ATA problems again ... (was: Re: GEOM problems again...)

[Robert Watson]

On Thu, 13 Jul 2006, Johan Ström wrote:

> And now again... raid gone degraded only 2 days after reboot!
>
> Jul 12 22:22:50 elfi kernel: ad4: FAILURE - device detached
> Jul 12 22:22:50 elfi kernel: subdisk4: detached
> Jul 12 22:22:50 elfi kernel: ad4: detached
> Jul 12 22:22:50 elfi kernel: GEOM_MIRROR: Device gm0s1: provider ad4s1 
> disconnected.
> Jul 12 22:22:50 elfi kernel: 
> g_vfs_done():mirror/gm0s1f[READ(offset=120776474624, length=32768)]error = 6
>
> $ uname -a
> FreeBSD elfi.stromnet.org 6.1-RELEASE FreeBSD 6.1-RELEASE #3: Tue May  9 
> 20:40:23 CEST 2006 johan at elfi.stromnet.org:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/GENERIC  i386
>
> Still no luck with atacontrol...
>
> Is there any way to debug this further ?? I've tested the disk, the SATA 
> cables are new... I've had similar problems with other motherboard... I dont 
> think this is related to hw problems, but rather a softwareproblem that 
> needs to be solved, this is not something one can call stable ;)
>
> So, any pointers how to enable more debugging or anything that could give 
> some clues?

I don't have a whole lot to add to this thread, but have changed the subject 
to make sure that the right people are reading this.  This is likely either a 
hardware problem (motherboard/cable/drive) or driver problem.  GEOM and the 
mirror driver seems to be behaving as desired (it detaches a drive reported by 
the driver as being bad).  Could you post the dmesg -v output for the probing 
of the ata controller and driver?

Robert N M Watson
Computer Laboratory
University of Cambridge