buggy ATA controller: I can install 4.11, but not 5.3 !?!

[Doug White]

On Mon, 28 Mar 2005, Mars Trading wrote:

> I think you may be on to something here.  Not that I'm an expert,
> BTW.  If I remember correctly, 4.11 doesn't use device.hints;
> device irq's and stuff were all included in the kernel
> configuration.
>
> This is no longer the case with 5.x which uses /boot/device.hints to
> tell where attached devices are.  But how does one edit
> device.hints on a boot cd?

You set the variables from the loader with the "set" command. For example,
if you need to add this to device.hints:

hint.ata.0.at="isa"

type this on the loader command line:

set hint.ata.0.at="isa"

On 4.x the hints were configured so that it would still probe the ISA
resources if the PCI attachments failed. On 5.x this is likely not the
case.  However on 5.x that "disabled by BIOS" message is gone so it should
attach if that particular message was the reason before.  However someone
clipped that message from the output so I don't even know why its failing
to attach in the first place.

So its said again ..

Use a different ATA controller. Please. The RZ1000 series should not be
used under ANY CIRCUMSTANCES WHATSOEVER.

>
> Dennis
>
> On Monday 28 March 2005 13:31, Rob wrote:
> > --- Randy Rowe <rerowe at rerowe.com> wrote:
> > > On Sun, 2005-03-27 at 00:10 -0800, Rob wrote:
> > > > I have a very old Pentium-1 PC (60 MHz).
> > > >
> > > > I have installed 4.11, without any problems,
> > > > although the dmesg output has a line about buggy
> > > > ATA controller (see below for dmesg output).
> > > > ------------------------------------------------
> > > >
> > > > 'dmesg' output after 4.11 installation:
> > > >
> > > > CPU: Pentium/P5 (58.18-MHz 586-class CPU)
> > > > atapci0: <RZ 100? ATA controller !WARNING! buggy
> > > >   chip data loss possible> at device 1.0 on pci0
> > > > atapci0: ATA channel disabled by BIOS
> > >
> > > If the above line is true, I am surprised that 4.11
> > > works.
> > > Is the channel really disabled in BIOS?
> >
> > First of all, I'm not expert in these matters. I'm
> > just curious why I can install 4.11, but not 5.3.
> > (I wish I could install 5.3 !!).
> >
> > Indeed, the BIOS is a strange issue.
> > In the BIOS setup, I can select
> >  1) Standard CHS
> >  2) Logical block
> >  3) Extended CHS,
> >  4) Auto Detected
> >
> > But whatever I select here, when I get back into the
> > the BIOS setup, to verify check my settings, I
> > find that 1) is selected. Apparently this is what
> > means "disabled by BIOS", but I'm not sure.
> >
> > The 4.11 dmesg output has following:
> >
> > ------------------------------------------------
> > CPU: Pentium/P5 (55.18-MHz 586-class CPU)
> >   Origin = "GenuineIntel"  Id = 0x517  Stepping = 7
> >   Features=0x1bf<FPU,VME,DE,PSE,TSC,MSR,MCE,CX8>
> > -//-
> > atapci0: <RZ 100? ATA controller !WARNING! buggy
> >      chip data loss possible> at device 1.0 on pci0
> > atapci0: ATA channel disabled by BIOS
> > -//-
> > ata0 at port 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 irq 14 on isa0
> > ata1 at port 0x170-0x177,0x376 irq 15 on isa0
> > -//-
> > ad0: 520MB <ST3660A> [1057/16/63] at ata0-master
> >      BIOSPIO
> > ------------------------------------------------
> >
> > Notice that the harddisks are on isa0, not on
> > atapci0; probably because of this buggy chip and/or
> > BIOS problem.
> >
> > Could it be that 5.3 install cannot (yet?) handle
> > harddisks on isa properly?
> > Or must I help 5.3 by setting some hints/syscontrols
> > before loading the kernel?
> >
> > Thanks,
> > Rob.
> >
> >
> >
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>

-- 
Doug White                    |  FreeBSD: The Power to Serve
dwhite at gumbysoft.com          |  www.FreeBSD.org