Debian (Knoppix) on HP a350n

[sms@sonic.net]

As some of you may recall, I had a rather-new box (HP a350n) that I
wanted to install Debian onto.  Based on some suggestions from the
BAD (Bay Area Debian) list & my own Google/etc, I was rather nervous,
particularly regarding SATA/PATA hdd issues.

At the local (NBLUG) installfest, I was guided to Knoppix (they'd
gotten a "hot-off-the-net" burn, just a few days old); I've gotta
say, it was stunningly easy!  Kudos to the 'fest crew for a good call.

The biggest time-sink (other than just copying all the binaries to
the local disk) was in setting up the multi-boot config (I ended up
with a 5-partition map --> "extended" partitions, with 3 bootable);
if I'd been willing to blow away the original OS, it probably would
have taken less than half the time.

Unfortunately, I *was* time-crunched, so I didn't quite have time to
finish all the config issues.  In particular, I haven't checked if I'm
stuck on a "poxy winmodem".  :-/    "lspci" baby... lspci all the way,
with a visit to Linmodem!

Of my few lingering questions, perhaps the most-puzzling one (e.g. I've
already put in some work, and gotten nowhere on an answer)  is this:
is there a command/utility/etc that can test the exact status of SATA
(or PATA) support on my box?  It *appears* to be doing SATA politely,
thank you very much; but investigatory things like
   "dmesg | egrep -i [sp]ata"
&
   "man -k sata ; man -k pata"
are exceedingly unrevealing; Google is likewise providing that peculiarly
Google-esque mix of "too much" and "not enough" information.  :(

My "helper" at the Installfest did a "hdparm -t" for some testing, and
suggests that the speed "looks like" it's running fully as a SATA disk.
Another bit of evidence is that we never diddled with the BIOS (as prior
SATA-on-Linux doc's implied was required).  But, that info is all
circumstantial.

Can anyone direct me to commands/utilities/etc that can definitively
test this stuff?


Many thanks!

- Steve S.