Ciao, ho comprato una nuova mobo, la P5K-SE che non ha neppure questa l'AHCI e su questa ho installato naturalmente la Slackware 12.1 con il kernel 2.6.24.5 e cosa incredibile dopo aver applicato la patch riesco usare AHCI!!
FUNZIONA (e non c'è traccia del benchè minimo problema)!!!! La differenza tra le due schede è che la prima usa ICH8 mentre questa il ICH9 che si comoprta evidentemente in maniera meno scorbutica del precedente!

Ho anche comprato un po' di RAM, ora ne ho installato 6Gb. Come si può fare a convincere il sistema a girare in RAM? (Forse devo aprire un altra discussione per questo ?!)
Queso è lspci -v (la parte interessante)
0:1f.2 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 82801IB (ICH9) 2 port SATA IDE Controller (rev 02) (prog-if 01 [AHCI 1.0])
Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Unknown device 8277
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 15
I/O ports at a000 [size=8]
I/O ports at 9c00 [size=4]
I/O ports at 9880 [size=8]
I/O ports at 9800 [size=4]
I/O ports at 9480 [size=16]
Memory at f8000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=2K]
Capabilities: [70] Power Management version 3
Capabilities: [a8] SATA HBA <?>
Capabilities: [b0] Vendor Specific Information <?>
Kernel driver in use: ahci
00:1f.5 SATA controller: Intel Corporation 82801I (ICH9 Family) 2 port SATA IDE Controller (rev 02) (prog-if 01 [AHCI 1.0])
Subsystem: ASUSTeK Computer Inc. Unknown device 8277
Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 0, IRQ 15
I/O ports at b000 [size=8]
I/O ports at ac00 [size=4]
I/O ports at a880 [size=8]
I/O ports at a800 [size=4]
I/O ports at a480 [size=16]
Memory at f8000800 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=2K]
Capabilities: [70] Power Management version 3
Capabilities: [a8] SATA HBA <?>
Capabilities: [b0] Vendor Specific Information <?>
Kernel driver in use: ahci
da dmesg:
ahci 0000:00:1f.2: forcing PORTS_IMPL to 0x3
ahci 0000:00:1f.2: AHCI 0001.0200 32 slots 2 ports 3 Gbps 0x3 impl SATA mode
ahci 0000:00:1f.2: flags: 64bit ncq sntf ilck stag pm led clo pmp pio slum part
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1f.2 to 64
scsi0 : ahci
scsi1 : ahci
ata1: SATA max UDMA/133 abar m2048@0xf8000000 port 0xf8000100 irq 15
ata2: SATA max UDMA/133 abar m2048@0xf8000000 port 0xf8000180 irq 15
ata1: SATA link up 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 SControl 300)
ata1.00: ATA-7: MAXTOR STM3320820AS, 3.AAE, max UDMA/133
ata1.00: 625142448 sectors, multi 16: LBA48 NCQ (depth 31/32)
ata1.00: configured for UDMA/133
ata2: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 300)
scsi 0:0:0:0: Direct-Access ATA MAXTOR STM332082 3.AA PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 625142448 512-byte hardware sectors (320073 MB)
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 625142448 512-byte hardware sectors (320073 MB)
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
sda: sda1 sda2 sda3
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI disk
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1f.5[B] -> Link [LNKG] -> GSI 15 (level, low) -> IRQ 15
ahci 0000:00:1f.5: forcing PORTS_IMPL to 0x3
ahci 0000:00:1f.5: AHCI 0001.0200 32 slots 2 ports 3 Gbps 0x3 impl SATA mode
ahci 0000:00:1f.5: flags: 64bit ncq sntf ilck stag pm led clo pmp pio slum part
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1f.5 to 64
scsi2 : ahci
scsi3 : ahci
ata3: SATA max UDMA/133 abar m2048@0xf8000800 port 0xf8000900 irq 15
ata4: SATA max UDMA/133 abar m2048@0xf8000800 port 0xf8000980 irq 15
ata3: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 300)
ata4: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 300)