From owner-freebsd-hackers  Wed Feb 20 11:53:29 2002
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From: Søren Schmidt <sos@freebsd.dk>
Message-Id: <200202201953.g1KJrKq77437@freebsd.dk>
Subject: Re: Serverworks ATA controller & data corruption
In-Reply-To: <15475.50753.252494.269972@grasshopper.cs.duke.edu>
To: Andrew Gallatin <gallatin@cs.duke.edu>
Date: Wed, 20 Feb 2002 20:53:20 +0100 (CET)
Cc: sos@FreeBSD.ORG, freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG
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It seems Andrew Gallatin wrote:
> I have a few machines with the following ata controller:
> 
> atapci0@pci0:15:1:  class=0x01018a card=0x00000000 chip=0x02111166 rev=0x00 hdr=0x00
> They're dual-boot FreeeBSD/linux boxes. After loosing 2 filesystems in
> linux, I did a web search and I found that linux has a problem with
> data corruption when using these controllers & disabled IDE DMA in linux.
> 
> Thinking that FreeBSD was immune (these boxes spend 90% of their time
> in FreeBSD doing driver development & crashing frequently, haven't
> lost a fs yet), I continued to run the disk at UDMA33 in FreeBSD.
> 
> However, I began to notice very minor data corruption when I attempted
> to buildworld them from 4.4-RELEASE to 4.5-STABLE.  By minor, I mean
> syntax errors in files caused by 4 characters moved a few lines up or
> down in a file, things like that.  I concluded that FreeBSD might not
> be immune after all and switched to PIO.  After checking out a new src
> tree, the problem seems to be gone and I'm able to buildworld.
> 
> Do you think it would be wise to disable DMA by default on these chips?

Hmm, the problem is known, but belived to be fixed *IF* your BIOS
setup things the right way. I've newer seen the problem on my
ASUS CUR-DLS, but I have several reports of TYAN's (forgot the model#)
that fails all over. I have not verified if ASUS has done some HW
trickery or if its just a BIOS matter. However the Serverworks
ROSB4 chips is not one I would recommend using, if you need serious
ATA support on such a board, install a Promise TX2 or later or a
HPT370 or later ...

-Søren

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