ATA_DMA errors - [ workaround for me ]

Johny Mattsson lonewolf-freebsd at earthmagic.org
Sat Jun 25 07:35:08 GMT 2005


Hi all,

Today I've taken a fresh stab at the problem (I'm never at my best at 
5am in the morning having worked through the night), and I have managed 
to come up with what appears to amount to a successful workaround. It 
would be good if my observations could be confirmed by someone else.

Basically, the problem seems to be related to using more than one 
channel on the IDE controller. Data points for this are:

[ SiI 0680 ]
  Channel 1: 40 GB Seagate
  Channel 2: 60 GB Seagate + 160 GB Western Digital
Result: 200k worth of "DMA_READ timed out" and "DMA_WRITE UDMA ICRC 
error" messages, inability to obtain SMART info from the WD drive, WD 
drive info garbled, and WD drive being removed/detached from the config. 
The errors only appeared after a few hours operation, but once they were 
there, no amount of reboots would get rid of them/improve the situation.

To attempt to save the data on the WD disk before the FS got completely 
hammered, I pulled it out, and observed the following:

[ SiI 0680 ]
  Channel 1: 40 GB Seagate
  Channel 2: 60 GB Seagate
Result: DMA_READ timed out errors for both drives, and "DMA_WRITE UDMA 
ICRC error" messages for the 60 GB Seagate.


Since I had an older ATA-100 controller available, I tried with it (it 
can't handle >120GB drives though, so I couldn't as many combinations as 
I would have liked):

[ CMD 649 ]
  Channel 1: 40 GB Seagate
  Channel 2: 60 GB Seagate
Result: DMA_READ timed out errors, but only when both drives are in use 
at the same time. Running fsck on a slice on either drive in parallell 
reliably reproduced the DMA_READ errors. Whenever an error was reported 
for one drive, another error for the other drive always followed right 
after.

[ CMD 649 ]
  Channel 1:
  Channel 2: 40 GB Seagate + 60 GB Seagate
Result: No error messages.


[ CMD 649 ]
  Channel 1: 40 GB Seagate + 60 GB Seagate
  Channel 2:
Result: No error messages.


Encouraged by these findings, I swapped back to the SiI controller to 
test the 160 GB drive:

[ SiI 0680 ]
  Channel 1:
  Channel 2: 160 GB WD
Result: No error messages

[ SiI 0680 ]
  Channel 1: 160 GB WD
  Channel 2:
Result: No error messages


Finally, I tried everything together:

[ SiI 0680 ]
  Channel 1: 160 GB WD
  Channel 2:
[ CMD 649 ]
  Channel 1: 40 GB Seagate + 60 GB Seagate
  Channel 2:
Result: No errors messages.


What I haven't mentioned in the above is that I also tried some 
combinations with different cables, and also at reduced speed (UDM66 vs 
UDMA100). Neither changes had any effect on the behaviour.

With the WD drive alone on the SiI 0680, I was also able to retrieve 
SMART information from it, and it's showing no errors for the drive at 
all. Likewise so for the 60 GB Seagate drive. All drives pass their 
self-tests without any errors.

As mentioned in my previous email, my system drive is hanging off the 
built-in PIIX4 controller, as a single drive and only one channel on the 
controller used. I never saw any errors for that drive throughout my 
testing.


My conclusion is thusly that there is something that's crept in that's 
affecting stability when multiple channels are used on the same 
controller. I'm not versed enough in driver internals to know if it's 
IRQ, DMA, ISR or anything-else related though. Below are my latest dmesg 
and pciconf listings - hopefully this will help someone locate the 
culprit. (Soren?)

So, now I'm stuck with a system with three IDE controllers and one SCSI 
controller, and a motherboard that is utterly confused when I ask it 
boot off an external controller... (i.e. I can only boot off the 
built-in controller now).


Please let me know if there's some other info I can get for you; I'll 
have limited ability to move drives around since this is the file server 
and people get annoyed when it's unavailable, but do ask if you think it 
will help you! :)

Cheers,
/Johny


======= dmesg ========
Copyright (c) 1992-2005 The FreeBSD Project.
Copyright (c) 1979, 1980, 1983, 1986, 1988, 1989, 1991, 1992, 1993, 1994
         The Regents of the University of California. All rights reserved.
FreeBSD 5.4-RELEASE #0: Sun May  8 10:21:06 UTC 2005
     root at harlow.cse.buffalo.edu:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC
Timecounter "i8254" frequency 1193182 Hz quality 0
CPU: Pentium II/Pentium II Xeon/Celeron (467.73-MHz 686-class CPU)
   Origin = "GenuineIntel"  Id = 0x665  Stepping = 5
 
Features=0x183f9ff<FPU,VME,DE,PSE,TSC,MSR,PAE,MCE,CX8,SEP,MTRR,PGE,MCA,CMOV,PA
T,PSE36,MMX,FXSR>
real memory  = 805240832 (767 MB)
avail memory = 778231808 (742 MB)
npx0: <math processor> on motherboard
npx0: INT 16 interface
acpi0: <AWARD AWRDACPI> on motherboard
acpi0: Power Button (fixed)
Timecounter "ACPI-safe" frequency 3579545 Hz quality 1000
acpi_timer0: <24-bit timer at 3.579545MHz> port 0x4008-0x400b on acpi0
cpu0: <ACPI CPU (3 Cx states)> on acpi0
acpi_throttle0: <ACPI CPU Throttling> on cpu0
acpi_button0: <Power Button> on acpi0
pcib0: <ACPI Host-PCI bridge> port 
0x5000-0x500f,0x4000-0x4041,0xcf8-0xcff on acpi0
pci0: <ACPI PCI bus> on pcib0
agp0: <Intel 82443BX (440 BX) host to PCI bridge> mem 
0xe0000000-0xe3ffffff at device 0.0 on pci0
pcib1: <PCI-PCI bridge> at device 1.0 on pci0
pci1: <PCI bus> on pcib1
isab0: <PCI-ISA bridge> at device 7.0 on pci0
isa0: <ISA bus> on isab0
atapci0: <Intel PIIX4 UDMA33 controller> port 
0xf000-0xf00f,0x376,0x170-0x177,0x
3f6,0x1f0-0x1f7 at device 7.1 on pci0
ata0: channel #0 on atapci0
ata1: channel #1 on atapci0
uhci0: <Intel 82371AB/EB (PIIX4) USB controller> port 0x9000-0x901f irq 
11 at device 7.2 on pci0
usb0: <Intel 82371AB/EB (PIIX4) USB controller> on uhci0
usb0: USB revision 1.0
uhub0: Intel UHCI root hub, class 9/0, rev 1.00/1.00, addr 1
uhub0: 2 ports with 2 removable, self powered
pci0: <bridge> at device 7.3 (no driver attached)
atapci1: <SiI 0680 UDMA133 controller> port 
0xa400-0xa40f,0xa000-0xa003,0x9c00-0
x9c07,0x9800-0x9803,0x9400-0x9407 mem 0xea001000-0xea0010ff irq 11 at 
device 9.0 on pci0
ata2: channel #0 on atapci1
ata3: channel #1 on atapci1
atapci2: <CMD 649 UDMA100 controller> port 
0xb800-0xb80f,0xb400-0xb403,0xb000-0xb007,0xac00-0xac03,0xa800-0xa807 
irq 9 at device 10.0 on pci0
ata4: channel #0 on atapci2
ata5: channel #1 on atapci2
pci0: <display, VGA> at device 11.0 (no driver attached)
ahc0: <Adaptec 2940 Ultra SCSI adapter> port 0xbc00-0xbcff mem 
0xea000000-0xea000fff irq 10 at device 12.0 on pci0
aic7880: Ultra Wide Channel A, SCSI Id=7, 16/253 SCBs
rl0: <RealTek 8139 10/100BaseTX> port 0xc000-0xc0ff mem 
0xea002000-0xea0020ff irq 11 at device 13.0 on pci0
miibus0: <MII bus> on rl0
rlphy0: <RealTek internal media interface> on miibus0
rlphy0:  10baseT, 10baseT-FDX, 100baseTX, 100baseTX-FDX, auto
rl0: Ethernet address: 00:40:f4:28:9d:20
sio0: <16550A-compatible COM port> port 0x3f8-0x3ff irq 4 flags 0x10 on 
acpi0
sio0: type 16550A
sio1: <16550A-compatible COM port> port 0x2f8-0x2ff irq 3 on acpi0
sio1: type 16550A
ppc0: <ECP parallel printer port> port 0x778-0x77b,0x378-0x37b irq 7 drq 
3 on acpi0
ppc0: SMC-like chipset (ECP/EPP/PS2/NIBBLE) in COMPATIBLE mode
ppc0: FIFO with 16/16/16 bytes threshold
ppbus0: <Parallel port bus> on ppc0
plip0: <PLIP network interface> on ppbus0
lpt0: <Printer> on ppbus0
lpt0: Interrupt-driven port
ppi0: <Parallel I/O> on ppbus0
atkbdc0: <Keyboard controller (i8042)> port 0x64,0x60 irq 1 on acpi0
atkbd0: <AT Keyboard> irq 1 on atkbdc0
kbd0 at atkbd0
psm0: <PS/2 Mouse> irq 12 on atkbdc0
psm0: model IntelliMouse Explorer, device ID 4
orm0: <ISA Option ROMs> at iomem 0xd0000-0xd07ff,0xc0000-0xc7fff on isa0
pmtimer0 on isa0
fdc0: cannot allocate I/O port (6 ports)
sc0: <System console> at flags 0x100 on isa0
sc0: VGA <16 virtual consoles, flags=0x300>
Timecounter "TSC" frequency 467728754 Hz quality 800
Timecounters tick every 10.000 msec
ad0: 8207MB <ST38641A/3.29> [16676/16/63] at ata0-master UDMA33
ad4: 152627MB <WDC WD1600JB-00DUA3/75.13B75> [310101/16/63] at 
ata2-master UDMA100
ad8: 57241MB <ST360021A/3.05> [116301/16/63] at ata4-master UDMA100
ad9: 76319MB <ST380021A/3.19> [155061/16/63] at ata4-slave UDMA100
Waiting 15 seconds for SCSI devices to settle
sa0 at ahc0 bus 0 target 4 lun 0
sa0: <HP HP35470A 1009> Removable Sequential Access SCSI-2 device
sa0: 5.000MB/s transfers (5.000MHz, offset 8)
sa1 at ahc0 bus 0 target 6 lun 0
sa1: <SUN DLT4000 CC2E> Removable Sequential Access SCSI-2 device
sa1: 10.000MB/s transfers (10.000MHz, offset 15)
cd0 at ahc0 bus 0 target 5 lun 0
cd0: <TEAC CD-ROM CD-532S 1.0A> Removable CD-ROM SCSI-2 device
cd0: 20.000MB/s transfers (20.000MHz, offset 15)
cd0: Attempt to query device size failed: NOT READY, Medium not present
Mounting root from ufs:/dev/ad0s1a
-----------------------

======= pciconf -lv ==========
# pciconf -lv
agp0 at pci0:0:0:  class=0x060000 card=0x00000000 chip=0x71908086 rev=0x02 
hdr=0x00
     vendor   = 'Intel Corporation'
     device   = '82443BX/ZX 440BX/ZX CPU to PCI Bridge (AGP Implemented)'
     class    = bridge
     subclass = HOST-PCI
pcib1 at pci0:1:0: class=0x060400 card=0x00000000 chip=0x71918086 rev=0x02 
hdr=0x01
     vendor   = 'Intel Corporation'
     device   = '82443BX/ZX 440BX/ZX AGPset PCI-to-PCI bridge'
     class    = bridge
     subclass = PCI-PCI
isab0 at pci0:7:0: class=0x060100 card=0x00000000 chip=0x71108086 rev=0x02 
hdr=0x00
     vendor   = 'Intel Corporation'
     device   = '82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4/4E/4M ISA Bridge'
     class    = bridge
     subclass = PCI-ISA
atapci0 at pci0:7:1:       class=0x010180 card=0x00000000 chip=0x71118086 
rev=0x01 hdr=0x00
     vendor   = 'Intel Corporation'
     device   = '82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4/4E/4M IDE Controller'
     class    = mass storage
     subclass = ATA
uhci0 at pci0:7:2: class=0x0c0300 card=0x00000000 chip=0x71128086 rev=0x01 
hdr=0x00
     vendor   = 'Intel Corporation'
     device   = '82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4/4E/4M USB Interface'
     class    = serial bus
     subclass = USB
none0 at pci0:7:3: class=0x068000 card=0x00000000 chip=0x71138086 rev=0x02 
hdr=0x00
     vendor   = 'Intel Corporation'
     device   = '82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4/4E/4M Power Management Controller'
     class    = bridge
atapci1 at pci0:9:0:       class=0x010400 card=0x36801095 chip=0x06801095 
rev=0x02 hdr=0x00
     vendor   = 'Silicon Image Inc (Was: CMD Technology Inc)'
     device   = 'SiI 0680 (Was: PCI-0680) Ultra ATA133 EIDE Controller'
     class    = mass storage
     subclass = RAID
atapci2 at pci0:10:0:      class=0x010400 card=0xf5ffffff chip=0x06491095 
rev=0x02 hdr=0x00
     vendor   = 'Silicon Image Inc (Was: CMD Technology Inc)'
     device   = 'PCI-649 Ultra ATA/100 PCI to IDE/ATA Controller'
     class    = mass storage
     subclass = RAID
none1 at pci0:11:0:        class=0x030000 card=0x00000000 chip=0x0519102b 
rev=0x01 hdr=0x00
     vendor   = 'Matrox Electronic Systems Ltd.'
     device   = 'MGA-2064W Storm (Millennium board)'
     class    = display
     subclass = VGA
ahc0 at pci0:12:0: class=0x010000 card=0x00000000 chip=0x81789004 rev=0x00 
hdr=0x00
     vendor   = 'Adaptec Inc'
     device   = 'AHA-2940U/UW/2940D Ultra/Ultra Wide/Dual SCSI Host Adapter'
     class    = mass storage
     subclass = SCSI
rl0 at pci0:13:0:  class=0x020000 card=0x813910ec chip=0x813910ec rev=0x10 
hdr=0x00
     vendor   = 'Realtek Semiconductor'
     device   = 'RT8139 (A/B/C/810x/813x/C+) Fast Ethernet Adapter'
     class    = network
     subclass = ethernet
--------------------------


-- 
Johny Mattsson - Making IT work  ,-.   ,-.   ,-.  When all else fails,
http://www.earthmagic.org     _.'  `-'   `-'   Murphy's Law still works!



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