Re: HDD LED doesn't light.

Re: HDD LED doesn't light.

[Robert Hancock]

I seem to remember hearing somewhere that some or all of the Silicon Image 
SATA chips have to control the HDD activity light output by twiddling some 
GPIO outputs in the driver, it's not inherently done in the hardware as with 
most controllers..


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Fernando O. Korndörfer" <fok@quatro.com.br>
Newsgroups: fa.linux.kernel
To: "Ben Skeggs" <d4rk74m4@intas.net.au>
Cc: <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>
Sent: Tuesday, August 24, 2004 7:10 AM
Subject: Re: HDD LED doesn't light.


> This seems to be a hardware problem, as I have similar hardware (Asus 
> A7N8x-e deluxe) and the HDD Led also stays off.
> BTW, I'm using MS-Windows(R).
>
> Tell me something, you'r using SATA, right?
>
>
> Ben Skeggs wrote:
>
>>Hello,
>>
>>No matter how much harddisk activity is occuring on my system, the 
>>harddisk LED stays off.  At first I thought I'd misconnected the lead, but 
>>under Windows the light is functional.
>>
>>This occurs on both my SATA harddisk and my PATA harddisk.
>>
>>SATA controller: Silicon Image sil3112
>>PATA controller: NForce2
>>Motherboard    : Abit NF7-S 2.0
>>CPU            : AthlonXP 3000+
>>
>>The earliest kernel I've used with this hardware is 2.6.6, and the problem 
>>occurs right up to 2.6.8.1.
>>
>>I'm completely clueless as I was under the impression that the hardware 
>>controlled the LED.
>>
>>Could I please be CC'd any replies as I'm not subscribed to the list.
>>
>>Regards,
>>Ben Skeggs
>>-

Re: HDD LED doesn't light.

[Eric Mudama]

Just an FYI... historically, the LED has been driven in PATA with a
signal known as /DASP, this is an active-low signal called "Drive
Active / Slave Present" and a PATA drive asserts this signal when
processing a command.

If I understand it right, in SATA, instead of a wire-based protocol,
we have a serialized packet-based protocol, so there was no driving of
an LED in the initial specification.  Revisions to the specification
have since commandeered one of the pins on the power connector for use
as a /DASP signal to drive an LED.  However, to do that you obviously
can't be using a MOLEX->SATA power adapter, you need a motherboard
that natively supports SATA.  The 3112 you mention attempts to be a
native SATA solution, it doesn't act merely as a PATA->SATA converter.
 Therefore, they may not have done the DASP- signal internally.

Another option would be one of the new 4+ port SATA RAID adapters that
has LEDs on the adapter board itself.

On Tue, 24 Aug 2004 21:40:33 -0600, Robert Hancock <hancockr@shaw.ca> wrote:
> I seem to remember hearing somewhere that some or all of the Silicon Image
> SATA chips have to control the HDD activity light output by twiddling some
> GPIO outputs in the driver, it's not inherently done in the hardware as with
> most controllers..
> 
> 
> 
> 
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Fernando O. Korndörfer" <fok@quatro.com.br>
> Newsgroups: fa.linux.kernel
> To: "Ben Skeggs" <d4rk74m4@intas.net.au>
> Cc: <linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org>
> Sent: Tuesday, August 24, 2004 7:10 AM
> Subject: Re: HDD LED doesn't light.
> 
> > This seems to be a hardware problem, as I have similar hardware (Asus
> > A7N8x-e deluxe) and the HDD Led also stays off.
> > BTW, I'm using MS-Windows(R).
> >
> > Tell me something, you'r using SATA, right?
> >
> >
> > Ben Skeggs wrote:
> >
> >>Hello,
> >>
> >>No matter how much harddisk activity is occuring on my system, the
> >>harddisk LED stays off.  At first I thought I'd misconnected the lead, but
> >>under Windows the light is functional.
> >>
> >>This occurs on both my SATA harddisk and my PATA harddisk.
> >>
> >>SATA controller: Silicon Image sil3112
> >>PATA controller: NForce2
> >>Motherboard    : Abit NF7-S 2.0
> >>CPU            : AthlonXP 3000+
> >>
> >>The earliest kernel I've used with this hardware is 2.6.6, and the problem
> >>occurs right up to 2.6.8.1.
> >>
> >>I'm completely clueless as I was under the impression that the hardware
> >>controlled the LED.
> >>
> >>Could I please be CC'd any replies as I'm not subscribed to the list.
> >>
> >>Regards,
> >>Ben Skeggs
> >>-
> 
> -
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
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> Please read the FAQ at  http://www.tux.org/lkml/
>

Re: HDD LED doesn't light.

[Adrian Yee]

> Just an FYI... historically, the LED has been driven in PATA with a
> signal known as /DASP, this is an active-low signal called "Drive
> Active / Slave Present" and a PATA drive asserts this signal when
> processing a command.
> 
> If I understand it right, in SATA, instead of a wire-based protocol,
> we have a serialized packet-based protocol, so there was no driving
> of
> an LED in the initial specification.  Revisions to the specification
> have since commandeered one of the pins on the power connector for
> use
> as a /DASP signal to drive an LED.  However, to do that you
> obviously
> can't be using a MOLEX->SATA power adapter, you need a motherboard
> that natively supports SATA.  The 3112 you mention attempts to be a
> native SATA solution, it doesn't act merely as a PATA->SATA
> converter.
>  Therefore, they may not have done the DASP- signal internally.

But this doesn't explain why I have two motherboards here where the HDD
activity LED does not light up in linux (for SATA drives) but does in
windows .  Note that it only starts working in windows *after* the
driver has loaded.  One is an ASUS A7N8X Deluxe (rev 1.0) and the other
an Abit NF7-S (rev 2.0), both with Sil3112 controllers.  On the other
hand, I have a DFI Ultra Infinity with a Sil3114 whose activity LED
works fine in linux.

Adrian

Re: HDD LED doesn't light.

[Matt Domsch]

On Tue, Aug 31, 2004 at 12:44:08PM -0700, Adrian Yee wrote:
> But this doesn't explain why I have two motherboards here where the HDD
> activity LED does not light up in linux (for SATA drives) but does in
> windows .  Note that it only starts working in windows *after* the
> driver has loaded.

I've heard of implementations of the drive light on SATA where it is
controlled through a general-purpose I/O pin somewhere else in the
chipset.  If that's the case, then the Windows driver may well know
how to drive the GPIO to indicate drive activity for you...

-- 
Matt Domsch
Sr. Software Engineer, Lead Engineer
Dell Linux Solutions linux.dell.com & www.dell.com/linux
Linux on Dell mailing lists @ http://lists.us.dell.com

Re: HDD LED doesn't light.

[Eric Mudama]

On Tue, 31 Aug 2004 14:59:02 -0500, Matt Domsch <matt_domsch@dell.com> wrote:
> On Tue, Aug 31, 2004 at 12:44:08PM -0700, Adrian Yee wrote:
> > But this doesn't explain why I have two motherboards here where the HDD
> > activity LED does not light up in linux (for SATA drives) but does in
> > windows .  Note that it only starts working in windows *after* the
> > driver has loaded.
> 
> I've heard of implementations of the drive light on SATA where it is
> controlled through a general-purpose I/O pin somewhere else in the
> chipset.  If that's the case, then the Windows driver may well know
> how to drive the GPIO to indicate drive activity for you...

That would be my guess too.

This is all part of the initial hiccups in a brand new interface. 
Within another year or two, everything will stabilize out and work "as
intended" (crosses fingers)

--eric

HDD LED doesn't light.

[Ben Skeggs]

Hello,

No matter how much harddisk activity is occuring on my system, the 
harddisk LED stays off.  At first I thought I'd misconnected the lead, 
but under Windows the light is functional.

This occurs on both my SATA harddisk and my PATA harddisk.

SATA controller: Silicon Image sil3112
PATA controller: NForce2
Motherboard    : Abit NF7-S 2.0
CPU            : AthlonXP 3000+

The earliest kernel I've used with this hardware is 2.6.6, and the 
problem occurs right up to 2.6.8.1.

I'm completely clueless as I was under the impression that the hardware 
controlled the LED.

Could I please be CC'd any replies as I'm not subscribed to the list.

Regards,
Ben Skeggs

Re: HDD LED doesn't light.

["Fernando O. Korndörfer"]

This seems to be a hardware problem, as I have similar hardware (Asus 
A7N8x-e deluxe) and the HDD Led also stays off.
BTW, I'm using MS-Windows(R).

Tell me something, you'r using SATA, right?


Ben Skeggs wrote:

>Hello,
>
>No matter how much harddisk activity is occuring on my system, the 
>harddisk LED stays off.  At first I thought I'd misconnected the lead, 
>but under Windows the light is functional.
>
>This occurs on both my SATA harddisk and my PATA harddisk.
>
>SATA controller: Silicon Image sil3112
>PATA controller: NForce2
>Motherboard    : Abit NF7-S 2.0
>CPU            : AthlonXP 3000+
>
>The earliest kernel I've used with this hardware is 2.6.6, and the 
>problem occurs right up to 2.6.8.1.
>
>I'm completely clueless as I was under the impression that the hardware 
>controlled the LED.
>
>Could I please be CC'd any replies as I'm not subscribed to the list.
>
>Regards,
>Ben Skeggs
>-
>To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
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>Please read the FAQ at  http://www.tux.org/lkml/
>
>  
>