Re: sata_nv issues with MCP51 SATA controller

[Jon Ivar Rykkelid <jonry@pvv.org>]

John Stoffel wrote:
> What happens when you just have ONE disk connected to the motherboard
> controller, and the rest connected to PCI controllers?  Does it crap
> out then?  You've just such a nice repeatable problem across
> motherboards that it's a shame to waste this debugging time.
>   
Sorry, I gave in. I have now abandoned my nvidia trials (both 
motherboards have been returned, and I'm now running with Intel chipset) 
- My current motherboard is less ideal (in terms of PCI-slots etc.), but 
on the other hand it works...
> I'm wondering if it's a PCI bus issue somehow, and that the load on
> the motherboard controller isn't supportable when you have a bunch of
> disks on PCI controllers as well.  Shot in the dark...
>   
That was actually not such a bad idea... Unfortunately it's too late now 
(If not I should have tested for sure). I was/am after all running an 
8-disk SATA array (plus a normal IDE disk - not in the raid). I had 4 
disks running through two PCI-cards and 4 disks used the motherboard's 
controller. - When all 8 disks were connected to the two PCI-cards the 
speed dropped compared to when the motherboard's controller took some 
load.. (So it could maybe be an issue with bandwidth / load ? - I don't 
know.)
> Thanks for all your hard work on this, I know how frustrating it is to
> not have a stable system!
>   
Sorry for giving in, but I felt I was banging my head against the wall 
(and with too few sensible solutions being suggested). Now I guess I'm 
semi-happy that all seems to work OK with the Intel chipset.. 
Frustrating that the sata_nv-driver / nvidia HW didn't work with my 
configuration, though...

Thank you all for your effort as well - hope someone figures this out 
sometime in the future.

All the best
Jon Ivar