Nero6 Posted January 18, 2006 Share Posted January 18, 2006 I have a promise 378 controller in my laptop (SATA). Not surprisingly, when I go to install OSX86, no hard drives are shown (this is with the first version of intel osx, not sure if there were newer releases that fix this). Now, at this site: http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/HCLPart#IDE , if you go down to IDE it lists my controller as compatible hardware, yet the drives arent recognized. It mentions something about running in IDE mode, which is an option I fail to see in my BIOS. Does anyone here know if this controller works? Linux has no trouble utilizing this controller. :/ Thanks, Nero6 Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/7150-promise-controller-not-working/ Share on other sites More sharing options...
Nero6 Posted January 21, 2006 Author Share Posted January 21, 2006 *bump* Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/7150-promise-controller-not-working/#findComment-45942 Share on other sites More sharing options...
stryder Posted January 22, 2006 Share Posted January 22, 2006 *bump* Ouch! That hurt! Just kidding. OS X wouldn't see my Promise SATA PCI controller. Don't know if that is related to your problem, or not. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/7150-promise-controller-not-working/#findComment-46198 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mycohl Posted February 12, 2006 Share Posted February 12, 2006 I am also having this problem with my laptop's Promise 378. (Alienware) I booted from the 8F1111 DVD with no problems, but the installer wouldn't recognize any of my drives. When I went to install through vmware, it recognizes all of them. I assume this is because vmware emulates a normal PATA or something. Now I have a bootable partition, but it won't boot natively, only through vmware. There is another thread about SATA that mentions Promise alternately working/not working. I'm going to go post in that thread with a link to this one. Perhaps one of them can shed some light on our quandry. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/7150-promise-controller-not-working/#findComment-55828 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Metrogirl Posted February 13, 2006 Share Posted February 13, 2006 This is just conventional wisdom gleaned from setting up Promise controllers outside of any OSx86 context, so I might be talking nonsense if it doesn't apply here. I offer it in case it's any help- The Promise controller must be configured to report the drives as standard IDE drives, not as any form of RAID. There are two BIOS settings for this, one in the main BIOS panel which goes something like "Raid Controller -> RAID / IDE / DISABLE" - and you want to choose IDE. The other is in the BIOS extension for the Promise controller (appears during boot process) and that should be set to something that doesn't involve RAID if you get the option. I wouldn't expect the controller to offer RAID as an option if you've set IDE in the main BIOS. If the drive(s) are configured for IDE (regardless of whether they're SATA or P-ATA) I would think they should be seen by the OSx86 installer. As I said, this is just from my experience of Promise RAID in normal Windows installations, so I apologise if this is all wrong for OSx86. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/7150-promise-controller-not-working/#findComment-55878 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Grav3Mind Posted February 13, 2006 Share Posted February 13, 2006 I have a promise 378 controller in my laptop (SATA). Not surprisingly, when I go to install OSX86, no hard drives are shown (this is with the first version of intel osx, not sure if there were newer releases that fix this). Now, at this site: http://wiki.osx86project.org/wiki/index.php/HCLPart#IDE , if you go down to IDE it lists my controller as compatible hardware, yet the drives arent recognized. It mentions something about running in IDE mode, which is an option I fail to see in my BIOS. Does anyone here know if this controller works? Linux has no trouble utilizing this controller. :/ Thanks, Nero6 have u tried the disk utility? it wouldnt recognize mine until i went and messed around in there. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/7150-promise-controller-not-working/#findComment-55886 Share on other sites More sharing options...
macgirl Posted February 13, 2006 Share Posted February 13, 2006 I think that Promise Chipsets for PATA and SATA need it's own kext, they have it's own Device IDs. One of the manufacturers of SATA and SATA RAID Cards that has PPC Kexts for Mac OS is High Point. I expect they could release an Intel or Universal Binary Kext, but not from Promise AFAIK. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/7150-promise-controller-not-working/#findComment-55888 Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mycohl Posted February 14, 2006 Share Posted February 14, 2006 have u tried the disk utility? it wouldnt recognize mine until i went and messed around in there. I have two options in BIOS, "RAID" and "ATA". I currently have it set for "ATA". I just downloaded some sort of config utility from promise.com, although I'm not certain that it's the correct one. I will mess around with it. If you could provide a link to the utility you used to configure it properly, that would be very helpful. EDIT: Just to provide more information: When I boot natively from the OSx86 DVD (or from the Darwin 8.01 CD) into single-user mode, there is only one /dev/disk listed, even though I have two physical disks on the SATA. When I type "fdisk /dev/disk0", it tells me "/dev/disk0 is not a valid character device or file". Is it seeing something there, but not having a .kext that it needs? Or is this a dummy device or something? EDIT2: After a somewhat extensive googling session, it seems that quite a few people are having this problem. mac-nipulate, I would very much like to know what utility you used to get it working. One person reported success installing to a USB drive, I might give that a shot. See firedrake's post. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/7150-promise-controller-not-working/#findComment-56299 Share on other sites More sharing options...
unstatusthequo Posted June 5, 2006 Share Posted June 5, 2006 I have the same issue on a Hypersonic Aviator EX7, which is basically the same computer as the Alienware laptop you're talking about. I have BIOS set to ATA, not RAID, and the RAID boot-time screen shows no raid, mac install disk utility is worthless as it too shows nothing except the CD drive... The mobo is manufactured by clevo I believe... I might try I BIOS update and see if any additional new settings appear... but I'm not holding my breath that it will solve the problem. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/7150-promise-controller-not-working/#findComment-124998 Share on other sites More sharing options...
nobodyzero Posted December 11, 2007 Share Posted December 11, 2007 Sorry for digging up a dead thread, but this seems to be the newest one still talking about the Promise 378. I have an Alienware Area 51m laptop and I wasn't able to see any hard drives in the installer so I went ahead and installed onto a USB drive with the macdotnub distro. I've patched the sound, PCMCIA, and the wireless card so its fully functional now. I just wish I didn't have to carry around this stupid external drive. After a lot of forum searching and HCL list scouring it doesn't seem that anyone has gotten it working, but I thought I'd at least ask. Also, I already do have the drives set to ATA not RAID in the bios Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/7150-promise-controller-not-working/#findComment-535454 Share on other sites More sharing options...
nobodyzero Posted December 11, 2007 Share Posted December 11, 2007 Something else I've been thinking of, I've seen some talk of the AppleAHCIPOrt.kext and IOATAFamily.kext. Would editing those plists with the strings the corespond to the Device and Vendor numbers do anything? I am just learning so if you plan to kill me for my ignorance please reconsider. Link to comment https://www.insanelymac.com/forum/topic/7150-promise-controller-not-working/#findComment-535540 Share on other sites More sharing options...
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