2002-11-27 19:01:12

by Steven Timm

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Tyan 2466, 2468 BIOS setting


In a number of boards with Phoenix BIOS including
the Tyan S2466 and S2468, there is a setting in the BIOS
for "Large Disk Access Mode", the available settings are
"DOS" and "Other". Tyan docs suggest selecting "other".

These boards use the AMD 760MPX chipset. (dmesg output is below).
My question...is anyone aware of (1) does the kernel look
at this BIOS option at all, and if so (2) could having
it set to DOS instead of Other lead to any
data corruption?

Steve Timm



Kernel 2.4.9-31smp detects it as:

PCI_IDE: unknown IDE controller on PCI bus 00 device 39, VID=1022,
DID=7441
PCI_IDE: chipset revision 4
PCI_IDE: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later
ide0: BM-DMA at 0xf000-0xf007, BIOS settings: hda:DMA, hdb:DMA
ide1: BM-DMA at 0xf008-0xf00f, BIOS settings: hdc:pio, hdd:pio
hda: ST340016A, ATA DISK drive
hdb: ST380021A, ATA DISK drive
hdc: CD-ROM 56X/AKH, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14
ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15
hda: 78165360 sectors (40021 MB) w/2048KiB Cache, CHS=4865/255/63
hdb: 156301488 sectors (80026 MB) w/2048KiB Cache, CHS=9729/255/63

from lspci

00:07.1 IDE interface: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD]: Unknown device 7441
(rev 04)

-----------------------------------------

Kernel 2.4.18-18smp detects it as:

AMD7441: IDE controller on PCI bus 00 dev 39
AMD7441: chipset revision 4
AMD7441: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later
AMD7441: disabling single-word DMA support (revision < C4)
ide0: BM-DMA at 0xf000-0xf007, BIOS settings: hda:DMA, hdb:DMA
ide1: BM-DMA at 0xf008-0xf00f, BIOS settings: hdc:DMA, hdd:DMA
hda: WDC WD400BB-00DEA0, ATA DISK drive
hdb: WDC WD800BB-00CAA1, ATA DISK drive
hdc: SR243T, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
hdd: WDC WD1200BB-00CAA1, ATA DISK drive
ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14
ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15
blk: queue c03f9ce4, I/O limit 4095Mb (mask 0xffffffff)
blk: queue c03f9ce4, I/O limit 4095Mb (mask 0xffffffff)
hda: 78165360 sectors (40021 MB) w/2048KiB Cache, CHS=4865/255/63,
UDMA(100)
blk: queue c03f9e2c, I/O limit 4095Mb (mask 0xffffffff)
blk: queue c03f9e2c, I/O limit 4095Mb (mask 0xffffffff)
hdb: 156301488 sectors (80026 MB) w/2048KiB Cache, CHS=9729/255/63,
UDMA(100)
blk: queue c03fa188, I/O limit 4095Mb (mask 0xffffffff)
blk: queue c03fa188, I/O limit 4095Mb (mask 0xffffffff)



------------------------------------------------------------------
Steven C. Timm (630) 840-8525 [email protected] http://home.fnal.gov/~timm/
Fermilab Computing Division/Operating Systems Support
Scientific Computing Support Group--Computing Farms Operations


2002-11-27 19:13:03

by John Bradford

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: Tyan 2466, 2468 BIOS setting

> In a number of boards with Phoenix BIOS including
> the Tyan S2466 and S2468, there is a setting in the BIOS
> for "Large Disk Access Mode", the available settings are
> "DOS" and "Other". Tyan docs suggest selecting "other".
>
> These boards use the AMD 760MPX chipset. (dmesg output is below).
> My question...is anyone aware of (1) does the kernel look
> at this BIOS option at all, and if so (2) could having
> it set to DOS instead of Other lead to any
> data corruption?

The option almost certainly changes the translated geometry presented
to the OS via the BIOS.

The only times this is likely to be an issue with Linux is:

1. Installing bootloaders
2. Editing the partition table with FDISK

For more information, have a look at:

http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Large-Disk-HOWTO.html

specifically:

http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/Large-Disk-HOWTO-9.html

John.

2002-11-27 19:16:39

by Ivan Pulleyn

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: Tyan 2466, 2468 BIOS setting



The kernel reads the the BIOS setting and tries to determine what
addressing mode to use:

http://www.win.tue.nl/~aeb/linux/Large-Disk-11.html#ss11.1

Ivan...

On Wed, 27 Nov 2002, Steven Timm wrote:

>
> In a number of boards with Phoenix BIOS including
> the Tyan S2466 and S2468, there is a setting in the BIOS
> for "Large Disk Access Mode", the available settings are
> "DOS" and "Other". Tyan docs suggest selecting "other".
>
> These boards use the AMD 760MPX chipset. (dmesg output is below).
> My question...is anyone aware of (1) does the kernel look
> at this BIOS option at all, and if so (2) could having
> it set to DOS instead of Other lead to any
> data corruption?
>
> Steve Timm
>
>
>
> Kernel 2.4.9-31smp detects it as:
>
> PCI_IDE: unknown IDE controller on PCI bus 00 device 39, VID=1022,
> DID=7441
> PCI_IDE: chipset revision 4
> PCI_IDE: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later
> ide0: BM-DMA at 0xf000-0xf007, BIOS settings: hda:DMA, hdb:DMA
> ide1: BM-DMA at 0xf008-0xf00f, BIOS settings: hdc:pio, hdd:pio
> hda: ST340016A, ATA DISK drive
> hdb: ST380021A, ATA DISK drive
> hdc: CD-ROM 56X/AKH, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
> ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14
> ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15
> hda: 78165360 sectors (40021 MB) w/2048KiB Cache, CHS=4865/255/63
> hdb: 156301488 sectors (80026 MB) w/2048KiB Cache, CHS=9729/255/63
>
> from lspci
>
> 00:07.1 IDE interface: Advanced Micro Devices [AMD]: Unknown device 7441
> (rev 04)
>
> -----------------------------------------
>
> Kernel 2.4.18-18smp detects it as:
>
> AMD7441: IDE controller on PCI bus 00 dev 39
> AMD7441: chipset revision 4
> AMD7441: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later
> AMD7441: disabling single-word DMA support (revision < C4)
> ide0: BM-DMA at 0xf000-0xf007, BIOS settings: hda:DMA, hdb:DMA
> ide1: BM-DMA at 0xf008-0xf00f, BIOS settings: hdc:DMA, hdd:DMA
> hda: WDC WD400BB-00DEA0, ATA DISK drive
> hdb: WDC WD800BB-00CAA1, ATA DISK drive
> hdc: SR243T, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
> hdd: WDC WD1200BB-00CAA1, ATA DISK drive
> ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14
> ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15
> blk: queue c03f9ce4, I/O limit 4095Mb (mask 0xffffffff)
> blk: queue c03f9ce4, I/O limit 4095Mb (mask 0xffffffff)
> hda: 78165360 sectors (40021 MB) w/2048KiB Cache, CHS=4865/255/63,
> UDMA(100)
> blk: queue c03f9e2c, I/O limit 4095Mb (mask 0xffffffff)
> blk: queue c03f9e2c, I/O limit 4095Mb (mask 0xffffffff)
> hdb: 156301488 sectors (80026 MB) w/2048KiB Cache, CHS=9729/255/63,
> UDMA(100)
> blk: queue c03fa188, I/O limit 4095Mb (mask 0xffffffff)
> blk: queue c03fa188, I/O limit 4095Mb (mask 0xffffffff)
>
>
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------
> Steven C. Timm (630) 840-8525 [email protected] http://home.fnal.gov/~timm/
> Fermilab Computing Division/Operating Systems Support
> Scientific Computing Support Group--Computing Farms Operations
>
> -
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
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--

----------------------------------------------------------------------
Ivan Pulleyn
Sixfold Technologies, LLC
Chicago Technology Park
2201 West Campbell Drive
Chicago, IL 60612

email: [email protected]
voice: (866) 324-5460 x601
fax: (312) 421-0388
----------------------------------------------------------------------


2002-11-27 20:41:08

by Ben Greear

[permalink] [raw]
Subject: Re: Tyan 2466, 2468 BIOS setting

Steven Timm wrote:
> In a number of boards with Phoenix BIOS including
> the Tyan S2466 and S2468, there is a setting in the BIOS
> for "Large Disk Access Mode", the available settings are
> "DOS" and "Other". Tyan docs suggest selecting "other".
>
> These boards use the AMD 760MPX chipset. (dmesg output is below).
> My question...is anyone aware of (1) does the kernel look
> at this BIOS option at all, and if so (2) could having
> it set to DOS instead of Other lead to any
> data corruption?
>
> Steve Timm

These settings definately make a difference, or did 6 months ago
when I was mucking with a system based on this MB.
DOS == Crash and/or file system corruption on install.

Ben

--
Ben Greear <[email protected]> <Ben_Greear AT excite.com>
President of Candela Technologies Inc http://www.candelatech.com
ScryMUD: http://scry.wanfear.com http://scry.wanfear.com/~greear