DMA errors

[Mike Jeays]

On Mon, 2005-10-31 at 08:00, Mike Jeays wrote:
> On Mon, 2005-10-31 at 02:11, Ted Mittelstaedt wrote:
> > >-----Original Message-----
> > >From: Mike Jeays [mailto:Mike.Jeays at rogers.com]
> > >Sent: Saturday, October 29, 2005 8:04 PM
> > >To: Ted Mittelstaedt
> > >Cc: freebsd-questions at freebsd.org
> > >Subject: RE: DMA errors
> > >
> > >
> > >On Sat, 2005-10-29 at 19:48, Ted Mittelstaedt wrote:
> > >> Try a different disk drive.
> > >>
> > >> What motherboard is in use here?
> > >>
> > >> Ted
> > >>
> > >> >-----Original Message-----
> > >> >From: owner-freebsd-questions at freebsd.org
> > >> >[mailto:owner-freebsd-questions at freebsd.org]On Behalf Of Mike Jeays
> > >> >Sent: Saturday, October 29, 2005 4:28 PM
> > >> >To: freebsd-questions at freebsd.org
> > >> >Subject: DMA errors
> > >> >
> > >> >
> > >> >I have a 40GB Maxtor D740X-6L disk, and have been unable to
> > >install 5.4
> > >> >or 6.0 on it.  I get errors:
> > >> >
> > >> >ad0: FAILURE WRITE_DMA STATUS=51 <READY,DSC,ERROR> error=84 (IRC,
> > >> >ABORTED) LBA=..
> > >> >
> > >> >as soon as I try to commmit the changes in sysinstall.
> > >> >
> > >> >I have checked that the IDE cable is the 80-wire type, and cleaned up
> > >> >the connections and so on.
> > >> >
> > >> >I tried installing Ubuntu on this disk, and everything went
> > >perfectly.
> > >> >(Those guys have done a really great job, by the way).
> > >> >
> > >> >Is there some configuration trick I have missed?
> > >> >
> > >> >_______________________________________________
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> > >> >http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions
> > >> >To unsubscribe, send any mail to
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> > >> >
> > >> >--
> > >> >No virus found in this incoming message.
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> > >> >Version: 7.1.362 / Virus Database: 267.12.6/151 - Release Date:
> > >> >10/28/2005
> > >> >
> > >
> > >It works on at least one other disk, a Western Digital 80GB.  The
> > >motherboard is as Asus P4S533.
> > >
> > 
> > Well I hate to be flippant, but there you have it, problem solved.
> > 
> > I have been doing PC work professionally for over 10 years and
> > unprofessionally for at least 10-15 years before that, and ever
> > since the IDE interface was invented I've had to deal with
> > incompatibilties between the controller and the hard disk.  Back
> > in the days that the IDE controller chip was on a paddle card I
> > used to have a box of them and when running into a problem like
> > your doing, I would swap the cards until I got a good combo.  This
> > was all ISA stuff of course.  Once the PCI came out and they
> > started putting the controller on motherboard, they only way around
> > these problems is to play musical chairs with the disk drives.
> > 
> > And all this was long before FreeBSD, let alone Linux, was even
> > a gleam in someone's eye.
> > 
> > Your 40GB Maxtor has some moronic timing incompatibility with the
> > IDE chipset that the FreeBSD driver in 5.4/6.0 happens to tickle,
> > there's nothing you can do about it.  Use your 80GB disk for the
> > FreeBSD system or go find some other brand of motherboard for your
> > 40GB disk, and things will work fine.
> > 
> > Ted
> > 
> > _______________________________________________
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> > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions
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> 
> Thanks for the advice, and that is probably what I will do.  
> 
> However, before I bought the 80GB disk, I used to run 4.6 on the Maxtor
> 40GB, with no problems.  Furthernore, this disk and MB will still run
> Ubuntu and Fedora, so it seems that later FreeBSD releases are more
> sensitive, or drive the hardware a bit harder.
> 
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Thanks for the help - you seem to be correct, Ted.  I bought a second
Western Digital 80GB disk, and 5.4 installs on this with no problem.

The case for the 40 GB Maxtor seems a little odd - it works fine with
Ubuntu, the Redmond product, and Fedora Core 3. I even switched it to
PIO-only mode, and then 5.4 can be installed - but, as expected, it is
very slow - 25 seconds to load KPresenter, for example.  Not too useful.

It also worked with an earlier FreeBSD, version 4.7 and before.  So does
FreeBSD drives disks a bit harder than other OSes, and is it still "in
spec"?