Posted: Tue Oct 22, 2013 12:52 Post subject: Update SATA support for x86 or am i a retard for even asking
Hi everybody,
I been chasing the internet for a firewall software that fits my need and it seams that DD-WRT fits that bill perfekt.
To my surprise i discover there is a x86 version and get all exhilarated and happy until my happiness gets blasted with the fact that DD-wrt x86 does not support SATA so it can not be used with newer hardware.
I must say that i find this a bit disturbing in the year 2013 where you are hard pressed to even find IDE on motherboards these days.
Okey say a lot of you, use old hardware. Well i do not find old hardware interesting since it is more unstable, draws a lot of power and are hard to find in small form factors like Mini-itx or smaller.
New hardware is cheap and stable, you can easy build a mini-itx x86 box with celeron, 2GB, 32GB SSD and a dual port Intel pro 1000, for 150€ and you have a kick ass firewall.
Isn't time to bring DD-WRT up to date and in line with the future with an SATA update?!
I for one would not hesitate one second to pay license for a DD-WRT version with SATA support and adaption to up to date hardware.
PLEASE let me know if any of you developing DD-WRT have plans for making this happen soon, very soon...
Posted: Sun Oct 27, 2013 18:25 Post subject: x86 SATA support
In addition to the prior reply which stated that you must set the bios to compatibility mode (legacy mode), the x86 version of the software will also only boot off of SATA0. The easiest way to accomplish this is to use a dedicated drive on SATA0 which you write the x86 dd-wrt image to. Since most computers will boot off of USB first, it may be possible to put a boot loader on a USB stick to bring back dual boot of x86 on SATA0 and Windows/Linux/etc. on one of the remaining SATA channels. But we have not tried this since we have not had a need to dual boot our x86 dd-wrt servers yet.
Have now tried four new motherboards in both 7 and 8 series of intel chipset from asus, gigabyte, asrock msi.
Tried to use SATA0 and set ide mode, legacy and what ever mode i could find in different combinations.
Also tried the USB approach with no luck.
Only reboots all the time.
Some on this site says it works if you do this and that BUT still there is a ton of people on the forum that can not get it to work with modern chipset and sata
Something is not right here, feels like some people won't realize there is a real problem and try to fix it.
If i had the know how i would do it but i am sorry to say that i am no programmer.
Thx for the help so far but i am now giving up, not worth the time.
Will keep my eye on the site and try again if there is an actual update that adapts to the new chipsets and takes care of the SATA problems.
Specially interesting now when Intels Bay Trail SOC CPU platform is released. Soon there will be motherboards with great performance and only 10W power draw.
A perfect fit for dd-wrt x86 i would say, if it ever works with SATA that is.
