From owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG  Thu Mar 18 10:23:43 2004
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Date: Thu, 18 Mar 2004 10:23:43 -0800 (PST)
From: Doug White <dwhite@gumbysoft.com>
To: Eugene Grosbein <eugen@kuzbass.ru>
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Subject: Re: kern/60526: Post-PAE stable SMP machine freezes
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On Thu, 18 Mar 2004, Eugene Grosbein wrote:

> According to
> http://freebsd.rambler.ru/bsdmail/freebsd-hackers_2003/msg03936.html
> the problem may be related to the <ServerWorks ROSB4 ATA33 controller>
> and ATA write cache (hw.ata.wc=1).

The problem is with DMA mode on these controllers, not write caching.
Write caching may help to get the data rate up fast enough to trigger the
bug, and turning it off slows things down.

I HIGHLY recommend using a DIFFERENT controller for disks. The ROSB4 is OK
for CDROMs and the like, but use a different controller for the system
drive.  Promise controllers work great. :)

ATA tagging is known to work with only a few disk models.  You should
enable ATA tags ONLY if you KNOW your drive supports it, and test
extensively to ensure stability.

-- 
Doug White                    |  FreeBSD: The Power to Serve
dwhite@gumbysoft.com          |  www.FreeBSD.org