Re: SATA/IDE Dual Mode w/Intel 945 Chipset or HOW TO LIQUIFY a flash IDE chip under 2.6.18

["Jeff V. Merkey" <jmerkey@wolfmountaingroup.com>]

Jeff Garzik wrote:

> Jeff V. Merkey wrote:
>
> > Jeff Garzik wrote:
> >
> > > Jeff V. Merkey wrote:
> > >
> > > > I just finished pulling out a melted IDE flash drive out of a 
> > > > Shuttle motherboard with the intel 945 chipset which claims to support
> > > > SATA and IDE drives concurrently under Linux 2.6.18.
> > > >
> > > > The chip worked for about 30 seconds before liquifying in the 
> > > > chassis.  I note that the 945 chipset in the shuttle PC had some 
> > > > serious
> > > > issues recognizing 2 x SATA devices and a IDE device 
> > > > concurrently.   Are there known problems with the Linux drivers
> > > > with these newer chipsets.
> > > >
> > > > One other disturbing issue was the IDE flash drive was configured 
> > > > (and recognized) as /dev/hda during bootup, but when
> > > > it got to the root mountint, even with root=/dev/hda set, it still 
> > > > kept thinking the drive was at scsi (ATA) device (08,13)
> > > > and kept crashing with VFS cannot find root FS errors.
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > > We have two sets of ATA drivers now, and Intel motherboards support 
> > > bazillion annoying IDE modes, so you will need to provide more info 
> > > than this.
> > >
> > > Is the motherboard in combined mode?
> >
> >
> >
> > Yes.  "Enhanced mode" is how it is listed in the BIOS.
>
>
> Combined mode is a technical term.  Judging from your answers, you are 
> not using combined mode.
>
>
> > > native mode?  AHCI or RAID mode?
> >
> >
> > No RAID, just enhanced mode (SATA 3.0 + IDE)
>
>
> Judging from your answers, you are not in AHCI mode.
>
> Side note:  You should use AHCI if available.  Emulating a PATA 
> interface for SATA devices is error prone [in the silicon].  AHCI is 
> native SATA, "enhanced mode" is not.


AHCI It is.   

Jeff

> > > The cannot-find-root-FS errors are definitely caused by driver 
> > > and/or initrd misconfiguration.  The melted flash, I dunno, maybe 
> > > you managed to get two drivers fighting over the same hardware.
> >
> >
> > No.  Seems related to the chipset problems.  If I say 
> > "root=/dev/hda2" I have better not be getting errors claiming device 
> > 08:13 could not mount as root.  memory corruption?
>
>
> If the kernel cannot mount the requested root= disk, it tries the 
> default that is encoded into the vmlinuz image at build time, which is 
> probably 08:13.
>
>
> > The melted flash seems power related (like pin 20 was live for some 
> > reason on a standard IDE).
>
>
> Probably, otherwise we would have many more reports like this than 
> just yours.
>
>     Jeff

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