2.6.8 -> 2.6.11 (+ata-dev patch) -- HDD is always on

2.6.8 -> 2.6.11 (+ata-dev patch) -- HDD is always on

[Yaroslav Halchenko]

I've been running debian stable with 2.6.8 kernel but due to recent
failure of the SATA harddrive I've decided to upgrade to 2.6.11 + libata
patch (2.6.11-libata-dev1.patch.gz) and recent smartmontools

After everything worked out and I decided to rest in piece but I've
found that HDD LED light nomater what. It seems to turn off during BIOS
checks and then kicks in 1-2 secs after kernel starts booting. No
prominent harddrive activity noise can be heard but this drive is
quite silent so it is hard to say.

SATA drivers were compiled in the kernel to don't mess with initrd.

QUESTION: 

LED constantly ON - does it signal about a problem or may be just
that some status bit is hanging? Should I worry and try differen kernel
version?

YIKES: ran hddtemp /dev/sda and whole box hanged... SysRq keys - no
effect... heh heh... reboot -> nothing in logs

Detailed information on the system and drives (outputs of smartctl -a)
can be found

http://www.onerussian.com/Linux/bugs/ata/

Thank you in advance for ideas

P.S. was ata-dev patch incorporated in recent kernel versions so I could
use SMART with vanilla kernel?

-- 
Yaroslav Halchenko
  Graduate Student  CS Dept. UNM,  ABQ
        Linux User  175555

Re: 2.6.8 -> 2.6.11 (+ata-dev patch) -- HDD is always on

[Jeff Garzik]

Yaroslav Halchenko wrote:
> I've been running debian stable with 2.6.8 kernel but due to recent
> failure of the SATA harddrive I've decided to upgrade to 2.6.11 + libata
> patch (2.6.11-libata-dev1.patch.gz) and recent smartmontools
> 
> After everything worked out and I decided to rest in piece but I've
> found that HDD LED light nomater what. It seems to turn off during BIOS
> checks and then kicks in 1-2 secs after kernel starts booting. No
> prominent harddrive activity noise can be heard but this drive is
> quite silent so it is hard to say.

Does this happen in unpatched 2.6.12.3 or 2.6.13-rc4?


> QUESTION: 
> 
> LED constantly ON - does it signal about a problem or may be just
> that some status bit is hanging? Should I worry and try differen kernel
> version?
> 
> YIKES: ran hddtemp /dev/sda and whole box hanged... SysRq keys - no
> effect... heh heh... reboot -> nothing in logs

> P.S. was ata-dev patch incorporated in recent kernel versions so I could
> use SMART with vanilla kernel?

This is one of the reasons why SMART support is not yet in the mainline 
kernel!

	Jeff

Re: 2.6.8 -> 2.6.11 (+ata-dev patch) -- HDD is always on

[Yaroslav Halchenko]

On Fri, Jul 29, 2005 at 12:25:42AM -0400, Jeff Garzik wrote:
> Does this happen in unpatched 2.6.12.3 or 2.6.13-rc4?
just tried unpatched 2.6.12.3.
The Box stalls booting with 
"Uncompressing Linux... Ok, booting the kernel.
_"

interesting though that led hdd light is off at first, blinks few
times, and 1-2 secs after it stalls with above message - it gets its
steady green light on.

Could I screw up some NEW kernel configuration parameters when pulling
config from 2.6.8 from Debian? I don't know :-/

I will try 2.6.13-rc4 now... heh heh


-- 
Yaroslav Halchenko
  Graduate Student  CS Dept. UNM,  ABQ
        Linux User  175555

Re: 2.6.8 -> 2.6.11 (+ata-dev patch) -- HDD is always on

[Yaroslav Halchenko]

Damn me - sorry for the misinformation... I've compiled the kernel
without Debian-loved initrd image... 

so I've booted 2.6.12.3 -- LED light is on - so I bet no blame on libata
patch, although I've mentioned few patches from that patch migrated into
the mainstream kernel.   

Any ideas on which next step to take? 2.6.13-rc4? or vanilla 2.6.11?


On Fri, Jul 29, 2005 at 01:58:20AM -0400, Yaroslav Halchenko wrote:
> On Fri, Jul 29, 2005 at 12:25:42AM -0400, Jeff Garzik wrote:
> > Does this happen in unpatched 2.6.12.3 or 2.6.13-rc4?
> just tried unpatched 2.6.12.3.
> The Box stalls booting with 
> "Uncompressing Linux... Ok, booting the kernel.
> _"

> interesting though that led hdd light is off at first, blinks few
> times, and 1-2 secs after it stalls with above message - it gets its
> steady green light on.

> Could I screw up some NEW kernel configuration parameters when pulling
> config from 2.6.8 from Debian? I don't know :-/

> I will try 2.6.13-rc4 now... heh heh
-- 
Yaroslav Halchenko
Research Assistant, Psychology Department, Rutgers-Newark
Office: (973) 353-5440x263 | FWD: 82823 | Fax: (973) 353-1171
        101 Warren Str, Smith Hall, Rm 4-105, Newark NJ 07105
Student  Ph.D. @ CS Dept. NJIT

Re: 2.6.8 -> 2.6.11 (+ata-dev patch) -- HDD is always on

[Yaroslav Halchenko]

> > > Does this happen in unpatched 2.6.12.3 or 2.6.13-rc4?
tried clear 2.6.11 ( with no libata patch -- light is on :-( )

/booted 2.6.8 Debian kernel -- everything is fine, but no libata-dev
patch for SATA makes me wonder if you should try 2.6.13-rc4/

once again -- details of the system can be found
http://www.onerussian.com/Linux/bugs/ata/

-- 
Yaroslav Halchenko
Research Assistant, Psychology Department, Rutgers-Newark
Office: (973) 353-5440x263 | FWD: 82823 | Fax: (973) 353-1171
        101 Warren Str, Smith Hall, Rm 4-105, Newark NJ 07105
Student  Ph.D. @ CS Dept. NJIT

Re: 2.6.8 -> 2.6.11 (+ata-dev patch) -- HDD is always on

[Yaroslav Halchenko]

On Fri, Jul 29, 2005 at 12:25:42AM -0400, Jeff Garzik wrote:
> Does this happen in unpatched 2.6.12.3 or 2.6.13-rc4?
now tested both of them -- light is constantly on in both.

does the HDD LED always signals about hardware activity or it can just
be sticky and not reset properly?

is there libata-dev patch for 2.6.8 kernel which seems to be running
fine so I might just patch it to get SATA SMART?

Thank you in advance for the feedback

-- 
Yaroslav Halchenko
Research Assistant, Psychology Department, Rutgers-Newark
Office: (973) 353-5440x263 | FWD: 82823 | Fax: (973) 353-1171
        101 Warren Str, Smith Hall, Rm 4-105, Newark NJ 07105
Student  Ph.D. @ CS Dept. NJIT

Re: 2.6.8 -> 2.6.11 (+ata-dev patch) -- HDD is always on

[Jeff Garzik]

Yaroslav Halchenko wrote:
> On Fri, Jul 29, 2005 at 12:25:42AM -0400, Jeff Garzik wrote:
> 
>>Does this happen in unpatched 2.6.12.3 or 2.6.13-rc4?
> 
> now tested both of them -- light is constantly on in both.
> 
> does the HDD LED always signals about hardware activity or it can just
> be sticky and not reset properly?

As long as the system otherwise functions properly, the LED is the least 
of our worries...

	Jeff