SATA drive lock-up

[Derek Ragona]

I don't want to get into some flame war here.  I am trying to provide what 
information I can.  If Soren, or anyone else wants more debugging 
information I will be happy to do what I can to provide that 
information.  I simply need them to tell me what and how to capture the 
information.  As the system locks up, there is little ability at present to 
get any information beyond what is on the console.

I offered some additional information as Soren had suggested I was having a 
hardware problem, which I am not.  Again this is all new hardware, all 
shows no issues with  diagnostic tests.

As the Adaptec board I am using is based on Sil3112A controller, and I have 
heard from another user experiencing the same issue, I am simply trying to 
keep the information on this issue up to date.

A couple weeks ago the OS wouldn't even load, a week later it does 
load.  So while not all "fixes" are well publicized, I know there are 
ongoing code changes that do effect the disk subsystems.

Yes FreeBSD is free.  I'm not whining that it doesn't work on this drive 
and controller.  Rather I am trying to report an issue, and follow-up on 
that issue, as this is new hardware.

I have been using FreeBSD since 2.X.  In my experience over the years and 
releases, problems do not get fixed if no one knows they exist.  With 4.9 
and 5.2 on the horizon, and more SATA drives and cards getting used it is 
reasonable to expect more users having problems with a Sil3112A based 
controller.

         -Derek




At 07:35 AM 9/22/2003 -0700, Scott Likens wrote:
>On Mon, 2003-09-22 at 06:54, Derek Ragona wrote:
> > I couldn't make a kernel with 9/19 cvsuped.  I downloaded and installed 
> the
> > 9/20 snapshot.  That also wouldn't complete a buildworld without breaking
> > with the hard drive error.
> >
> > I booted windows and stress tested the drive with all kinds of I/O.  Not a
> > hiccup.
> >
> > It isn't the hardware, it has to be the driver code under 5.1-current.
> >
> >          -Derek
>
>Okay, this is off the subject here on this.
>
>But I wanted to comment,
>
>Just because something 'works' in another "OS" doesn't mean it's working
>right.
>
>Just because my VIA KT133A chipset doesn't hiccup in Windows, doesn't
>mean it's not broken.  Just because I get Data corruption in FreeBSD due
>to my KT133A chipset, doesn't mean it's FreeBSD's fault.
>
>Infact, you'll find FreeBSD and other accompany'ing OS's that are
>GNU/GPL/BSD licenesed to have a more strict driver set.  They can show
>you things you wouldn't normally see in other "OS's" so to speak.
>
>As i said this is off topic, but saying
>
>"But it works in Windows", is like saying But i'm a complete idiot who
>doesn't have a friggen clue how to help.
>
>Don't take this at all personally, it's just that i've hung out in the
>usenet groups, and irc channels long enuf to see the same thing over and
>over again.
>
>So I wanted to stop this trend before it started.
>
> >From my personal experience, if you want something fixed with any "Free"
>"OS" you need to give the person who's fixing the problem as much
>information as possible.
>
>In otherwords, turning on all the debugging features, including DDB and
>trying to help them delve into it and find out what the exact problem
>really is.
>
>It maybe a problem with the controller, maybe the drive, maybe your
>system.  At any rate, you're other "OS" *cough* does work properly.
>That doesn't mean that the driver in that other "OS" isn't correcting a
>hardware issue on the controller that was seen after manufactering.
>
>Infact it's quite common to see "Defects" after manufactering that the
>driver does correct.
>
>So please bear in mind a few things,
>
>One, everyone here does this for the Love of FreeBSD,
>
>Two, it's free.
>
>So in essence you get what you pay for, We do what we can to bring you
>the best damned "Free" "OS" possible.  But we don't always have the
>resources to get all the information possible to create the drivers.
>Some Hardware Manufacter'ers are more then willing to give us specs and
>hardware to test their hardware and help us write drivers.  Others are
>flat out do it yourself.  Then you have even to the more extreme where
>they don't want us to write drivers.
>
>So, if you could please get as much information possible as to why?  It
>may mean your system working properly and not.
>
>Sincerely,
>
>Scott M. Likens
>
>
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