From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Gene Heskett Subject: Re: Problem with ata layer in 2.6.24 Date: Tue, 29 Jan 2008 09:51:53 -0500 Message-ID: <200801290951.55492.gene.heskett@gmail.com> References: <200801272122.21823.gene.heskett@gmail.com> <479E1D9E.3000900@bobjweil.com> <20080129121201.2f727f5f@core> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Return-path: Received: from vms173003pub.verizon.net ([206.46.173.3]:62198 "EHLO vms173003pub.verizon.net" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1753718AbYA2OwT (ORCPT ); Tue, 29 Jan 2008 09:52:19 -0500 In-reply-to: <20080129121201.2f727f5f@core> Content-disposition: inline Sender: linux-ide-owner@vger.kernel.org List-Id: linux-ide@vger.kernel.org To: Alan Cox Cc: Richard Heck , Daniel Barkalow , Zan Lynx , Calvin Walton , Linux Kernel Mailing List , Linux ide Mailing list On Tuesday 29 January 2008, Alan Cox wrote: >> not one problem but lots---is sufficiently widespread that a Mini HOWTO, >> say, would be really welcome and, I'm guessing, widely used. > >We don't see very many libata problems at the distro level and they for >the most part boil down to > >- error messages looking different - Most bugs I get are things like >media errors (timeout looks different, UNC report looks different) > >- broken hardware - I've closed a whole raft of bugs that turn out to be >new PC systems where even the BIOS doesn't see the drives > >- faulty hardware being picked up because we actually do real error >checking now. We now check for and give some devices more slack while >still doing error checking. Both IDE layers also added blacklists for >stuff like the TSScorp DVD drives. Qemu has now had its bugs patched. > >- sata_nv with >4GB of RAM, knowing being worked on, no old IDE driver >anyway > >- pata_ali MWDMA with ATAPI, PIO works fine, all a bit of a mystery and >as it affects only a few chip variants hard to figure out. Workaround >libata.dma=1 > >- CS handling. On a few boxes using cable select (particularly on one >drive and not the other) shows up a problem, normally a failed SRST. >That's still under investigation. > >- Promise timeouts. The old IDE times out then polls the device and finds >the IRQ was never sent and then recovers so the user sees a short stall >but no errors. The new libata doesn't do this and pdc202xx_old thus >produces some error messages on some boxes. Backup polling is on my todo >list. As slight change here, I was going to use the same .config as 2.6.24-rc8, but just discovered that neither rc8 nor final is finding the drivers for my dvd writer while using libata, so its not useable. So I've enable a couple of things in the 2.6.24 build that aren't in the 2.6.24-rc8. When I find the magic twanger, I'll rebuild -rc8 with it too. -- Cheers, Gene "There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order." -Ed Howdershelt (Author) River: "He didn't lie down. They never lie down." --"Serenity"