From owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Fri Oct 13 14:13:33 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org 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 48BCF16A4CA for ; Fri, 13 Oct 2006 14:13:33 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from pbliss@mechno.com) Received: from helix.fantasyland.com (helix.fantasyland.com [216.238.193.34]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id EB97143DC3 for ; Fri, 13 Oct 2006 14:12:31 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from pbliss@mechno.com) Received: from helix.fantasyland.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by helix.fantasyland.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id 925641CD62; Fri, 13 Oct 2006 10:12:30 -0400 (EDT) Received: from localhost (pbliss@localhost) by helix.fantasyland.com (8.13.6/8.13.6/Submit) with ESMTP id k9DECSlK024029; Fri, 13 Oct 2006 10:12:30 -0400 (EDT) (envelope-from pbliss@mechno.com) X-Authentication-Warning: helix.fantasyland.com: pbliss owned process doing -bs Date: Fri, 13 Oct 2006 10:12:28 -0400 (EDT) From: Paul Bliss X-X-Sender: pbliss@helix.fantasyland.com To: Rich Wales In-Reply-To: <20061011171404.637123C36B@whodunit.richw.org> Message-ID: References: <20061003053303.9249A3C36B@whodunit.richw.org> <20061011171404.637123C36B@whodunit.richw.org> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII; format=flowed Cc: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Sata controller headache X-BeenThere: freebsd-current@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 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, 13 Oct 2006 14:13:33 -0000 Thanks again for the lead, Rich. I've been unable to find the comparable setting in my bios, though. I wonder if the burts mode specifically was the issue, or if just the general slowing of the IO was what did the trick for you. FYI I've heard that the nvidia sata, that is onboard with so many new boards, doesn't have this problem. I think I may just go with IDE. For the amount that I've shelled for controllers that haven't worked out... pleh. But, seriously, thanks for everyone who helped out. -Paul On Wed, 11 Oct 2006, Rich Wales wrote: > Earlier, I wrote in -current: > >> I've been seeing the same kinds of errors [as Paul Bliss was having] >> with a Promise SATA300 TX4 controller and a pair of Seagate 300GB >> SATA drives. Apparently, people have been having similar problems >> with SATA drives on Promise controllers for quite some time now, in >> both FreeBSD and Linux systems. Lots of reports and requests for >> help, but no one so far has admitted to having a clue as to what is >> causing it. > > I wanted to let people know that I managed to fix (or, at least, work > around) my problem by adjusting the BIOS settings for my (old "Slot A" > Athlon system) motherboard. Specifically, I disabled PCI master burst > mode, and although this slowed down disk I/O significantly, it made > the instabilities w/r/t the Promise card go away completely. > > I'm not sure whether the fundamental problem is flaky PCI bus design > in some motherboards, or overly picky bus expectations by Promise, but > this experience suggests to me that people who are having timeouts and > hanging errors with Promise SATA controllers might want to try playing > with the PCI-related BIOS settings on their motherboards and see if > that gives them relief. If anyone is having trouble with a Promise > card in a recent-design motherboard with normal BIOS settings, of > course, that would strongly point to Promise as the guilty party. > > Whether anything can be done to relieve this problem in the device > driver is a question I'm not in a position to answer. > > Rich Wales > Palo Alto, CA, USA > richw@richw.org > http://www.richw.org > _______________________________________________ > freebsd-current@freebsd.org mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-current > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-current-unsubscribe@freebsd.org" >