Re: Nvidia ION (MCP79) eSata fails for external cabinet Thecus N2050 (SIL5744)

[Tejun Heo <tj@kernel.org>]

Hello,

Örjan Nordlund wrote:
> I am having an issue using eSata to connect my Thecus N2050 storage
> cabinet to my new homeserver running Ubuntu Server 9.04.
> dmesg shows "failed to IDENTIFY (I/O error, err_mask=0x100)"
> 
> I have read forums and mailing lists to understand solutions to similar
> problems and the following steps have been taken:
> Upgraded to Vanilla kernel 2.6.31
> Changed BIOS settings from SATA->AHCI and then back again
> Tried boot with pci=nomsi
> Changed cables (i have three cables now and no one works)
> Checked that no jumpers can be changed on disks or mainboard
> Checked that the disks can be read through USB interface and from other
> computers (works on Linux, OS X and Win XP)
> Checked disks through eSata on Win XP box
> Upgraded BIOS to latest release (August 2009)
> 
> I have looked in all forums and LKML archives for a solution but can not
> really find anyone that has a similar problem.
> 
> I am suspecting the quirks are in the Thecus N2050. I have had some
> problems with this device in linux before when i was using USB. Thanks
> to Alan Stern a patch (as1154) was introduced in October 2008 to help
> get the device recognized properly by scsi when probing it.
> 
> My Nvidia ION board has a MCP79 controller on-board (should be OK from
> 2.6.24) and the Thecus has a Silicon Image controller (i opened the box
> and read on the chip) with markings:
> SIL5744CNU

SIL5744 should work fine.  Hmmm...

> dmesg (extract from hotplug of device):
> [  753.849929] ata3: exception Emask 0x10 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x1810000 action
> 0xe frozen
> [  753.849970] ata3: irq_stat 0x00400000, PHY RDY changed
> [  753.849994] ata3: SError: { PHYRdyChg LinkSeq TrStaTrns }
> [  753.850024] ata3: hard resetting link
> [  754.598415] ata3: SATA link down (SStatus 10 SControl 300)
> [  754.598430] ata3: EH complete
> [  758.663954] ata3: exception Emask 0x10 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x4140000 action
> 0xe frozen
> [  758.663993] ata3: irq_stat 0x00000040, connection status changed
> [  758.664018] ata3: SError: { CommWake Dispar DevExch }
> [  758.664046] ata3: hard resetting link
> [  759.588208] ata3: SATA link up 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 SControl 300)
> [  759.588245] ata3.00: failed to IDENTIFY (I/O error, err_mask=0x100)

Looks like the device is failing IDENTIFYs immediately.  I don't think
this has anything to do with being _e_SATA.  Can you try it with other
controllers?

Thanks.

-- 
tejun