Re: Gigabyte i-Ram cards

[Jeff Garzik <jeff@garzik.org>]

Bryan Fink wrote:
> Jeff Garzik wrote:
> 
>> I'm impressed.  I ordered one to help debug BZ#6163, but I think these 
>> cards will help expose bugs in libata due to their high speed.  With 
>> these cards, we can push more data through libata than would normally 
>> be possible with a standard disk drive.
> 
> 
> 
> Hi.  I tried to respond on this topic about a week ago, but I haven't 
> seen my response show up on any of the mirrors, so I think it must have 
> not made it through.
> 
> Anyway, I just wanted to add that I am also fiddling with the Gigabyte 
> i-Ram.  I haven't tried modifying and recompiling the kernel yet, but I 
> did have some success another way:
> 
> My desktop is a Dell Dimension 5150.  In the BIOS, I can set the "SATA 
> Operation" to either "SATA" or "RAID".  If I set it to RAID, linux will 
> see the i-RAM just fine (under Ubuntu 5.10 Live CD).  It loads ahci, and 
> just takes off.  If I have the setting on SATA, then linux does not load 
> ahci, and does not talk to the i-RAM.
> 
> Of note is also the fact that Windows has no issue with talking to the 
> i-RAM when my system is in SATA-mode.
> 
> So, I guess the question is, are Windows and my BIOS ignoring this 
> "invalid" feature query reply, or are the prodding the card in some way 
> other than how linux does, which makes the card respond properly?

Your description seems to imply this is a BIOS+driver issue, not 
anything related to the gigabyte card.

Intel ICH boards can be driven using either the ata_piix or the ahci 
driver, depending on BIOS mode.  Most likely, when you switched to SATA 
mode in BIOS, it started programming the motherboard to boot in 
IDE-compatible mode (ata_piix) rather than SATA FIS mode (ahci).

	Jeff