From owner-freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG Sun Oct 8 01:36:55 2006 Return-Path: X-Original-To: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org Delivered-To: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5395816A403; Sun, 8 Oct 2006 01:36:55 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from richw@richw.org) Received: from smtp2.stanford.edu (smtp2.Stanford.EDU [171.67.20.25]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id ED8CF43D49; Sun, 8 Oct 2006 01:36:54 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from richw@richw.org) Received: from smtp2.stanford.edu (localhost.localdomain [127.0.0.1]) by localhost (Postfix) with SMTP id 11AA84C283; Sat, 7 Oct 2006 18:36:54 -0700 (PDT) Received: from whodunit.richw.org (SW-90-716-276-1.Stanford.EDU [171.66.155.243]) by smtp2.stanford.edu (Postfix) with ESMTP id E801E4C11D; Sat, 7 Oct 2006 18:36:53 -0700 (PDT) Received: from localhost (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by whodunit.richw.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C0FA83C36D; Sat, 7 Oct 2006 18:36:53 -0700 (PDT) X-Virus-Scanned: amavisd-new at richw.org Received: from whodunit.richw.org ([127.0.0.1]) by localhost (whodunit.richw.org [127.0.0.1]) (amavisd-new, port 10024) with ESMTP id C1unIggKLZCT; Sat, 7 Oct 2006 18:36:52 -0700 (PDT) Received: from [172.29.0.21] (evilempire.richw.org [172.29.0.21]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (Client CN "evilempire.richw.org", Issuer "richw.org" (verified OK)) (Authenticated sender: richw) by whodunit.richw.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id E1CC43C36B; Sat, 7 Oct 2006 18:36:52 -0700 (PDT) Date: Sat, 07 Oct 2006 18:36:52 -0700 From: Rich Wales User-Agent: Thunderbird 1.5.0.7 (Windows/20060909) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org References: <20061002065745.936D33C36B@whodunit.richw.org> In-Reply-To: <20061002065745.936D33C36B@whodunit.richw.org> X-Enigmail-Version: 0.94.0.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 8bit Message-Id: <20061008013652.E1CC43C36B@whodunit.richw.org> Cc: freebsd-current@freebsd.org, freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org Subject: Fix to my Promise SATA timeout problems X-BeenThere: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: General discussion of FreeBSD hardware List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Sun, 08 Oct 2006 01:36:55 -0000 Several days ago, I wrote (in -stable, -current, and -hardware) about problems I had been having with a Promise SATA300 TX4 card (PDC40718 chip). Per a suggestion from Søren, I rechecked my hardware and my BIOS settings. I eventually found that I was able to make the timeout problems disappear by disabling PCI master burst mode in the BIOS setup of my system. (For the record, I've been working with an 800-MHz original "Slot A" Athlon on a VIA VAM-0070 motherboard -- a board which appears to be a rebranded EPoX EP-7KXA.) Not surprisingly, turning off burst mode had a significant impact on the disk I/O speed of the system, but at least it's stable now, with no more timeouts or failures. I'm not sure if the primary culprit here is the Promise card or the motherboard, but it suggests to me that some systems with iffy PCI bus tolerances might require suboptimal BIOS settings in order to work properly with some Promise controllers. At least, this is something to try if you encounter problems with a Promise card. As for whether any effective steps can be taken in the driver to make it more robust against this problem, I'll have to leave that to people who are more familiar with the hardware and the code. I've updated PR 103435 with this info. Rich Wales Palo Alto, CA, USA richw@richw.org http://www.richw.org