kernel boot hang, SATA_VIA compiled without APIC_IO

kernel boot hang, SATA_VIA compiled without APIC_IO

[Eldad Zack]

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Hello,

I've recently got a SATA capable machine (Via chipset) and I've exprienced a 
nasty hang at boottime, using kernel 2.6.9.
After some recompiling different parameters it boiled down to APIC_IO being 
not selected (this is a UP machine).

Without APIC_IO selected the system would hang while loading SATA.

I've only tried 2.6.5 to notice it would not hang but would emit messeges as 
"hde: lost interrupt", and eventually go on with the boot, the sata being 
unusable.

Out of curiousity, I'd like to know if APIC_IO is absolutly needed when 
dealing with SATA, and also, I'd like to help debug this problem so that a 
kernel compiled without APIC_IO would at the very least not hang...


-- 
Eldad Zack <eldad@stoneshaft.ath.cx>
Key/Fingerprint at pgp.mit.edu, ID 0x96EA0A93

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Re: kernel boot hang, SATA_VIA compiled without APIC_IO

[David Greaves]

Thanks for posting this Eldad, I had the same problem and this saved 
lots of trial and error!!

As an FYI all I did was exchange my ASUS A7V600 with an ASUS A7V600-X. 
Maybe the BIOS changed version, maybe the chipset is different - not 
easy to tell.
Since I boot from my SATA drive this was quite troubling. Luckily I 
still had an old 2.6.6 kernel.

I had to revert back to a 2.6.6 kernel, 2.6.7 wouldn't work.

Jeff (or whoever) I too would be happy to help debug if there's anything 
I can do.

I can't check the exact failure point for a week (away from the machine) 
but here's the relevant bit of the dmesg (admitedley from a good booting 
kernel with APIC_IO set) showing (simulated) the point where the failure 
occured:
libata version 1.02 loaded.
sata_via version 0.20
ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:00:0f.0[B] -> GSI 20 (level, low) -> IRQ 20
sata_via(0000:00:0f.0): routed to hard irq line 0
ata1: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xB400 ctl 0xB002 bmdma 0xA000 irq 20
ata2: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xA800 ctl 0xA402 bmdma 0xA008 irq 20
ata1: dev 0

After I get back on 19th Dec I'll be happy to try additional tests, 
provide additional info etc if anyone asks.

HTH

David

Eldad Zack wrote:

>Hello,
>
>I've recently got a SATA capable machine (Via chipset) and I've exprienced a 
>nasty hang at boottime, using kernel 2.6.9.
>After some recompiling different parameters it boiled down to APIC_IO being 
>not selected (this is a UP machine).
>
>Without APIC_IO selected the system would hang while loading SATA.
>
>I've only tried 2.6.5 to notice it would not hang but would emit messeges as 
>"hde: lost interrupt", and eventually go on with the boot, the sata being 
>unusable.
>
>Out of curiousity, I'd like to know if APIC_IO is absolutly needed when 
>dealing with SATA, and also, I'd like to help debug this problem so that a 
>kernel compiled without APIC_IO would at the very least not hang...
>
>
>  
>