407.604796] ata1.00: configured for UDMA/133 Feb 10 09:17:19 kernel: [ 407.620280] scsi 0:0:0:0: Direct-Access ATA WDC WD3200BPVT-2 01.0 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5 Feb 10 09:17:19 kernel: [ 407.940034] ata2: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 300) Feb 10 09:17:20 kernel: [ 407.965473] sd_mod: Unknown symbol scsi_verify_blk_ioctl Feb 10 09:17:20 kernel: [ 407.967957] sd_mod: Unknown symbol scsi_cmd_blk_ioctl Feb 10 09:17:20 hw-detect: Loading PCMCIA bridge driver module: i82365 Feb 10 09:17:20 hw-detect: FATAL: Module i82365 not found. Feb 10 09:17:21 check-missing-firmware: no missing firmware in /dev/.udev/firmware-missing those Unknown Symbol and/or the ACPI Warning lines are probably where the problem is. googling for the ACPI warning got me a page that suggested adding "acpi_apic_instance=2" to the kernel cmd line, but that made no difference. I'm beginning to think i'm going to have to re-learn the PITA procedure to make a custom kernel/initrd for d-i so i can boot with a 3.0.x or 3.2.x kernel. it's been a few years since i did it, but i remember that it was a tediously convoluted process that involved shaving far too many yaks (including a full d-i build when all i want is a suitable kernel+initrd to place on my tftp server). (*) for instance, the latest squeeze kernel/initrd has removed the firmware for the Realtek RTL8101E/RTL8102E NIC. hooray, i just love screwing around with USB sticks and windows-like hunts for missing drivers. I also love PXE-booting into an installer and then finding that a NIC that IPXE has no problem with won't work with the debian kernel. The sid and wheezy installers still have the firmware...boo for nasty un-PC kernels. maybe i should try Linux Mint. craig -- craig sanders <cas@taz.net.au>