AHCI and Gigabyte GA-G31M-ES2L

[Warren Block]

The Gigabyte GA-G31M-ES2L has an ICH7, one PATA port, and four SATA
ports. This one now has the latest BIOS, F10.

Is it possible to run AHCI on this motherboard and chipset?

With FreeBSD 8-stable, the terrible BIOS set to "Enhanced" mode, one
SATA drive connected, and ahci_load="YES" in loader.conf, an ada disk
device does not appear.

Is AHCI too much to ask from a G31/ICH7 motherboard, or is it just this
particular motherboard?

[Adam Vande More]

The Gigabyte GA-G31M-ES2L has an ICH7, one PATA port, and four SATA ports.
This one now has the latest BIOS, F10.
Is it possible to run AHCI on this motherboard and chipset?
With FreeBSD 8-stable, the terrible BIOS set to "Enhanced" mode, one SATA
drive connected, and ahci_load="YES" in loader.conf, an ada disk device does
not appear.
Is AHCI too much to ask from a G31/ICH7 motherboard, or is it just this
particular motherboard?

I think you're SOL on both counts. G41 maybe.

[Roland Smith]

Post by Warren Block
The Gigabyte GA-G31M-ES2L has an ICH7, one PATA port, and four SATA
ports. This one now has the latest BIOS, F10.
Is it possible to run AHCI on this motherboard and chipset?

Only some ICH7 chipsets are able to run with AHCI.

Check the 'atapci' devices in the output of 'pciconf -lv'. Only if it says
"subclass = SATA" below "class=mass storage", it is AHCI capable.

This may be affected by BIOS settings, though.

Roland

[Warren Block]

Post by Roland Smith

Post by Warren Block
The Gigabyte GA-G31M-ES2L has an ICH7, one PATA port, and four SATA
ports. This one now has the latest BIOS, F10.
Is it possible to run AHCI on this motherboard and chipset?

Only some ICH7 chipsets are able to run with AHCI.

Looks like only the ICH7R and ICH7D variants.

Post by Roland Smith
Check the 'atapci' devices in the output of 'pciconf -lv'. Only if it says
"subclass = SATA" below "class=mass storage", it is AHCI capable.

This plain ICH7 says "subclass = ATA".