SMP ATA woes on 6.0-RELEASE

[Danial Thom]

--- Steve Coles <stcoles at tripos.com> wrote:

> I have a strange deterministic boot problem
> with ATA devices on 2-way dell
> precision machines which boot from their SCSI
> disks. I have 4 of these
> boxes, and the only difference is the add-in
> ATA controller in the affected
> box.
> 
> A good summary would be "which kernels work":
>  
> a) GENERIC from the distribution boots fine
> (uniprocessor)
> b) GENERIC built from 6.0-RELEASE boots fine
> c) SMP built from 6.0-RELEASE hangs during the
> ATA probe of my disks
> d) <custom> SMP kernel built from 6.0-RELEASE
> with no ATA options/devices
> boots fine
> e) <custom> SMP kernel built from 6.0-RELEASE
> with ATA options/devices hangs
> as in c) above
> 
> .. It gets weirder
> 
> F) <custom> SMP kernel built from 6.0-RELEASE
> with no ATA options/devices
> boots fine (same as option d) above, then I
> load the ata modules from my
> normal login shell:
> 
> $> kldload atapci (loads ata.ko etc )
> $> Kldload atadisk
> 
> .. And it produces a stable, fast, ATA disk
> subsystem
> 
> G) <custom> SMP kernel built from 6.0-RELEASE
> with no ATA options/devices
> boots fine (option d) above with a
> 
> atapci_load="YES"
> atadisk_load="YES"
> 
> In loader.conf produces the same hang as c)
> 
> So...I presume the problem is related to the
> fact that the second CPU must
> be launched else the ATA code gets confused
> with my ATA subsystem (Naieve
> explanation of facts)
> 
> Q: Is this a known bug ?
> Q: If it is, is it fixed in -STABLE ?
> Q: If so - when is a good cvsup date that gives
> me a fixed ata driver with a
> "stable stable"
> 
> Help is much appreciated
> 
> Cheers
> 
> Steve
> 

Why would someone buy such an expensive bunch of
hardware and then run an untested, highly suspect
O/S on it? Its mind-boggling...

DT

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