Date: Sat, 18 Sep 2004 15:50:16 -0400 From: Louis LeBlanc <FreeBSD@keyslapper.org> To: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org Cc: FreeBSD@keyslapper.org Subject: Intel ICH5 SATA 150 disk controller support? Message-ID: <20040918195016.GB99010@keyslapper.org>
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More Dimension 8300 woes. This is long, and I'm sorry, but I wanted to include as much relevant info as possible. My shiny new Dell Dimension 8300 continues to have problems writing to the hard drive. Over the last 3 months, it has regularly had problems with DMA timeouts, and only the following sort of messages show up in /var/log/messages: Sep 17 19:41:33 key2 kernel: ad4: TIMEOUT - WRITE_DMA retrying (2 retries left) LBA=57935679 Sep 17 19:41:39 key2 kernel: ad4: TIMEOUT - WRITE_DMA retrying (2 retries left) LBA=57852767 Sep 17 19:43:06 key2 kernel: ad4: TIMEOUT - WRITE_DMA retrying (2 retries left) LBA=69973311 Sep 17 19:43:12 key2 kernel: ad4: TIMEOUT - WRITE_DMA retrying (2 retries left) LBA=58356223 Sep 17 19:43:18 key2 kernel: ad4: TIMEOUT - WRITE_DMA retrying (2 retries left) LBA=69206207 This is often followed by a complete lockup. Hard reboot required. I have posted queries on freebsd-questions, where it was suggested that I might have gotten an off the shelf dud for a hard drive. I didn't think this was likely, new drive, tested at the factory and all, so I asked for the configuration approach to debugging the problem. It was suggested, among other things, that I put the drive in PIO mode, which caused the machine to immediately lock up without further ado. None of the other suggestions had much affect either way. While investigating, I collected the following info on the drive and controller: <root># atacontrol cap 2 0 ATA channel 2, Master, device ad4: ATA/ATAPI revision 6 device model WDC WD1600JD-75HBB0 serial number WD-WMAL91191824 firmware revision 08.02D08 cylinders 16383 heads 16 sectors/track 63 lba supported 268435455 sectors lba48 supported 312500000 sectors dma supported overlap not supported Feature Support Enable Value Vendor write cache yes yes read ahead yes yes dma queued no no 0/0x00 SMART yes yes microcode download yes yes security no no power management yes yes advanced power management no no 0/0x00 automatic acoustic management yes yes 128/0x80 128/0x80 As mentioned in previous messages to questions (search for the string "TIMEOUT - WRITE_DMA" or "AARRRGGHHH!" to see the thread), the disk controller is an Intel ICH5 SATA 150. I was pretty sure this one was supported, so I went to the FreeBSD site to verify it in the 5.2.1 hardware list, and it wasn't there. I was positive I had seen it, so I double checked the 4.10 controller list, and the ICH5 *is* listed. I've found nothing in the hardware list archives relating to the write dma timeout or the Intel ICH5 controller. Here's the relevant info from /var/run/dmesg.boot: atapci1: <Intel ICH5 SATA150 controller> port 0xfea0-0xfeaf,0xfe30-0xfe33,0xfe20-0xfe27,0xfe10-0xfe13,0xfe00-0xfe07 irq 18 at device 31.2 on pci0 atapci1: [MPSAFE] ata2: at 0xfe00 on atapci1 ata2: [MPSAFE] . . . ad4: 152587MB <WDC WD1600JD-75HBB0> [310019/16/63] at ata2-master UDMA100 So, last night it locked up again, and as usual, the disk was all fsck'd up when I hard cycled it. Data was lost in /var, /usr, and /home. Yes, I have the most critical data backed up. This time, I decided to get Dell involved, and spent awhile on the phone with a very helpful hardware tech who was not at all concerned with the fact that I removed WinXP without ever booting it. He introduced me to a nifty little bios level diagnostic tool, accessed by hitting CTRL-ALT-D when the Dell logo flashes up at startup. The drive passed just fine, so the chances my problem is the disk is pretty close to nil. I wonder what other tools are available at boot up . . . This system has encountered problems serious enough to require a full install from scratch 3 times including last night (though I haven't reinstalled it this time yet). Several of my ports seem to have stopped working this time, and even though I reinstalled them from scratch, the browsers won't work. I imagine it will be of interest, so I'll just say that I have turned off softupdates for /, /usr, and /var, and have tried the bios level DMA switched both on and off, and none of it seems to matter. So my first question; is there any reason that ICH5 support would be dropped from 5.2.1? It doesn't really make sense to me for a new controller type to be dropped unless there were licensing issues, which doesn't seem likely. Second of all, am I now pigeonholed into FreeBSD 4.10 (assuming I refuse to run anything but *BSD on the machine)? Is there any expectation that 5.3 will once again include the ICH5 controller? And finally, though I probably know the answer, is there any way to get this support in the 5.x branch before 5.3 is released? Any chance this is already present in CURRENT? I don't mind going that route until 5.3 is released, but only if it will get me the device support I need. I can just wait until then to put the system in place as my main server system (it won't be long, right?). ***\ I'm usually subscribed to freebsd-questions, but I'm not *** > subscribed here, so I would appreciate being copied directly ***/ in your responses. Thanks in advance. Lou -- Louis LeBlanc FreeBSD@keyslapper.org Fully Funded Hobbyist, KeySlapper Extrordinaire :) http://www.keyslapper.org ԿԬ Hacker's Law: The belief that enhanced understanding will necessarily stir a nation to action is one of mankind's oldest illusions.
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