Re: sata_via bus errors fixed?

[Dave Howorth <dhoworth@mrc-lmb.cam.ac.uk>]

Tejun Heo wrote:
> There are plenty of howtos on building kernel.  It takes some time to
> get used to but once you get a hang of it there's nothing difficult
> about it.

Hmm, I've finally managed to get the compilation to work often enough to
run my tests but I don't think I'll be taking up kernel compiling as a
hobby :(

> The best way would be finding out a workload which doesn't take too
> much time but reliably triggers the issue on a problematic kernel.

That would be booting then :) The dmesg reliably has or does not have
the error messages.

>> Tonight I plan to compile that kernel, which should confirm that I
>> understand how to do it, and then I'll disable the VIA FIFO workaround
>> as you suggest and see what happens.

OK. So the results are now in:

(1) stock SUSE HEAD/11.2 (2.6.37) - works fine with no problem
(2) SUSE 2.6.37 with the 'magic patch' commented out - shows the problem
(3) stock updated SUSE 11.2 (2.6.31.14) - shows the problem
(4) stock SUSE 11.2 with the 'magic patch' added (2.6.31.5) - works fine
with no problem

I think that's fairly indicative that the 'magic patch' is able to cure
my problem with a VT 6241A controller and a Samsung HD103SJ drive.

One thing I still need to investigate is why Ubuntu 10.04 was showing
the problem, but perhaps I never got as far as updating the kernel after
installing it. (AFAIK as installed it is 2.6.31, whilst the current
update is 2.6.32-28 which I think should have the patch)

Thanks for your help.
Dave