2007-01-14 22:48:29

by Christoph Biedl

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: it821x trouble since 2.6.18

Hi,

There are ITE 8212-based controllers installed in some of my
computers. I had always skipped the build-in RAID things and used them
as plain controllers.

1. Beginning with 2.6.18 there was some trouble, basically slowed data
transfer, sometimes even a totally stalled system (I cannot reproduce
the latter though).

Diffing dmesg of 2.6.17.x and 2.6.18.x (same for 2.6.19):

Probing IDE interface ide2...
hde: SAMSUNG VA34324A, ATA DISK drive
hde: Performing identify fixups.
ide2 at 0xd000-0xd007,0xd402 on irq 10
hde: max request size: 128KiB
-hde: 8446032 sectors (4324 MB) w/478KiB Cache, CHS=14896/9/63, BUG
+hde: 8446032 sectors (4324 MB) w/478KiB Cache, CHS=14896/9/63, BUG DMA OFF
hde:hde: recal_intr: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
hde: recal_intr: error=0x04 { DriveStatusError }
ide: failed opcode was: unknown
+hde: irq timeout: status=0xd0 { Busy }
+ide: failed opcode was: unknown
+ide2: reset: master: ECC circuitry error
+hde: recal_intr: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
+hde: recal_intr: error=0x04 { DriveStatusError }
+ide: failed opcode was: unknown
hde1 hde2 < hde5 hde6 >

OK, there was "BUG" up to and including 2.6.17 but the disk(s) worked
without any problem.

Not surprisingly the disk throughput was affected by that. Comparing
"hdparm -tT /dev/hde":

2.6.17
/dev/hde:
Timing cached reads: 88 MB in 2.01 seconds = 43.72 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 26 MB in 3.21 seconds = 8.10 MB/sec

2.6.18
/dev/hde:
Timing cached reads: 90 MB in 2.04 seconds = 44.01 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 16 MB in 3.14 seconds = 5.10 MB/sec


2. Trying to understand what has happened I found the main difference
is not in the driver but in ide-dma.c:

--- linux-2.6.17.14/drivers/ide/ide-dma.c 2006-06-18 01:49:35.000000000 +0000
+++ linux-2.6.18.6/drivers/ide/ide-dma.c 2006-09-20 03:42:06.000000000 +0000
@@ -752,7 +750,7 @@
goto bug_dma_off;
printk(", DMA");
} else if (id->field_valid & 1) {
- printk(", BUG");
+ goto bug_dma_off;
}
return;
bug_dma_off:


and reverting that change returns the old transfer rates. But that is
probably not a good idea.


3. To increase confusion: I had learned the ite8212 chip is close to
the cmd/sil680, and patching siimage.c had been a solution to get
support for 8212 before it showed up in the kernel.

So I tried this again:

--- ORG/linux-2.6.19.2/drivers/ide/pci/siimage.c 2006-11-29 21:57:37.000000000 +0000
+++ NEW/linux-2.6.19.2/drivers/ide/pci/siimage.c 2007-01-14 17:59:03.000000000 +0000
@@ -52,6 +52,7 @@
case PCI_DEVICE_ID_SII_1210SA:
return 1;
case PCI_DEVICE_ID_SII_680:
+ case PCI_DEVICE_ID_ITE_8212:
return 0;
}
BUG();
@@ -1082,6 +1083,7 @@

static struct pci_device_id siimage_pci_tbl[] = {
{ PCI_VENDOR_ID_CMD, PCI_DEVICE_ID_SII_680, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, 0},
+ { PCI_VENDOR_ID_ITE, PCI_DEVICE_ID_ITE_8212, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, 0},
#ifdef CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDE_SATA
{ PCI_VENDOR_ID_CMD, PCI_DEVICE_ID_SII_3112, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, 1},
{ PCI_VENDOR_ID_CMD, PCI_DEVICE_ID_SII_1210SA, PCI_ANY_ID, PCI_ANY_ID, 0, 0, 2},


and disabled CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IT821X - and now the disk is even faster
than before:

/dev/hde:
Timing cached reads: 88 MB in 2.01 seconds = 43.71 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 34 MB in 3.02 seconds = 11.25 MB/sec


So it seems the problem is it82xx.c at least for my controllers.


4. Now there is 2.6.19 and the new ata driver model. So I tried that
one, too:

Booting with
| CONFIG_PATA_IT821X=m
stalls the system upon module load. The last kernel messages were

ata1.00: tag 0 cmd 0xc4 Emask 0x4 stat 0x40 err 0x0 (timeout)
ata1: port failed to respond (30 secs, Status 0xd0)
ata1.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x2 frozen
ata1.00: tag 0 cmd 0xc4 Emask 0x4 stat 0x40 err 0x0 (timeout)
ata1: port failed to respond (30 secs, Status 0xd0)
ata1.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x2 frozen
ata1.00: tag 0 cmd 0xc4 Emask 0x4 stat 0x40 err 0x0 (timeout)
ata1: port failed to respond (30 secs, Status 0xd0)
ata1.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x2 frozen
ata1.00: tag 0 cmd 0xc4 Emask 0x4 stat 0x40 err 0x0 (timeout)
ata1: port failed to respond (30 secs, Status 0xd0)
ata1.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x2 frozen
ata1.00: tag 0 cmd 0xc4 Emask 0x4 stat 0x40 err 0x0 (timeout)
ata1: port failed to respond (30 secs, Status 0xd0)
ata1.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x2 frozen
ata1.00: tag 0 cmd 0xc4 Emask 0x4 stat 0x40 err 0x0 (timeout)
ata1: port failed to respond (30 secs, Status 0xd0)
Buffer I/O error on device sda, logical block 0


Patching the sil driver again:

--- ORG/linux-2.6.19.2/drivers/ata/pata_sil680.c 2006-11-29 22:57:37.000000000 +0100
+++ NEW/linux-2.6.19.2/drivers/ata/pata_sil680.c 2007-01-14 21:05:24.000000000 +0100
@@ -349,6 +349,7 @@

static const struct pci_device_id sil680[] = {
{ PCI_VDEVICE(CMD, PCI_DEVICE_ID_SII_680), },
+ { PCI_VDEVICE(ITE, PCI_DEVICE_ID_ITE_8212), },

{ },
};


brings again a fast access:

/dev/sda:
Timing cached reads: 88 MB in 2.01 seconds = 43.73 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 34 MB in 3.03 seconds = 11.24 MB/sec


although dmesg does not look perfectly well:

pata_sil680 0000:00:0d.0: version 0.3.2
sil680: BA5_EN = 0 clock = 00
sil680: BA5_EN = 0 clock = 00
sil680: 100MHz clock.
PCI: setting IRQ 10 as level-triggered
PCI: Assigned IRQ 10 for device 0000:00:0d.0
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:0d.0 to 64
ata1: PATA max UDMA/100 cmd 0xD000 ctl 0xD402 bmdma 0xE000 irq 10
ata2: PATA max UDMA/100 cmd 0xD800 ctl 0xDC02 bmdma 0xE008 irq 10
scsi0 : pata_sil680
ata1.00: ATA-4, max UDMA/33, 8446032 sectors: LBA
ata1.00: Drive reports diagnostics failure. This may indicate a drive
ata1.00: fault or invalid emulation. Contact drive vendor for information.
ata1.00: configured for UDMA/33
scsi1 : pata_sil680
scsi 0:0:0:0: Direct-Access ATA SAMSUNG VA34324A JG10 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
SCSI device sda: 8446032 512-byte hdwr sectors (4324 MB)
sda: Write Protect is off
sda: Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
SCSI device sda: drive cache: write back
SCSI device sda: 8446032 512-byte hdwr sectors (4324 MB)
sda: Write Protect is off
sda: Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
SCSI device sda: drive cache: write back
sda: sda1 sda2 < sda5 sda6 >
sd 0:0:0:0: Attached scsi disk sda


5. OK, there's a workaround but I'd really like to avoid such cludges.
Is there anything I could try next?

Christoph

Some more things:
- This is not related to the hard disk. I've also tested others, same
results.
- According to the bios the controller set the mode to UDMA-2 ("U2").
Faster disks are recognized accordingling e.g. "U5" but
using the patched siimage hdparm -i tells that are in udma2 only.
- The it8212_noraid option didn't help either. There is only a single
disk attached.
- The mainboard is a rather old ALI15X3, CPU ist AMDK6 at 366 MHz.
Chances are that different boards do not show such effects.
- The controller's firmware is quite old (1.4.1.6) but update failed.
There are two jumpers but they are not documented.

PS: No need to Cc: me in replies.


2007-01-14 23:10:43

by Alan

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: it821x trouble since 2.6.18

> 2. Trying to understand what has happened I found the main difference
> is not in the driver but in ide-dma.c:
>
> --- linux-2.6.17.14/drivers/ide/ide-dma.c 2006-06-18 01:49:35.000000000 +0000
> +++ linux-2.6.18.6/drivers/ide/ide-dma.c 2006-09-20 03:42:06.000000000 +0000
> @@ -752,7 +750,7 @@
> goto bug_dma_off;
> printk(", DMA");
> } else if (id->field_valid & 1) {
> - printk(", BUG");
> + goto bug_dma_off;
> }
> return;
> bug_dma_off:
>
>
> and reverting that change returns the old transfer rates. But that is
> probably not a good idea.

It should be just fine.

> So I tried this again:

This is complete bogus. You simply poked random incorrect registers and
happened not to crash the chip, or confuse it, and since you have the
IT821x bios enabled it happened to have roughly valid configuration.

> and disabled CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IT821X - and now the disk is even faster
> than before:

For all the wrong reasons I would add.