Date: Sat, 07 Oct 2006 18:36:52 -0700 From: Rich Wales <richw@richw.org> To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Cc: freebsd-current@freebsd.org, freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org Subject: Fix to my Promise SATA timeout problems Message-ID: <20061008013652.E1CC43C36B@whodunit.richw.org> In-Reply-To: <20061002065745.936D33C36B@whodunit.richw.org> References: <20061002065745.936D33C36B@whodunit.richw.org>
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Several days ago, I wrote (in -stable, -current, and -hardware) about problems I had been having with a Promise SATA300 TX4 card (PDC40718 chip). Per a suggestion from Søren, I rechecked my hardware and my BIOS settings. I eventually found that I was able to make the timeout problems disappear by disabling PCI master burst mode in the BIOS setup of my system. (For the record, I've been working with an 800-MHz original "Slot A" Athlon on a VIA VAM-0070 motherboard -- a board which appears to be a rebranded EPoX EP-7KXA.) Not surprisingly, turning off burst mode had a significant impact on the disk I/O speed of the system, but at least it's stable now, with no more timeouts or failures. I'm not sure if the primary culprit here is the Promise card or the motherboard, but it suggests to me that some systems with iffy PCI bus tolerances might require suboptimal BIOS settings in order to work properly with some Promise controllers. At least, this is something to try if you encounter problems with a Promise card. As for whether any effective steps can be taken in the driver to make it more robust against this problem, I'll have to leave that to people who are more familiar with the hardware and the code. I've updated PR 103435 with this info. Rich Wales Palo Alto, CA, USA richw@richw.org http://www.richw.org
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