From owner-freebsd-sparc64@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Apr 8 18:37:51 2005 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-sparc64@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6D1FB16A4CE for ; Fri, 8 Apr 2005 18:37:51 +0000 (GMT) Received: from smtp2.server.rpi.edu (smtp2.server.rpi.edu [128.113.2.2]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id CD56943D49 for ; Fri, 8 Apr 2005 18:37:50 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from drosih@rpi.edu) Received: from [128.113.24.47] (gilead.netel.rpi.edu [128.113.24.47]) by smtp2.server.rpi.edu (8.13.0/8.13.0) with ESMTP id j38IbnDi027147; Fri, 8 Apr 2005 14:37:49 -0400 Mime-Version: 1.0 Message-Id: In-Reply-To: <20050408165822.GB81280@dragon.NUXI.org> References: <20050405174753.GA22120@web2.merit.edu> <20050408165822.GB81280@dragon.NUXI.org> Date: Fri, 8 Apr 2005 14:37:48 -0500 To: freebsd-sparc64@freebsd.org, William Bulley From: Garance A Drosihn Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" ; format="flowed" X-CanItPRO-Stream: default X-RPI-SA-Score: undef - spam-scanning disabled X-Scanned-By: CanIt (www . canit . ca) on 128.113.2.2 Subject: Re: problems installing FreeBSD 5.3-RELEASE on UltraSPARC IIe X-BeenThere: freebsd-sparc64@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Porting FreeBSD to the Sparc List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 08 Apr 2005 18:37:51 -0000 At 9:58 AM -0700 4/8/05, David O'Brien wrote: >On Tue, Apr 05, 2005 at 01:47:53PM -0400, William Bulley wrote: > >> At this point I searched the mailing lists for help and someone > > suggested to replace the disk drive. So, I replaced the disk drive > > (40 GB Western Digital) that came with the Sun Blade 150 with a > > brand new 40 GB Western Digital drive and got the same thing. >.. >> ad0: FAILURE - WRITE_DMA timed out >> ad0: TIMEOUT - READ_DMA retrying (2 retries left) LBA=1 >> ad0: FAILURE - READ_DMA timed out >> ad0: TIMEOUT - READ_DMA retrying (2 retries left) LBA=0 > >The correct fix to this is to return to using the stock Sun drive. >They seemed to have tweaked the firmware of the disks they use to >work with the POS ATA controller the Blade 100/150 uses. When my >Sun stock drive died, I went thru pure hell trying to find a disk >that would work OK. What model of ATA controller is it? >Of 5 40GB drives I tried, only an IBM IC35L040AVVN07 worked (has >IC35L040AVVN07-0/VA2OAF0C firmware) works OK (no *_DMA timeouts) >at ATA66. Did you test the other drives under solaris, or only under FreeBSD? It might be that other hard drives will work better once the newest ATA support is committed. I went through all kinds of agony on 5.3 with multiple types of hard drives, on multiple kinds of SATA disk controllers. That agony included lots of "WRITE_DMA timed out" and "READ_DMA timed out" messages. And I had plenty of recommendations that I needed to buy new hard disks. I did do that, and I did switch SATA controllers (trying three different controllers), but those changes never really solved the problems, they only changed the nature of the trouble I was seeing. Things have been much better for me with the latest ATAng changes in 6.x-current, and we now have the even newer ATAmkIII changes (which I have not tried yet). Admittedly all of my headaches were in i386, not sparc64, but it wouldn't surprise me if many of the same issues exist. -- Garance Alistair Drosehn = gad@gilead.netel.rpi.edu Senior Systems Programmer or gad@freebsd.org Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute or drosih@rpi.edu