From owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Wed Mar 26 06:43:41 2008 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9BA4E1065671 for ; Wed, 26 Mar 2008 06:43:41 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jdc@parodius.com) Received: from mx01.sc1.parodius.com (mx01.sc1.parodius.com [72.20.106.3]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 84FE88FC12 for ; Wed, 26 Mar 2008 06:43:41 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from jdc@parodius.com) Received: by mx01.sc1.parodius.com (Postfix, from userid 1000) id 71B3E1CC060; Tue, 25 Mar 2008 23:43:41 -0700 (PDT) Date: Tue, 25 Mar 2008 23:43:41 -0700 From: Jeremy Chadwick To: Gianni Message-ID: <20080326064341.GA74821@eos.sc1.parodius.com> References: <20080322035212.GA15541@eos.sc1.parodius.com> <248F8C92-14F4-4FF8-94FE-2F220FFBE8FB@yahoo.it> <20080325084330.GA36390@eos.sc1.parodius.com> <20080325084455.GA36520@eos.sc1.parodius.com> <6BADAEBA-09F7-4348-ABA4-F78A4EDF2185@yahoo.it> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <6BADAEBA-09F7-4348-ABA4-F78A4EDF2185@yahoo.it> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.17 (2007-11-01) Cc: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Subject: Re: ad0 READ_DMA TIMEOUT errors on install of 7.0-RELEASE X-BeenThere: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Production branch of FreeBSD source code List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Wed, 26 Mar 2008 06:43:41 -0000 On Wed, Mar 26, 2008 at 07:19:47AM +0100, Gianni wrote: > On 25/mar/08, at 09:44, Jeremy Chadwick wrote: >> >> I re-read your mail -- sorry. You're using SATA. >> >> I'll update my Wiki page to state that the loader.conf DMA disable trick >> only works for PATA. >> >> In the interim, I recommend you contact Scott Long, especially if your >> problem is easily repeatable. He's offered to help track this down. > > Thanks I'll try contacting Scott. > > In the meantime I think I have narrowed down the problem in my case to the > on-board Promise SATA controller. > My motherboard has 2 SATA controllers, one Promise and one Via and I have 2 > sets of disks with gmirror RAID 1 - 2xSeagate Barracuda + 2xWD5000YS. > atapci0: > atapci1: > > The Western Digital disks were connected to the Promise controller and > giving the READ_DMA TIMEOUT errors, I've now swapped the disks around so > the Seagate ones are attached to the Promise controller and now these are > reporting the errors. > So it seems I can definitely exclude disk hardware problems. Another possibility is cables. There have been a couple reports in the past of people receiving said errors and swapping cables has completely ridded them of the problem. If you swap cables and the problem continues, then this is definitely something within the FreeBSD ATA layer, or something very close to it. FreeBSD has excellent Promise controller support, since Promise provides Soren with all the necessary technical documents of how to interface with their controllers. So, I don't think the controller is the problem (because of so many reports of this issue on non-Promise controllers, ranging from VIA to Intel to nVidia to ATI), nor do I think your disks are the issue. You would be a very good test subject (sorry to phrase it like that) for Scott. :-) -- | Jeremy Chadwick jdc at parodius.com | | Parodius Networking http://www.parodius.com/ | | UNIX Systems Administrator Mountain View, CA, USA | | Making life hard for others since 1977. PGP: 4BD6C0CB |