Re: [2.6.19-rc2] SATA boot problems

Re: [2.6.19-rc2] SATA boot problems

[Mark Lord]

Hi.  I'm copying your posting for the linux-ide mailing list,
where the libata designers hang out.

Robert Wruck wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I'm having problems booting from a SATA disk with 2.6.19-rc2.
> Grub loads fine, but when the kernel boots, it *sometimes* ends up with
> VFS: Cannot open root device "sda5" or unknown-block(0,0)
> 
> The strange thing is that this happens only in 2/3 of the boot attempts.
> If I reset the machine, the next attempt is likely to succeed.
> I first noted this when switching from 2.6.17 (2.6.17.11, IIRC) to
> 2.6.18 and it persists in 2.6.19-rc2 (Windows does not encounter similar
> problems on the same machine).
> 
> I attached a diff of a successful and an unsuccessful netconsole log
> below. It seems that the drive is sometimes simply not detected...
> I'm not using an initrd and changing the kernel command line from
> root=/dev/sda5 to root=0x0805 did not help.
> 
> The controller is:
> 00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FW (ICH6/ICH6W) SATA
> Controller (rev 03)
> 
> Any ideas? Please CC me, as I'm not subscribed.
> Robert
> 
> 
>  ata1: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xEC00 ctl 0xE802 bmdma 0xDC00 irq 19
>  ata2: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xE400 ctl 0xE002 bmdma 0xDC08 irq 19
>  scsi0 : ata_piix
> +ata1.00: ATA-7, max UDMA/133, 312581808 sectors: LBA48 NCQ (depth 0/32)
> +ata1.00: ata1: dev 0 multi count 16
> +ata1.00: configured for UDMA/133
>  scsi1 : ata_piix
>  ATA: abnormal status 0x7F on port 0xE407
> +  Vendor: ATA       Model: Maxtor 6V160E0    Rev: VA11
> +  Type:   Direct-Access                      ANSI SCSI revision: 05
> +SCSI device sda: 312581808 512-byte hdwr sectors (160042 MB)
> +sda: Write Protect is off
> +SCSI device sda: drive cache: write back
> +SCSI device sda: 312581808 512-byte hdwr sectors (160042 MB)
> +sda: Write Protect is off
> +SCSI device sda: drive cache: write back
> + sda: sda1 sda2 sda3 < sda5 sda6 sda7 sda8 sda9 sda10 sda11 sda12 >
> +sd 0:0:0:0: Attached scsi disk sda
> +sd 0:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg0 type 0
>  ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1d.7[A] -> GSI 23 (level, low) -> IRQ 20
>  ehci_hcd 0000:00:1d.7: EHCI Host Controller
>  ehci_hcd 0000:00:1d.7: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1
> 
> -
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Re: [2.6.19-rc2] SATA boot problems

[Tejun Heo]

Mark Lord wrote:
> Hi.  I'm copying your posting for the linux-ide mailing list,
> where the libata designers hang out.
> 
> Robert Wruck wrote:
>> Hi,
>>
>> I'm having problems booting from a SATA disk with 2.6.19-rc2.
>> Grub loads fine, but when the kernel boots, it *sometimes* ends up with
>> VFS: Cannot open root device "sda5" or unknown-block(0,0)
>>
>> The strange thing is that this happens only in 2/3 of the boot attempts.
>> If I reset the machine, the next attempt is likely to succeed.
>> I first noted this when switching from 2.6.17 (2.6.17.11, IIRC) to
>> 2.6.18 and it persists in 2.6.19-rc2 (Windows does not encounter similar
>> problems on the same machine).
>>
>> I attached a diff of a successful and an unsuccessful netconsole log
>> below. It seems that the drive is sometimes simply not detected...
>> I'm not using an initrd and changing the kernel command line from
>> root=/dev/sda5 to root=0x0805 did not help.
>>
>> The controller is:
>> 00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801FB/FW (ICH6/ICH6W) SATA
>> Controller (rev 03)
>>
>> Any ideas? Please CC me, as I'm not subscribed.
>> Robert

Can you give a shot at the latest -mm (2.6.19-rc2-mm2)?  It contains 
device-detection-via-polling which is supposed to fix problems similar 
to yours.

-- 
tejun

Re: [2.6.19-rc2] SATA boot problems

[Robert Wruck]

> Can you give a shot at the latest -mm (2.6.19-rc2-mm2)?  It contains
> device-detection-via-polling which is supposed to fix problems similar
> to yours.

I tried 2.6.19-rc2-mm2 and was not able to reproduce the bug so far.
Seems to be fixed :-)

Thanks,
Robert