From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Nov 19 04:51:28 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id CDD3916A4CE for ; Fri, 19 Nov 2004 04:51:28 +0000 (GMT) Received: from smtp1.server.rpi.edu (smtp1.server.rpi.edu [128.113.2.1]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5F07B43D53 for ; Fri, 19 Nov 2004 04:51:28 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from drosih@rpi.edu) Received: from [128.113.24.47] (gilead.netel.rpi.edu [128.113.24.47]) by smtp1.server.rpi.edu (8.13.0/8.13.0) with ESMTP id iAJ4pKl0026169; Thu, 18 Nov 2004 23:51:22 -0500 Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Sender: drosih@mail.rpi.edu Message-Id: In-Reply-To: <419D145E.8090108@DeepCore.dk> References: <419CEFB9.7060604@DeepCore.dk> <419D145E.8090108@DeepCore.dk> Date: Thu, 18 Nov 2004 23:51:19 -0500 To: =?iso-8859-1?Q?S=F8ren?= Schmidt From: Garance A Drosihn Content-Type: text/plain; charset="iso-8859-1" ; format="flowed" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable X-CanItPRO-Stream: default X-RPI-SA-Score: undef - spam-scanning disabled X-Scanned-By: CanIt (www . canit . ca) cc: Maseed cc: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: sil3112a SATA Controller, current status X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list List-Id: Discussions about the use of FreeBSD-current List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Fri, 19 Nov 2004 04:51:29 -0000 At 10:30 PM +0100 11/18/04, S=F8ren Schmidt wrote: >Garance A Drosihn wrote: > >>I am trying to pin down problems "FAILURE - WRITE_DMA timed out" >>in a new PC that I have. I had some local shop build this for me, >>and apparently there were "a few" miscommunications in what I >>thought I asked for, and what they actually built. >> >>The machine ended up with two SATA controllers: >> atapci0: -- on the motherboard >> atapci1: -- on a PCI card > >I think its the other way around, the VIA chip is part of the >motherboard chipset, the SiI is a "loose" PCI compatible chip. Ugh. You are correct. Somewhere along the line I got the two mixed up. So now have I removed the PCI-based SATA card, and connected the Western Digital hard disk to the on-board SATA. I have just done a complete buildworld/installworld cycle for 5.3-STABLE. I did not see a single WRITE_DMA time-out message. I was *always* seeing at least a few of those before, especially if I specified -j2 (or more) on a `make buildworld'. Many times those messages were benign, but sometimes they would trigger a failure in buildworld, or even more severe problems (including system panics -- which would then leave the file system in a corrupted state...). >>The hard disk is connected to the PCI card. Would that be >>more reliable quality hardware than the SiI3112? > >I'd say so. You are obviously correct... Now I will have to go to the place that built this, and ask them why on earth they added a PCI card for SATA which was *worse* than what was on the motherboard! When I ordered this, I expected it to use the on-board SATA. I never asked for a SATA card. >>Also, the disk is a Western Digital WDC WD1200JD-00GBB0/02.05D02 >>120-gig drive. I *thought* I was ordering a Seagate drive, but it is >>quite likely that there was some confusion on that. Would that Western >>Digital SATA drive be a problem? I do have a Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 >>hard drive that I could use (after shuffling a few things around). > >From observation I'd say that those drives that are native SATA >devices has significantly less problems than those that aren't. Well, I am sure that is a true statement, but it does not answer the question I was trying to ask... :-) I did not know anything about this western digital drive that I ended up with, so I didn't know if it was a native SATA drive. But looking around the web for awhile, it looks like this model of Western Digital is not a native SATA drive. So I think I will replace it just to avoid any further hassles, even though I did not get any errors with this drive once I was using the right controller. I had *intended* to get a Seagate SATA drive in the first place, so swamping the drive will just get me back to what my original plans for hardware. Thanks. Now that I may finally be past these hardware problems, maybe I can get back to writing some actual code! -- Garance Alistair Drosehn =3D gad@gilead.netel.rpi.edu Senior Systems Programmer or gad@freebsd.org Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute or drosih@rpi.edu