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

[Rob]

--- 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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