[ZFS] Problems with SATA disks (SET TRANSFERT MODE ...)

Rick C. Petty rick-freebsd at kiwi-computer.com
Mon Apr 16 22:18:48 UTC 2007


On Mon, Apr 16, 2007 at 04:44:36PM +0200, Dag-Erling Sm?rgrav wrote:
> "Romain LE DISEZ" <ml.freebsd-fs at ledisez.net> writes:
> > But, when I try to copy a lot of little files (eg: the source tree), I get
> > the following messages on console :
> > ad6: WARNING - SETFEATURES SET TRANSFER MODE taskqueue timeout -
> > completing request directly
> > ad6: WARNING - SETFEATURES SET TRANSFER MODE taskqueue timeout -
> > completing request directly
> > ad6: WARNING - SETFEATURES ENABLE RCACHE taskqueue timeout - completing
> > request directly
> > ad6: WARNING - SETFEATURES ENABLE WCACHE taskqueue timeout - completing
> > request directly
> > ad6: WARNING - SET_MULTI taskqueue timeout - completing request directly
> > ad6: FAILURE - FLUSHCACHE timed out

I was gonna ask-- Is this a Promise chipset?

> I have the same problem with two different Promise chips.  It's not
> limited to ZFS, though ZFS seems to make it worse.

This is a known problem.  I'm not sure if linux handles the Promise chips
better-- I'm testing that tomorrow.  From stepping through our ATA code,
it seems like the card is just not responsive.  For instance, on certain
Promise cards you cannot do:

atacontrol detach $promiseChannel
atacontrol attach $promiseChannel

or:

atacontrol reinit $promiseChannel

Which is weird, because the other 3 channels are being used at the same
time without any problems.  My advice:  Stay away from Promise, or at
least the "Promise PDC40718 SATA300 controller" but I've heard the same
horror stories with numerous other chips.

-- Rick C. Petty


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