Ahem.
You /may/ want to remind me, next time, that umounting all filesystems
except root, remounting root read-only, AND raid-stop'ing all arrays
would be a good idea before doing this ( I forgot the last one )
Also, it seems that all drives de-allocate a sector every time I do this,
and this is costing my system integrity...
Yes, it happens on all drives on the controller, and I've 2:
IBM 60GXP, 40GB == /dev/hde
Quantum LM15, 15GB == /dev/hdg
booting into multiuser command-line mode, no X, login as root, umount
everything, "smartctl -a /dev/hde" ( or hdg ) gets 2 information lines,
the second being the model# of the drive, and it never reaches the third
line ( the newline doesn't appear ), and the drive-light comes on, and
it's permanently hanged.
I'd thought this would be implicit in the
* "cat /proc/ide/hde/identify" gets the same results *
comment I'd made previously, but did it out of curiosity...
When I did it on the Quantum, the Quantum's drive-light came on ( it's in
a "mobile-rack" ), so it seems that the drive-light actually is still
connected to the drive at that point, though nothing useful goes on
after...
By the way, I seem to have hit this with the earlier 2.4.x kernels, (
IIRC ), but had /so/ much problems with flaky config and flaky distros
at the time, that I didn't get that info out then ( by the time I got a
stable system, I'd forgot, sorry... )
* Tell me which kernels you want me to try ( except ext3-broken ones ),
and I'll do it, so you can scope where-the-break-is better, TIA *
-me
On Tue 17 December, 2002 7:09, you wrote:
>Is it happening with all the drives on the controller? Is it possible
> to immediaately gather the SMART data from the drive after bootup
> using smartctl?
>
>Thanks
>Manish
>
>-----Original Message-----
From: D.A.M. Revok
>To: [email protected]
>Sent: 12/15/02 12:49 PM
>Subject: 2.4.19, don't "hdparm -I /dev/hde" if hde is on a Asus A7V133
>Promise ctrlr, or...
>
>( that's a capital-aye in the hdparm line )
>
>not even the Magic SysReq key will work.
>
>also, don't
>
>"cd /proc/ide/hde ; cat identify"
>
>... same thing
>drive-light comes on, but have to use the power-switch to get the
>machine
>back, ( lost stuff again, fuck )
>
>
>proc says it's pdc202xx
>
>Promise Ultra series driver Ver 1.20.0.7 2002-05-23
>Adapter: Ultra100 on M/B
--
http://www.drawright.com/
- "The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" ( Betty Edwards,
check "Theory", "Gallery", and "Exercises" )
http://www.ldonline.org/ld_indepth/iep/seven_habits.html
- "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" ( this site is same
principles as Covey's book )
http://www.eiconsortium.org/research/ei_theory_performance.htm
- "Working With Emotional Intelligence" ( Goleman: this link is
/revised/ theory, "Working. . . " is practical )
http://www.leadershipnow.com/leadershop/1978-5.html
- Corps Business: The 30 /Management Principles/ of the U.S. Marines (
David Freedman )
Guess you two need to head over to promise and get those blood letting
NDA's signed. To figure out what is wrong with your deployment.
I have never seen this issue and I know every combination of command calls
to avoid. What you are doing is not out of spec, just how you are are
doing it is.
Cheers,
Andre Hedrick
LAD Storage Consulting Group
On Wed, 18 Dec 2002, D.A.M. Revok wrote:
> Ahem.
>
> You /may/ want to remind me, next time, that umounting all filesystems
> except root, remounting root read-only, AND raid-stop'ing all arrays
> would be a good idea before doing this ( I forgot the last one )
>
> Also, it seems that all drives de-allocate a sector every time I do this,
> and this is costing my system integrity...
>
>
> Yes, it happens on all drives on the controller, and I've 2:
> IBM 60GXP, 40GB == /dev/hde
> Quantum LM15, 15GB == /dev/hdg
>
> booting into multiuser command-line mode, no X, login as root, umount
> everything, "smartctl -a /dev/hde" ( or hdg ) gets 2 information lines,
> the second being the model# of the drive, and it never reaches the third
> line ( the newline doesn't appear ), and the drive-light comes on, and
> it's permanently hanged.
>
> I'd thought this would be implicit in the
> * "cat /proc/ide/hde/identify" gets the same results *
> comment I'd made previously, but did it out of curiosity...
>
>
> When I did it on the Quantum, the Quantum's drive-light came on ( it's in
> a "mobile-rack" ), so it seems that the drive-light actually is still
> connected to the drive at that point, though nothing useful goes on
> after...
>
>
> By the way, I seem to have hit this with the earlier 2.4.x kernels, (
> IIRC ), but had /so/ much problems with flaky config and flaky distros
> at the time, that I didn't get that info out then ( by the time I got a
> stable system, I'd forgot, sorry... )
>
>
> * Tell me which kernels you want me to try ( except ext3-broken ones ),
> and I'll do it, so you can scope where-the-break-is better, TIA *
>
> -me
>
> On Tue 17 December, 2002 7:09, you wrote:
> >Is it happening with all the drives on the controller? Is it possible
> > to immediaately gather the SMART data from the drive after bootup
> > using smartctl?
> >
> >Thanks
> >Manish
> >
> >-----Original Message-----
> From: D.A.M. Revok
> >To: [email protected]
> >Sent: 12/15/02 12:49 PM
> >Subject: 2.4.19, don't "hdparm -I /dev/hde" if hde is on a Asus A7V133
> >Promise ctrlr, or...
> >
> >( that's a capital-aye in the hdparm line )
> >
> >not even the Magic SysReq key will work.
> >
> >also, don't
> >
> >"cd /proc/ide/hde ; cat identify"
> >
> >... same thing
> >drive-light comes on, but have to use the power-switch to get the
> >machine
> >back, ( lost stuff again, fuck )
> >
> >
> >proc says it's pdc202xx
> >
> >Promise Ultra series driver Ver 1.20.0.7 2002-05-23
> >Adapter: Ultra100 on M/B
>
> --
> http://www.drawright.com/
> - "The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" ( Betty Edwards,
> check "Theory", "Gallery", and "Exercises" )
> http://www.ldonline.org/ld_indepth/iep/seven_habits.html
> - "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" ( this site is same
> principles as Covey's book )
> http://www.eiconsortium.org/research/ei_theory_performance.htm
> - "Working With Emotional Intelligence" ( Goleman: this link is
> /revised/ theory, "Working. . . " is practical )
> http://www.leadershipnow.com/leadershop/1978-5.html
> - Corps Business: The 30 /Management Principles/ of the U.S. Marines (
> David Freedman )
> -
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
> the body of a message to [email protected]
> More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
> Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
>
Amendment to this email:
=====================
I figured out what it is, more...
hdparm -X12 ( to set PIO instead of UDMA ) /does not/ fix it, so I dug
into BIOS and re-enabled the bios for that controller...
I'd disabled it because I've a SCSI burner that I use for backup
( DAR Disk ARchiver @ http://dar.linux.free.fr/ -- excellent program ),
as well as for installing distros, and I could not boot from the CD drive
if the mobo was waiting for an OS to magically appear on whatever ATA
device I had on the Promise-controller. The BIOS is written to prevent
one from choosing SCSI-boot and not Promise-boot while the Promise-BIOS
is enabled, so I'd disabled it.
... when I re-enabled the Promise-BIOS, the problem disappeared.
So. I /think/ that somehow the Promise controller isn't being
initialized properly by the Linux kernel, UNLESS the mobo's BIOS inits
it first?
============================
============================
Ah,
"What you are doing is not out of spec, just how
you are are doing it is."
eh??
my typing in
hdparm -l /dev/hde ( upper-case Capital i ), or
smartctl -a, or
cat /proc/ide/hde/identify
are doing things wrong?
or do you mean that
the method-used-by-these-commands is wrong somehow?
IF it'll get this fixed for everyone, then I'll sign an NDA ( probably:
I'm reading it first, and discussing the NDA itself, too ), but I don't
understand how NDA and GPL driver can mix?
I /want/ this fixed, because it's a problem, if for me, then for others
too...
Does my having the "bios" for that controller turned off create the
problem? ( I don't boot from those drives, so didn't see any reason to
have it... )
... hmmm I'll try changing that before contacting you again
One other weird thing is that when I've got my Quantum LM15 on the
Promise, I've /got/ to have it on a 40-wire ribbon, or it doesn't work
right ( can't remember if it fails to boot, or if the drive isn't
accessable, or what )...
electronically the drive identifies as UDMA 4 or 5 or something, but if I
put a UDMA cable on it it don't work ( solution? have a 40-wire cable on
it, unless I've got it on the Via chipset port, in which case UDMA's
fine... )
If you come-up-with, or have, a diagnostic that'd black-box
reverse-engineer the bug, tell me, and I'll run it.
( note that now I'm using DAR
http://dar.linux.free.fr/
for backup, so I'm a /lot/ less worried than I used to be about hosing my
system: the "backup your system" advice parroted always doesn't come
with a good utility for doing so, but with DAR it's only 16 CD-Rs for
the crucial stuff : ) - just figured it's so good you'd benefit from
knowing about it... )
On Wed 18 December, 2002 5:44, Andre Hedrick wrote:
>Guess you two need to head over to promise and get those blood letting
>NDA's signed. To figure out what is wrong with your deployment.
>I have never seen this issue and I know every combination of command
> calls to avoid. What you are doing is not out of spec, just how you
> are are doing it is.
>
>Cheers,
>
>Andre Hedrick
>LAD Storage Consulting Group
>
>On Wed, 18 Dec 2002, D.A.M. Revok wrote:
>> Ahem.
>>
>> You /may/ want to remind me, next time, that umounting all
>> filesystems except root, remounting root read-only, AND raid-stop'ing
>> all arrays would be a good idea before doing this ( I forgot the last
>> one )
>>
>> Also, it seems that all drives de-allocate a sector every time I do
>> this, and this is costing my system integrity...
>>
>>
>> Yes, it happens on all drives on the controller, and I've 2:
>> IBM 60GXP, 40GB == /dev/hde
>> Quantum LM15, 15GB == /dev/hdg
>>
>> booting into multiuser command-line mode, no X, login as root, umount
>> everything, "smartctl -a /dev/hde" ( or hdg ) gets 2 information
>> lines, the second being the model# of the drive, and it never reaches
>> the third line ( the newline doesn't appear ), and the drive-light
>> comes on, and it's permanently hanged.
>>
>> I'd thought this would be implicit in the
>> * "cat /proc/ide/hde/identify" gets the same results *
>> comment I'd made previously, but did it out of curiosity...
>>
>>
>> When I did it on the Quantum, the Quantum's drive-light came on (
>> it's in a "mobile-rack" ), so it seems that the drive-light actually
>> is still connected to the drive at that point, though nothing useful
>> goes on after...
>>
>>
>> By the way, I seem to have hit this with the earlier 2.4.x kernels, (
>> IIRC ), but had /so/ much problems with flaky config and flaky
>> distros at the time, that I didn't get that info out then ( by the
>> time I got a stable system, I'd forgot, sorry... )
>>
>>
>> * Tell me which kernels you want me to try ( except ext3-broken ones
>> ), and I'll do it, so you can scope where-the-break-is better, TIA *
>>
>> -me
>>
>> On Tue 17 December, 2002 7:09, you wrote:
>> >Is it happening with all the drives on the controller? Is it
>> > possible to immediaately gather the SMART data from the drive after
>> > bootup using smartctl?
>> >
>> >Thanks
>> >Manish
>> >
>> >-----Original Message-----
>>
>> From: D.A.M. Revok
>>
>> >To: [email protected]
>> >Sent: 12/15/02 12:49 PM
>> >Subject: 2.4.19, don't "hdparm -I /dev/hde" if hde is on a Asus
>> > A7V133 Promise ctrlr, or...
>> >
>> >( that's a capital-aye in the hdparm line )
>> >
>> >not even the Magic SysReq key will work.
>> >
>> >also, don't
>> >
>> >"cd /proc/ide/hde ; cat identify"
>> >
>> >... same thing
>> >drive-light comes on, but have to use the power-switch to get the
>> >machine
>> >back, ( lost stuff again, fuck )
>> >
>> >
>> >proc says it's pdc202xx
>> >
>> >Promise Ultra series driver Ver 1.20.0.7 2002-05-23
>> >Adapter: Ultra100 on M/B
>>
>> --
>> http://www.drawright.com/
>> - "The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" ( Betty Edwards,
>> check "Theory", "Gallery", and "Exercises" )
>> http://www.ldonline.org/ld_indepth/iep/seven_habits.html
>> - "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" ( this site is same
>> principles as Covey's book )
>> http://www.eiconsortium.org/research/ei_theory_performance.htm
>> - "Working With Emotional Intelligence" ( Goleman: this link is
>> /revised/ theory, "Working. . . " is practical )
>> http://www.leadershipnow.com/leadershop/1978-5.html
>> - Corps Business: The 30 /Management Principles/ of the U.S. Marines
>> ( David Freedman )
>> -
>> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe
>> linux-kernel" in the body of a message to [email protected]
>> More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
>> Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
--
http://www.drawright.com/
- "The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" ( Betty Edwards,
check "Theory", "Gallery", and "Exercises" )
http://www.ldonline.org/ld_indepth/iep/seven_habits.html
- "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" ( this site is same
principles as Covey's book )
http://www.eiconsortium.org/research/ei_theory_performance.htm
- "Working With Emotional Intelligence" ( Goleman: this link is
/revised/ theory, "Working. . . " is practical )
http://www.leadershipnow.com/leadershop/1978-5.html
- Corps Business: The 30 /Management Principles/ of the U.S. Marines (
David Freedman )
On Wed, 2002-12-18 at 21:35, D.A.M. Revok wrote:
> So. I /think/ that somehow the Promise controller isn't being
> initialized properly by the Linux kernel, UNLESS the mobo's BIOS inits
> it first?
In some situations yes. The BIOS does stuff including fixups we mere
mortals arent permitted to know about.
Then I'm not buying Promise from now on. Period.
Being non-able to both
boot-from-SCSI-CDR, and
use smartctl
is non-acceptable, and if their NDAs rig that then they are a threat
against /everything/ I base on my systems.
Promise, your business-model damages your customer-relationship's
survival, are you listening??
On Wed 18 December, 2002 17:38, you wrote:
>On Wed, 2002-12-18 at 21:35, D.A.M. Revok wrote:
>> So. I /think/ that somehow the Promise controller isn't being
>> initialized properly by the Linux kernel, UNLESS the mobo's BIOS
>> inits it first?
>
>In some situations yes. The BIOS does stuff including fixups we mere
>mortals arent permitted to know about.
--
http://www.drawright.com/
- "The New Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain" ( Betty Edwards,
check "Theory", "Gallery", and "Exercises" )
http://www.ldonline.org/ld_indepth/iep/seven_habits.html
- "The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People" ( this site is same
principles as Covey's book )
http://www.eiconsortium.org/research/ei_theory_performance.htm
- "Working With Emotional Intelligence" ( Goleman: this link is
/revised/ theory, "Working. . . " is practical )
http://www.leadershipnow.com/leadershop/1978-5.html
- Corps Business: The 30 /Management Principles/ of the U.S. Marines (
David Freedman )
On 18 Dec 2002, Alan Cox wrote:
> On Wed, 2002-12-18 at 21:35, D.A.M. Revok wrote:
> > So. I /think/ that somehow the Promise controller isn't being
> > initialized properly by the Linux kernel, UNLESS the mobo's BIOS inits
> > it first?
>
> In some situations yes. The BIOS does stuff including fixups we mere
> mortals arent permitted to know about.
>
That is because I am not permitted to invoke that majic wand yet.
Andre Hedrick
LAD Storage Consulting Group
On Wed, 18 Dec 2002, D.A.M. Revok wrote:
>
> Ah,
> "What you are doing is not out of spec, just how
> you are are doing it is."
> eh??
Like MC Hammer says, "Can't touch this!"
There are times when you can do things and there are times you can not.
Until I get authorization to expose and correct, I can not do anything.
This is one of the prices I paid to get the docs under NDA.
Andre Hedrick
LAD Storage Consulting Group
On Wed, 2002-12-18 at 22:03, D.A.M. Revok wrote:
> Then I'm not buying Promise from now on. Period.
>
> Being non-able to both
> boot-from-SCSI-CDR, and
> use smartctl
> is non-acceptable, and if their NDAs rig that then they are a threat
> against /everything/ I base on my systems.
>
> Promise, your business-model damages your customer-relationship's
> survival, are you listening
Those kind of NDA's are quite normal. You'll see them elsewhere too. You
get this maze of NDA's between vendors about hardware flaws. So promise
might do a workaround for an ibm disk but have NDA's with IBM that says
they can't tell people. (Thats an example I'm not saying there is a real
IBM case)
Ditto with AGP and AMD for example. They have magic fixup registers for
timings, but won't tell us the fixups for various vendors cards (which
is dumb because its not hard to find out in windows!)
On Wed, Dec 18, 2002 at 04:35:58PM -0500, D.A.M. Revok wrote:
> I figured out what it is, more...
> hdparm -X12 ( to set PIO instead of UDMA ) /does not/ fix it, so I dug
> into BIOS and re-enabled the bios for that controller...
Ah, I can verify this has fixed the lockups for me too. I previously
had the BIOS disabled cause it takes so long to boot, but recently
reenabled it. smartctl can hapily operate on all drives now.
> Does my having the "bios" for that controller turned off create the
> problem? ( I don't boot from those drives, so didn't see any reason to
> have it... )
I do now boot from my Promise controlled drives, and yes, I need the
BIOS.
--
Ross Vandegrift
[email protected]
A Pope has a Water Cannon. It is a Water Cannon.
He fires Holy-Water from it. It is a Holy-Water Cannon.
He Blesses it. It is a Holy Holy-Water Cannon.
He Blesses the Hell out of it. It is a Wholly Holy Holy-Water Cannon.
He has it pierced. It is a Holey Wholly Holy Holy-Water Cannon.
He makes it official. It is a Canon Holey Wholly Holy Holy-Water Cannon.
Batman and Robin arrive. He shoots them.
On 18 December 2002 20:38, Alan Cox wrote:
> On Wed, 2002-12-18 at 21:35, D.A.M. Revok wrote:
> > So. I /think/ that somehow the Promise controller isn't being
> > initialized properly by the Linux kernel, UNLESS the mobo's BIOS
> > inits it first?
>
> In some situations yes. The BIOS does stuff including fixups we mere
> mortals arent permitted to know about.
OTOH mere mortals are allowed to make full dump of PCI config ;)
"D.A.M. Revok" <[email protected]>, can you send lspci -vvvxxx
outputs when you boot with BIOS enabled and BIOS disabled?
--
vda
On Thu, 19 Dec 2002, Denis Vlasenko wrote:
> On 18 December 2002 20:38, Alan Cox wrote:
> > On Wed, 2002-12-18 at 21:35, D.A.M. Revok wrote:
> > > So. I /think/ that somehow the Promise controller isn't being
> > > initialized properly by the Linux kernel, UNLESS the mobo's BIOS
> > > inits it first?
> >
> > In some situations yes. The BIOS does stuff including fixups we mere
> > mortals arent permitted to know about.
>
> OTOH mere mortals are allowed to make full dump of PCI config ;)
>
> "D.A.M. Revok" <[email protected]>, can you send lspci -vvvxxx
> outputs when you boot with BIOS enabled and BIOS disabled?
Promise knows this point.
Thus they moved the setting to a push/pull in the vendor space in the
dma_base+1 and dma_base+3 respectively.
lspci -vvvxxx fails when the content is located in bar4 io space.
Andre Hedrick
LAD Storage Consulting Group
On Thu, 19 Dec 2002, Denis Vlasenko wrote:
> On 19 December 2002 08:19, Andre Hedrick wrote:
> > Promise knows this point.
> > Thus they moved the setting to a push/pull in the vendor space in the
> > dma_base+1 and dma_base+3 respectively.
> > lspci -vvvxxx fails when the content is located in bar4 io space.
>
> Neither I nor original bug reporter (I think) did understand
> a bit what you said. Can we plead for IDE -> English translation?
> ;)
> If lspci is of no help, what can we use instead?
They move the setting which were readable in the asic from PCI space in
the 20246/47/62/65/67 into a sense mode of the asic sniffing the contents
of the taskfile registers to internally do the same thing but hide it all.
The new 20268/69/7* report all zeros in the PCI space.
ioperm()
But be prepared to roast your data.
I do not have a good answer!
Andre Hedrick
LAD Storage Consulting Group
On 19 December 2002 08:19, Andre Hedrick wrote:
> Promise knows this point.
> Thus they moved the setting to a push/pull in the vendor space in the
> dma_base+1 and dma_base+3 respectively.
> lspci -vvvxxx fails when the content is located in bar4 io space.
Neither I nor original bug reporter (I think) did understand
a bit what you said. Can we plead for IDE -> English translation?
;)
If lspci is of no help, what can we use instead?
--
vda
> > > > So. I /think/ that somehow the Promise controller isn't being
> > > > initialized properly by the Linux kernel, UNLESS the mobo's BIOS
> > > > inits it first?
> > >
> > > In some situations yes. The BIOS does stuff including fixups we mere
> > > mortals arent permitted to know about.
> >
> > OTOH mere mortals are allowed to make full dump of PCI config ;)
> >
> > "D.A.M. Revok" <[email protected]>, can you send lspci -vvvxxx
> > outputs when you boot with BIOS enabled and BIOS disabled?
>
> Promise knows this point.
> Thus they moved the setting to a push/pull in the vendor space in the
> dma_base+1 and dma_base+3 respectively.
>
> lspci -vvvxxx fails when the content is located in bar4 io space.
Clearly Promise is the one storage vendor whose products are best avoided.
Andre, could you give a recommendation on what add-on IDE controllers are
not junk hardware and will work nicely with Linux? 'Cos I can't seem to
remember seeing anything in the shelves other than Promise or CMD64X/68X.
--
Tomas Szepe <[email protected]>
On Thu, 19 Dec 2002, Tomas Szepe wrote:
> > > > > So. I /think/ that somehow the Promise controller isn't being
> > > > > initialized properly by the Linux kernel, UNLESS the mobo's BIOS
> > > > > inits it first?
> > > >
> > > > In some situations yes. The BIOS does stuff including fixups we mere
> > > > mortals arent permitted to know about.
> > >
> > > OTOH mere mortals are allowed to make full dump of PCI config ;)
> > >
> > > "D.A.M. Revok" <[email protected]>, can you send lspci -vvvxxx
> > > outputs when you boot with BIOS enabled and BIOS disabled?
> >
> > Promise knows this point.
> > Thus they moved the setting to a push/pull in the vendor space in the
> > dma_base+1 and dma_base+3 respectively.
> >
> > lspci -vvvxxx fails when the content is located in bar4 io space.
>
> Clearly Promise is the one storage vendor whose products are best avoided.
I would not say this is the case. What is going on is people are wanting
to migrate to more of an internal hidden operation.
Think about it from their side.
They want to make it easier to program the card.
Linux is an OS that like to know what is going on all the time, and the
two clash.
> Andre, could you give a recommendation on what add-on IDE controllers are
> not junk hardware and will work nicely with Linux? 'Cos I can't seem to
> remember seeing anything in the shelves other than Promise or CMD64X/68X.
Hmmm...
Andre Hedrick
LAD Storage Consulting Group
> > > > > > So. I /think/ that somehow the Promise controller isn't being
> > > > > > initialized properly by the Linux kernel, UNLESS the mobo's BIOS
> > > > > > inits it first?
> > > > >
> > > > > In some situations yes. The BIOS does stuff including fixups we mere
> > > > > mortals arent permitted to know about.
> > > >
> > > > OTOH mere mortals are allowed to make full dump of PCI config ;)
> > > >
> > > > "D.A.M. Revok" <[email protected]>, can you send lspci -vvvxxx
> > > > outputs when you boot with BIOS enabled and BIOS disabled?
> > >
> > > Promise knows this point.
> > > Thus they moved the setting to a push/pull in the vendor space in the
> > > dma_base+1 and dma_base+3 respectively.
> > >
> > > lspci -vvvxxx fails when the content is located in bar4 io space.
> >
> > Clearly Promise is the one storage vendor whose products are best avoided.
>
> I would not say this is the case. What is going on is people are wanting
> to migrate to more of an internal hidden operation.
>
> Think about it from their side.
> They want to make it easier to program the card.
The result of their attempts has seemed to be the exact opposite
so far, so I'd say they're either hiding a bit too much or the
hardware doesn't cut it.
Anyway, what are the chances of the 2.4.21-pre PDC driver getting
fixed up so it works like it did in 2.4.18?
> Linux is an OS that like to know what is going on all the time,
> and the two clash.
Are you suggesting something to the point of Windows not having
to cope with the same issues? There has to be some kind of fundamental
difference given Promise themselves successfully hosed the Linux driver
the instant they touched it, while the Windows one just works. :)
--
Tomas Szepe <[email protected]>
On Thu, 19 Dec 2002, Tomas Szepe wrote:
> > > > > > > So. I /think/ that somehow the Promise controller isn't being
> > > > > > > initialized properly by the Linux kernel, UNLESS the mobo's BIOS
> > > > > > > inits it first?
> > > > > >
> > > > > > In some situations yes. The BIOS does stuff including fixups we mere
> > > > > > mortals arent permitted to know about.
> > > > >
> > > > > OTOH mere mortals are allowed to make full dump of PCI config ;)
> > > > >
> > > > > "D.A.M. Revok" <[email protected]>, can you send lspci -vvvxxx
> > > > > outputs when you boot with BIOS enabled and BIOS disabled?
> > > >
> > > > Promise knows this point.
> > > > Thus they moved the setting to a push/pull in the vendor space in the
> > > > dma_base+1 and dma_base+3 respectively.
> > > >
> > > > lspci -vvvxxx fails when the content is located in bar4 io space.
> > >
> > > Clearly Promise is the one storage vendor whose products are best avoided.
> >
> > I would not say this is the case. What is going on is people are wanting
> > to migrate to more of an internal hidden operation.
> >
> > Think about it from their side.
> > They want to make it easier to program the card.
>
> The result of their attempts has seemed to be the exact opposite
> so far, so I'd say they're either hiding a bit too much or the
> hardware doesn't cut it.
>
> Anyway, what are the chances of the 2.4.21-pre PDC driver getting
> fixed up so it works like it did in 2.4.18?
Well, there is an issue.
I have a consulting contract with Promise outstanding.
It is on my desk, but there is on issue I refuse to agree to period.
Nobody in the right mind agrees to disclose their entire IP portfolio, as
a contractor or consultant. This allow the client to box you into a
corner so tight, that anything in the future they can claim as their own
and tie it back to an contract collecting dust.
> > Linux is an OS that like to know what is going on all the time,
> > and the two clash.
>
> Are you suggesting something to the point of Windows not having
> to cope with the same issues? There has to be some kind of fundamental
> difference given Promise themselves successfully hosed the Linux driver
> the instant they touched it, while the Windows one just works. :)
So I am not fixing anything until this issue is resolved.
They pay for what you clearly have stated above.
As for the Windows issue, the scsi-mini-port is a whole differenct beast.
Everyone jokes and laughs at my quote:
"The world of Storage is nothing but a BIG LIE"
SCSI is a run,poke,sense,verify,transform world.
ATA is a run,check,return world.
That being said, as far as I can tell, the WDDK for mini-port only cares
about the state returned. So if you do not like the state your hardware
is in, you boost the return and hook a TDI callback or poll check.
It is obvious the OEM Windows driver has unlimited power to fake the
response.
At this point I expect any contract is dead, so use 2.4.18.
Cheers,
Andre Hedrick
LAD Storage Consulting Group
Tomas Szepe wrote (ao):
> Clearly Promise is the one storage vendor whose products are best
> avoided.
This is something I read on lkml a few years ago, and since then now and
then.
>
> Andre, could you give a recommendation on what add-on IDE controllers
> are not junk hardware and will work nicely with Linux? 'Cos I can't
> seem to remember seeing anything in the shelves other than Promise or
> CMD64X/68X.
What about 3Ware? I have good experience with these and they are aware
of linux.