2007-12-11 17:58:23

by Mark Lord

Subject: [PATCH] sata_mv: improve warnings about Highpoint RocketRAID 23xx cards

Improve the existing boot/load time warnings from sata_mv
for Highpoint RocketRAID 23xx cards, based on new knowledge
about where the BIOS likes to overwrite sectors with metadata.

Harmless to us, but very useful for end users.

Signed-off-by: Mark Lord <[email protected]>
---
This should ideally go upstream for 2.6.24.

--- old/drivers/ata/sata_mv.c 2007-12-10 18:14:09.000000000 -0500
+++ linux/drivers/ata/sata_mv.c 2007-12-11 12:51:51.000000000 -0500
@@ -2506,11 +2506,31 @@
if (pdev->vendor == PCI_VENDOR_ID_TTI &&
(pdev->device == 0x2300 || pdev->device == 0x2310))
{
- printk(KERN_WARNING "sata_mv: Highpoint RocketRAID BIOS"
- " will CORRUPT DATA on attached drives when"
- " configured as \"Legacy\". BEWARE!\n");
- printk(KERN_WARNING "sata_mv: Use BIOS \"JBOD\" volumes"
- " instead for safety.\n");
+ /*
+ * Highpoint RocketRAID PCIe 23xx series cards:
+ *
+ * Unconfigured drives are treated as "Legacy"
+ * by the BIOS, and it overwrites sector 8 with
+ * a "Lgcy" metadata block prior to Linux boot.
+ *
+ * Configured drives (RAID or JBOD) leave sector 8
+ * alone, but instead overwrite a high numbered
+ * sector for the RAID metadata. This sector can
+ * be determined exactly, by truncating the physical
+ * drive capacity to a nice even GB value.
+ *
+ * RAID metadata is at: (dev->n_sectors & ~0xfffff)
+ *
+ * Warn the user, lest they think we're just buggy.
+ */
+ printk(KERN_WARNING DRV_NAME ": Highpoint RocketRAID"
+ " BIOS CORRUPTS DATA on all attached drives,"
+ " regardless of if/how they are configured."
+ " BEWARE!\n");
+ printk(KERN_WARNING DRV_NAME ": For data safety, do not"
+ " use sectors 8-9 on \"Legacy\" drives,"
+ " and avoid the final two gigabytes on"
+ " all RocketRAID BIOS initialized drives.\n");
}
case chip_6042:
hpriv->ops = &mv6xxx_ops;

2007-12-18 01:44:30

by Jeff Garzik

Subject: Re: [PATCH] sata_mv: improve warnings about Highpoint RocketRAID 23xx cards

Mark Lord wrote:
> Improve the existing boot/load time warnings from sata_mv
> for Highpoint RocketRAID 23xx cards, based on new knowledge
> about where the BIOS likes to overwrite sectors with metadata.
>
> Harmless to us, but very useful for end users.
>
> Signed-off-by: Mark Lord <[email protected]>
> ---
> This should ideally go upstream for 2.6.24.

applied #upstream-fixes