[gentoo-user] AHCI/IDE-question
Hi, I got a little confused about the sense or nonsense of AHCI vs. IDE. I run a ASUS Crosshair IV Formula, which BIOS has a menu entry to configure the SATA ports either for IDE or AHCI or RAID. Forget RAID for a momen -- I dont use it (nothing against RAID ! ;) My box uses a linux 2.6.37 vanilla kernel. The kernel config has been set to CONFIG_SATA_AHCI=y # CONFIG_SATA_AHCI_PLATFORM is not set In the dmesg output I found this: pci :00:11.0: set SATA to AHCI mode ahci :00:11.0: AHCI 0001.0200 32 slots 4 ports 3 Gbps 0xf impl SATA mode ahci :07:00.0: AHCI 0001. 32 slots 2 ports 3 Gbps 0x3 impl SATA mode despite the fact that AHCI is disabled in the BIOS settings (using IDE). I did an experiment an disabled AHCI in the kernel (to make the kernel settings consistent with the BIOS.) Result: The kernel did not find the root partition. In the meanwhile I do not understand all this never more. Why does the kernel boots only, if the BIOS says IDE! and linux insists on AHCI!...and waht ist the result? Best regards, mcc
Re: [gentoo-user] AHCI/IDE-question
On Friday 21 January 2011 19:45:07 meino.cra...@gmx.de wrote: Hi, I got a little confused about the sense or nonsense of AHCI vs. IDE. I run a ASUS Crosshair IV Formula, which BIOS has a menu entry to configure the SATA ports either for IDE or AHCI or RAID. Forget RAID for a momen -- I dont use it (nothing against RAID ! ;) My box uses a linux 2.6.37 vanilla kernel. The kernel config has been set to CONFIG_SATA_AHCI=y # CONFIG_SATA_AHCI_PLATFORM is not set In the dmesg output I found this: pci :00:11.0: set SATA to AHCI mode ahci :00:11.0: AHCI 0001.0200 32 slots 4 ports 3 Gbps 0xf impl SATA mode ahci :07:00.0: AHCI 0001. 32 slots 2 ports 3 Gbps 0x3 impl SATA mode despite the fact that AHCI is disabled in the BIOS settings (using IDE). I did an experiment an disabled AHCI in the kernel (to make the kernel settings consistent with the BIOS.) Result: The kernel did not find the root partition. In the meanwhile I do not understand all this never more. Why does the kernel boots only, if the BIOS says IDE! and linux insists on AHCI!...and waht ist the result? Best regards, mcc so, why are you doing soemthing incredible stupid in the first place?
Re: [gentoo-user] AHCI/IDE-question
On Fri, Jan 21, 2011 at 10:45 AM, meino.cra...@gmx.de wrote: Hi, I got a little confused about the sense or nonsense of AHCI vs. IDE. I run a ASUS Crosshair IV Formula, which BIOS has a menu entry to configure the SATA ports either for IDE or AHCI or RAID. Forget RAID for a momen -- I dont use it (nothing against RAID ! ;) My box uses a linux 2.6.37 vanilla kernel. The kernel config has been set to CONFIG_SATA_AHCI=y # CONFIG_SATA_AHCI_PLATFORM is not set In the dmesg output I found this: pci :00:11.0: set SATA to AHCI mode ahci :00:11.0: AHCI 0001.0200 32 slots 4 ports 3 Gbps 0xf impl SATA mode ahci :07:00.0: AHCI 0001. 32 slots 2 ports 3 Gbps 0x3 impl SATA mode despite the fact that AHCI is disabled in the BIOS settings (using IDE). I did an experiment an disabled AHCI in the kernel (to make the kernel settings consistent with the BIOS.) Result: The kernel did not find the root partition. In the meanwhile I do not understand all this never more. Why does the kernel boots only, if the BIOS says IDE! and linux insists on AHCI!...and waht ist the result? Best regards, mcc Hi meino, It's disappointing that Volker insists on sending these pissy little responses which don't advance the conversation. Sorry for that. Not sure I can lend any weight to the argument but it's my belief that your installation of Gentoo Linux isn't using BIOS to access the disk at all. Once the system boots and loads the kernel, then the kernel loads drivers (or uses what you built into the kernel) and takes over control of the hardware using the AHCI drivers. If the kernel doesn't use BIOS disk calls (INT13?) then it doesn't care what the BIOS thinks because the BIOS is not longer involved. It just talks directly to the hardware. I'm happy to be corrected (by Volker I'm sure) but that's my guess as to what you're seeing. Good luck! Cheers, Mark
Re: [gentoo-user] AHCI/IDE-question
On 1/21/2011 10:53 AM, Volker Armin Hemmann wrote: so, why are you doing soemthing incredible stupid in the first place? How about you go have some coffee, maybe have a banana to even out the blood sugar, take a walk around the block, and try this email again without being a complete ass? kashani
Re: [gentoo-user] AHCI/IDE-question
On Friday 21 January 2011 11:08:39 Mark Knecht wrote: On Fri, Jan 21, 2011 at 10:45 AM, meino.cra...@gmx.de wrote: Hi, I got a little confused about the sense or nonsense of AHCI vs. IDE. I run a ASUS Crosshair IV Formula, which BIOS has a menu entry to configure the SATA ports either for IDE or AHCI or RAID. Forget RAID for a momen -- I dont use it (nothing against RAID ! ;) My box uses a linux 2.6.37 vanilla kernel. The kernel config has been set to CONFIG_SATA_AHCI=y # CONFIG_SATA_AHCI_PLATFORM is not set In the dmesg output I found this: pci :00:11.0: set SATA to AHCI mode ahci :00:11.0: AHCI 0001.0200 32 slots 4 ports 3 Gbps 0xf impl SATA mode ahci :07:00.0: AHCI 0001. 32 slots 2 ports 3 Gbps 0x3 impl SATA mode despite the fact that AHCI is disabled in the BIOS settings (using IDE). I did an experiment an disabled AHCI in the kernel (to make the kernel settings consistent with the BIOS.) Result: The kernel did not find the root partition. In the meanwhile I do not understand all this never more. Why does the kernel boots only, if the BIOS says IDE! and linux insists on AHCI!...and waht ist the result? Best regards, mcc Hi meino, It's disappointing that Volker insists on sending these pissy little responses which don't advance the conversation. Sorry for that. Not sure I can lend any weight to the argument but it's my belief that your installation of Gentoo Linux isn't using BIOS to access the disk at all. Once the system boots and loads the kernel, then the kernel loads drivers (or uses what you built into the kernel) and takes over control of the hardware using the AHCI drivers. If the kernel doesn't use BIOS disk calls (INT13?) then it doesn't care what the BIOS thinks because the BIOS is not longer involved. It just talks directly to the hardware. I'm happy to be corrected (by Volker I'm sure) but that's my guess as to what you're seeing. you are confusing bios calls and bios programming chips as also - is there any good reason to use IDE mode? Any? At all?
Re: [gentoo-user] AHCI/IDE-question
On Friday 21 January 2011 11:12:34 kashani wrote: On 1/21/2011 10:53 AM, Volker Armin Hemmann wrote: so, why are you doing soemthing incredible stupid in the first place? How about you go have some coffee, maybe have a banana to even out the blood sugar, take a walk around the block, and try this email again without being a complete ass? kashani I am sorry that over the years I lost my patience with none-existing problems.
Re: [gentoo-user] AHCI/IDE-question
On Fri, Jan 21, 2011 at 11:16 AM, Volker Armin Hemmann volkerar...@googlemail.com wrote: SNIP I'm happy to be corrected (by Volker I'm sure) but that's my guess as to what you're seeing. you are confusing bios calls and bios programming chips as also - is there any good reason to use IDE mode? Any? At all? I don't believe I'm 'confusing bios calls with bios programming'. The BIOS can do whatever it wants to in programming the chips as long as grub can still find the kernel. After grub finds the kernel the kernel is free to override whatever chip programming the BIOS has done and reprogram the chips as it sees best. I think the issue meino possibly has is that he likely didn't include an Int13 type driver in the kernel or most likely his system would have booted like it did in the _very_ old days. I agree that there isn't any good reason I know of to use IDE mode unless the other modes the BIOS provides don't work. I cannot get into my Asus BIOS at the moment, but as I remember it Asus gave me something like IDE AHCI AHCI + compatibility IIRC I had to use the last one to get mine to boot but I may be wrong about that. I only mention this as meino is also using Asus so he might look for similar options. - Mark
Re: [gentoo-user] AHCI/IDE-question
On Fri, Jan 21, 2011 at 11:27 AM, Volker Armin Hemmann volkerar...@googlemail.com wrote: On Friday 21 January 2011 11:12:34 kashani wrote: On 1/21/2011 10:53 AM, Volker Armin Hemmann wrote: so, why are you doing soemthing incredible stupid in the first place? How about you go have some coffee, maybe have a banana to even out the blood sugar, take a walk around the block, and try this email again without being a complete ass? kashani I am sorry that over the years I lost my patience with none-existing problems. So why rip the guy a new one? You have years of experience? We don't know meino's experience level. He was clearly just doing experiments and trying to learn something. You pop up and try to push him down does him no good. Mom said If you don't have anything nice to say then say nothing at all. - Mark
Re: [gentoo-user] AHCI/IDE-question
Mark Knecht markkne...@gmail.com [11-01-21 20:16]: On Fri, Jan 21, 2011 at 10:45 AM, meino.cra...@gmx.de wrote: Hi, I got a little confused about the sense or nonsense of AHCI vs. IDE. I run a ASUS Crosshair IV Formula, which BIOS has a menu entry to configure the SATA ports either for IDE or AHCI or RAID. Forget RAID for a momen -- I dont use it (nothing against RAID ! ;) My box uses a linux 2.6.37 vanilla kernel. The kernel config has been set to CONFIG_SATA_AHCI=y # CONFIG_SATA_AHCI_PLATFORM is not set In the dmesg output I found this: pci :00:11.0: set SATA to AHCI mode ahci :00:11.0: AHCI 0001.0200 32 slots 4 ports 3 Gbps 0xf impl SATA mode ahci :07:00.0: AHCI 0001. 32 slots 2 ports 3 Gbps 0x3 impl SATA mode despite the fact that AHCI is disabled in the BIOS settings (using IDE). I did an experiment an disabled AHCI in the kernel (to make the kernel settings consistent with the BIOS.) Result: The kernel did not find the root partition. In the meanwhile I do not understand all this never more. Why does the kernel boots only, if the BIOS says IDE! and linux insists on AHCI!...and waht ist the result? Best regards, mcc Hi meino, It's disappointing that Volker insists on sending these pissy little responses which don't advance the conversation. Sorry for that. Not sure I can lend any weight to the argument but it's my belief that your installation of Gentoo Linux isn't using BIOS to access the disk at all. Once the system boots and loads the kernel, then the kernel loads drivers (or uses what you built into the kernel) and takes over control of the hardware using the AHCI drivers. If the kernel doesn't use BIOS disk calls (INT13?) then it doesn't care what the BIOS thinks because the BIOS is not longer involved. It just talks directly to the hardware. I'm happy to be corrected (by Volker I'm sure) but that's my guess as to what you're seeing. Good luck! Cheers, Mark Hi Mark, thank you for your kind words. There is no need to feel sorry for others. The behaviour of those are definelty neither your fault nor your problem ;) For me I have learned that it doesn't matter, whether the result of an experiment is positive or negative as long as one is prepared to learn from it. If one insisits on doing only so called non stupid things one will miss a lot of results sooner or later... ;) ;) I thought (which implies I dont know for sure), that the BIOS do enable/disable certain features, the kernels reads that settings and act accordingly -- but definitely this is not true for all settings. Does the contents of a harddisk differ when written with AHCI compared to a disk which is written with IDE? If NO _AND_ only the kernel sets the AHCI- odr IDE-protocol, then the harddisk should be readable in either case. If the BIOS _and_ the kernel settings are defining, how to talk to the disk, then it may happen, that there is only the sound of silence between kernel and hardware if before the BIOS set up the SATA-chips differently to what the kernel wants to talk. But again, these are only thougts drifting in the dark. I tried to shed some more light (for getting greater shadows ;) ) by posting my question here... ;) 8) May be I should do some more stupid things??? ;) Thanks again for your help and your words, Mark! Have a nice weekend! Best regards, mcc
Re: [gentoo-user] AHCI/IDE-question
Mark Knecht markkne...@gmail.com [11-01-21 20:36]: On Fri, Jan 21, 2011 at 11:16 AM, Volker Armin Hemmann volkerar...@googlemail.com wrote: SNIP I'm happy to be corrected (by Volker I'm sure) but that's my guess as to what you're seeing. you are confusing bios calls and bios programming chips as also - is there any good reason to use IDE mode? Any? At all? I don't believe I'm 'confusing bios calls with bios programming'. The BIOS can do whatever it wants to in programming the chips as long as grub can still find the kernel. After grub finds the kernel the kernel is free to override whatever chip programming the BIOS has done and reprogram the chips as it sees best. I think the issue meino possibly has is that he likely didn't include an Int13 type driver in the kernel or most likely his system would have booted like it did in the _very_ old days. I agree that there isn't any good reason I know of to use IDE mode unless the other modes the BIOS provides don't work. I cannot get into my Asus BIOS at the moment, but as I remember it Asus gave me something like IDE AHCI AHCI + compatibility IIRC I had to use the last one to get mine to boot but I may be wrong about that. I only mention this as meino is also using Asus so he might look for similar options. - Mark Hi Mark, ...I got some timing problems here, it seems: The answers are comeing faster than the related questions are posted. Are we disturbing the Einstein/Rosen-continuum here and should better stop mailing with lightspeed??? ;) My ASUS board offers: RAID IDE AHCI The help to both kernel options mentioned above is saying (beside other things): If unsure, say N. That would lead to a unbootable system (at least with my setup...). One point for clarification: Grub has no problem with either settings in the BIOS. Even the kernel boots til the point when it wants to access the root partition. I will try to reboot the system with kernel using AHCI _and_ the BIOS set to AHCI...I will post the result of the stupid experiment in a moment...wait...
Re: [gentoo-user] AHCI/IDE-question
On Fri, Jan 21, 2011 at 11:40 AM, meino.cra...@gmx.de wrote: SNIP Hi Mark, SNIP I thought (which implies I dont know for sure), that the BIOS do enable/disable certain features, the kernels reads that settings and act accordingly -- but definitely this is not true for all settings. Certainly true for some hardware, like clocks, etc. For disk controllers AFAIK the goal is to give the boot loader a chance to boot. After that it doesn't, in general, matter what the BIOS did. For instance, modern SATA controllers use DMA. BIOS and older operating systems like DOS didn't know much, if anything, about DMA, so BIOS leaves that turned off. The kernel turns that on. Does the contents of a harddisk differ when written with AHCI compared to a disk which is written with IDE? TTBOMK no. Other things like file system type, etc., change what's on the disk, but the disk store so many bytes/sector and that's just the way it works. If NO _AND_ only the kernel sets the AHCI- odr IDE-protocol, then the harddisk should be readable in either case. Certainly, which is why you could build this system using AHCI and then move it to some other system and read the disk using DOS. (Assuming DOS could understand the file system like FAT, etc.) If the BIOS _and_ the kernel settings are defining, how to talk to the disk, then it may happen, that there is only the sound of silence between kernel and hardware if before the BIOS set up the SATA-chips differently to what the kernel wants to talk. BIOS sets up the system hardware so the boot loader can get the kernel image off the disk. The kernel is read into memory using these settings. At that point there aren't any more disk reads for a while. The kernel executes and starts resetting the hardware through driver loads, etc. This is why one controller could be set to use a SATA Drive by itself or RAID. But again, these are only thougts drifting in the dark. I tried to shed some more light (for getting greater shadows ;) ) by posting my question here... ;) 8) May be I should do some more stupid things??? ;) Ain't no such thing a stupid question. Only thing to do when experimenting is ensure you aren't risking data you care about. I would do these experiments on a new clean system. I would not do them on a system that has stuff I care about unless I had known good backups. Thanks again for your help and your words, Mark! Have a nice weekend! Best regards, mcc You too sir! Cheers, Mark
Re: [gentoo-user] AHCI/IDE-question
On 1/21/2011 11:27 AM, Volker Armin Hemmann wrote: On Friday 21 January 2011 11:12:34 kashani wrote: On 1/21/2011 10:53 AM, Volker Armin Hemmann wrote: so, why are you doing soemthing incredible stupid in the first place? How about you go have some coffee, maybe have a banana to even out the blood sugar, take a walk around the block, and try this email again without being a complete ass? kashani I am sorry that over the years I lost my patience with none-existing problems. Don't be sorry, just stop doing it. This mailing list isn't anyone's job and if you're not enjoying the people and the questions anymore it might be time for a break. As with all volunteer work sometimes you *will* need to take a break. Hell I've gone months without responding to a single thread and most of the time I only read 20% of the posts. Those are usually the threads that interest me (ask more Postifx, Mysql, Apache, etc, server questions!) and I don't really have time for much more than that. Also with angry one liners you yourself are missing a chance to learn something. Maybe the answer to what's the purpose of your setup? It sounds fairly strange to me. would have been interesting. We might have found out about x kernel bug or weird hardware y. Or it may have been a half baked idea based on some lame blog that we'd all know was false. At worse I've just tossed use AHCI and trying to set IDE with modern hardware might have issues into the back of my brain. kashani
Re: [gentoo-user] AHCI/IDE-question
Mark Knecht markkne...@gmail.com [11-01-21 20:36]: On Fri, Jan 21, 2011 at 11:16 AM, Volker Armin Hemmann volkerar...@googlemail.com wrote: SNIP I'm happy to be corrected (by Volker I'm sure) but that's my guess as to what you're seeing. you are confusing bios calls and bios programming chips as also - is there any good reason to use IDE mode? Any? At all? I don't believe I'm 'confusing bios calls with bios programming'. The BIOS can do whatever it wants to in programming the chips as long as grub can still find the kernel. After grub finds the kernel the kernel is free to override whatever chip programming the BIOS has done and reprogram the chips as it sees best. I think the issue meino possibly has is that he likely didn't include an Int13 type driver in the kernel or most likely his system would have booted like it did in the _very_ old days. I agree that there isn't any good reason I know of to use IDE mode unless the other modes the BIOS provides don't work. I cannot get into my Asus BIOS at the moment, but as I remember it Asus gave me something like IDE AHCI AHCI + compatibility IIRC I had to use the last one to get mine to boot but I may be wrong about that. I only mention this as meino is also using Asus so he might look for similar options. - Mark Hi, I switched the BIOS from IDE (kernel is using AHCI) to AHCI (kernel uses AHCI). The dmesg says (I did a dmesg | grep -i ahci now, previous check was done with dmesg | grep AHCI only): solfire:/rootdmesg | grep -i ahci ahci :00:11.0: version 3.0 *0* ahci :00:11.0: PCI INT A - GSI 19 (level, low) - IRQ 19 *1* ahci :00:11.0: irq 78 for MSI/MSI-X *2* ahci :00:11.0: AHCI 0001.0200 32 slots 6 ports 3 Gbps 0x3f impl SATA mode *3* ahci :00:11.0: flags: 64bit ncq sntf ilck pm led clo pmp pio slum part scsi0 : ahci scsi1 : ahci scsi2 : ahci scsi3 : ahci scsi4 : ahci scsi5 : ahci ahci :07:00.0: PCI INT A - GSI 44 (level, low) - IRQ 44 *4* ahci :07:00.0: AHCI 0001. 32 slots 2 ports 3 Gbps 0x3 impl SATA mode *5* ahci :07:00.0: flags: 64bit ncq pm led clo pmp pio slum part *6* ahci :07:00.0: setting latency timer to 64 scsi6 : ahci scsi7 : ahci For me bare eye this looks like the kernel ha switched all seven ports to AHCI. Lines marked with *n* are still a riddle to me. May be Volker will give us some enlightment? Why is line *1* of the first block missing in the second block, Volker? Why is line *2* talking about 0x3f while line *4* is using 0x3, Volker? Why differ line *5* from line *3*, Volker? What does all these flags mean? I find this interesting: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-hardware-18/6-tips-for-improving-hard-drive-performance-835034/ Best regards, mcc
Re: [gentoo-user] AHCI/IDE-question
Mark Knecht markkne...@gmail.com [11-01-21 21:04]: On Fri, Jan 21, 2011 at 11:40 AM, meino.cra...@gmx.de wrote: SNIP Hi Mark, SNIP I thought (which implies I dont know for sure), that the BIOS do enable/disable certain features, the kernels reads that settings and act accordingly -- but definitely this is not true for all settings. Certainly true for some hardware, like clocks, etc. For disk controllers AFAIK the goal is to give the boot loader a chance to boot. After that it doesn't, in general, matter what the BIOS did. For instance, modern SATA controllers use DMA. BIOS and older operating systems like DOS didn't know much, if anything, about DMA, so BIOS leaves that turned off. The kernel turns that on. Does the contents of a harddisk differ when written with AHCI compared to a disk which is written with IDE? TTBOMK no. Other things like file system type, etc., change what's on the disk, but the disk store so many bytes/sector and that's just the way it works. If NO _AND_ only the kernel sets the AHCI- odr IDE-protocol, then the harddisk should be readable in either case. Certainly, which is why you could build this system using AHCI and then move it to some other system and read the disk using DOS. (Assuming DOS could understand the file system like FAT, etc.) If the BIOS _and_ the kernel settings are defining, how to talk to the disk, then it may happen, that there is only the sound of silence between kernel and hardware if before the BIOS set up the SATA-chips differently to what the kernel wants to talk. BIOS sets up the system hardware so the boot loader can get the kernel image off the disk. The kernel is read into memory using these settings. At that point there aren't any more disk reads for a while. The kernel executes and starts resetting the hardware through driver loads, etc. This is why one controller could be set to use a SATA Drive by itself or RAID. But again, these are only thougts drifting in the dark. I tried to shed some more light (for getting greater shadows ;) ) by posting my question here... ;) 8) May be I should do some more stupid things??? ;) Ain't no such thing a stupid question. Only thing to do when experimenting is ensure you aren't risking data you care about. I would do these experiments on a new clean system. I would not do them on a system that has stuff I care about unless I had known good backups. Thanks again for your help and your words, Mark! Have a nice weekend! Best regards, mcc You too sir! Cheers, Mark :) Thanks for your explanations, Mark! I have a complete mirror of the harddisk in question on another identical harddisk... Despite others may think...I am not /that/ stupid, hahahahahahahaha! :) 8) X) Best regards, mcc
Re: [gentoo-user] AHCI/IDE-question
Mark Knecht markkne...@gmail.com [11-01-21 21:04]: On Fri, Jan 21, 2011 at 11:40 AM, meino.cra...@gmx.de wrote: SNIP Hi Mark, SNIP I thought (which implies I dont know for sure), that the BIOS do enable/disable certain features, the kernels reads that settings and act accordingly -- but definitely this is not true for all settings. Certainly true for some hardware, like clocks, etc. For disk controllers AFAIK the goal is to give the boot loader a chance to boot. After that it doesn't, in general, matter what the BIOS did. For instance, modern SATA controllers use DMA. BIOS and older operating systems like DOS didn't know much, if anything, about DMA, so BIOS leaves that turned off. The kernel turns that on. Does the contents of a harddisk differ when written with AHCI compared to a disk which is written with IDE? TTBOMK no. Other things like file system type, etc., change what's on the disk, but the disk store so many bytes/sector and that's just the way it works. If NO _AND_ only the kernel sets the AHCI- odr IDE-protocol, then the harddisk should be readable in either case. Certainly, which is why you could build this system using AHCI and then move it to some other system and read the disk using DOS. (Assuming DOS could understand the file system like FAT, etc.) If the BIOS _and_ the kernel settings are defining, how to talk to the disk, then it may happen, that there is only the sound of silence between kernel and hardware if before the BIOS set up the SATA-chips differently to what the kernel wants to talk. BIOS sets up the system hardware so the boot loader can get the kernel image off the disk. The kernel is read into memory using these settings. At that point there aren't any more disk reads for a while. The kernel executes and starts resetting the hardware through driver loads, etc. This is why one controller could be set to use a SATA Drive by itself or RAID. But again, these are only thougts drifting in the dark. I tried to shed some more light (for getting greater shadows ;) ) by posting my question here... ;) 8) May be I should do some more stupid things??? ;) Ain't no such thing a stupid question. Only thing to do when experimenting is ensure you aren't risking data you care about. I would do these experiments on a new clean system. I would not do them on a system that has stuff I care about unless I had known good backups. Thanks again for your help and your words, Mark! Have a nice weekend! Best regards, mcc You too sir! Cheers, Mark Last thing which remains is: Why does the help of the kernel says to both AHCI-settings: If unsure, say N... ?
Re: [gentoo-user] AHCI/IDE-question
On 1/21/2011 2:48 PM, meino.cra...@gmx.de wrote: My ASUS board offers: RAID IDE AHCI The help to both kernel options mentioned above is saying (beside other things): If unsure, say N. Which kernel options are you specifically looking it? There isn't a single option that I see that says AHCI, or IDE. There are two separate AHCI options and a few dozen SFF (IDE) options. In your case, there is no good reason to use the old IDE interface instead of the newer AHCI SATA interface. So, go with that. That would lead to a unbootable system (at least with my setup...). Just for a future reference... the fact that you know this would mean you are no longer unsure and should feel free to say Y to whichever option works. :) --Mike
Re: [gentoo-user] AHCI/IDE-question
On Fri, Jan 21, 2011 at 12:11 PM, meino.cra...@gmx.de wrote: SNIP Last thing which remains is: Why does the help of the kernel says to both AHCI-settings: If unsure, say N... ? Because if you're not sure you have SATA then you don't need the driver? :-) It could just as easily say Y or M but they mostly seem to opt for a smaller kernel in those defaults instead of more functionality. Just my opinion. Cheers, Mark
Re: [gentoo-user] AHCI/IDE-question
Mike Edenfield kut...@kutulu.org [11-01-21 21:28]: On 1/21/2011 2:48 PM, meino.cra...@gmx.de wrote: My ASUS board offers: RAID IDE AHCI The help to both kernel options mentioned above is saying (beside other things): If unsure, say N. Which kernel options are you specifically looking it? There isn't a single option that I see that says AHCI, or IDE. There are two separate AHCI options and a few dozen SFF (IDE) options. In your case, there is no good reason to use the old IDE interface instead of the newer AHCI SATA interface. So, go with that. That would lead to a unbootable system (at least with my setup...). Just for a future reference... the fact that you know this would mean you are no longer unsure and should feel free to say Y to whichever option works. :) --Mike hi Mike, I am talking about this two options: CONFIG_SATA_AHCI=y # CONFIG_SATA_AHCI_PLATFORM is not set Best regards, mcc
Re: [gentoo-user] AHCI/IDE-question
meino.cra...@gmx.de wrote: Last thing which remains is: Why does the help of the kernel says to both AHCI-settings: If unsure, say N... ? I just built a rig with a Gigabyte mobo. Mine has setting like yours. I asked on here and was told that AHCI is the new way to do things. So, I set mine to that and it has worked fine. The only issue I did have is not being able to boot from a CD/DVD with it set to AHCI. No idea why that matters. My DVD drive is SATA too. I need to play with that more later on. See if it was that or something else that I missed. Thought I would mention that just in case you try to boot a CD or something and get a nasty error message or something. May want to file that in the back of your brain for future reference. Dale :-) :-)
Re: [gentoo-user] AHCI/IDE-question
On 1/21/2011 3:05 PM, meino.cra...@gmx.de wrote: solfire:/rootdmesg | grep -i ahci ahci :00:11.0: version 3.0 *0* ahci :00:11.0: PCI INT A - GSI 19 (level, low) - IRQ 19 *1* ahci :00:11.0: irq 78 for MSI/MSI-X *2* ahci :00:11.0: AHCI 0001.0200 32 slots 6 ports 3 Gbps 0x3f impl SATA mode *3* ahci :00:11.0: flags: 64bit ncq sntf ilck pm led clo pmp pio slum part ahci :07:00.0: PCI INT A - GSI 44 (level, low) - IRQ 44 *4* ahci :07:00.0: AHCI 0001. 32 slots 2 ports 3 Gbps 0x3 impl SATA mode *5* ahci :07:00.0: flags: 64bit ncq pm led clo pmp pio slum part *6* ahci :07:00.0: setting latency timer to 64 For me bare eye this looks like the kernel ha switched all seven ports to AHCI. To say that the kernel switched the ports is probably misleading. The kernel is just trying to hook up the devices it finds to the device drivers it has available. You told the kernel it was ok to use the AHCI driver. The kernel located those ports, detected that they supported the AHCI interface, and thus, attached the AHCI SATA driver to them. If you had told your BIOS that those ports should be operated as IDE instead of AHCI, then the kernel wouldn't have found any supported AHCI hardware and you probably wouldn't be able to boot. Why is line *1* of the first block missing in the second block, Volker? Why is line *2* talking about 0x3f while line *4* is using 0x3, Volker? Why differ line *5* from line *3*, Volker? What does all these flags mean? You could also dig into the internals of the libahci.c driver to figure out what all of those display items mean. In this case, your seeing two different PCI busses with slightly different capabilities; just off the top of my head, one is probably a 6-port PCI-X bus and the other a 2-port PCI bus, but I'd have to go look up the specs to your motherboard to really find out. --Mike
Re: [gentoo-user] AHCI/IDE-question
On Fri, Jan 21, 2011 at 12:30 PM, meino.cra...@gmx.de wrote: SNIP hi Mike, I am talking about this two options: CONFIG_SATA_AHCI=y # CONFIG_SATA_AHCI_PLATFORM is not set Best regards, mcc From Niko a few months ago: http://www.gossamer-threads.com/lists/gentoo/user/217204 Cheers, Mark
Re: [gentoo-user] AHCI/IDE-question
On 1/21/2011 3:30 PM, meino.cra...@gmx.de wrote: Mike Edenfield kut...@kutulu.org [11-01-21 21:28]: On 1/21/2011 2:48 PM, meino.cra...@gmx.de wrote: My ASUS board offers: RAID IDE AHCI The help to both kernel options mentioned above is saying (beside other things): If unsure, say N. Which kernel options are you specifically looking it? There isn't a single option that I see that says AHCI, or IDE. There are two separate AHCI options and a few dozen SFF (IDE) options. I am talking about this two options: CONFIG_SATA_AHCI=y # CONFIG_SATA_AHCI_PLATFORM is not set Yes, those are just two different version of the AHCI driver. And you don't need either of them to boot, since AHCI is only one option for accessing IDE drives. On my systems that predate AHCI/SATA, for example, I just use the legacy interface: CONFIG_ATA_SFF=y CONFIG_ATA_BMDMA=y CONFIG_SATA_NV=y But if AHCI is available, then obviously I'm going to use that instead. --Mike
Re: [gentoo-user] AHCI/IDE-question
Dale rdalek1...@gmail.com [11-01-21 21:44]: meino.cra...@gmx.de wrote: Last thing which remains is: Why does the help of the kernel says to both AHCI-settings: If unsure, say N... ? I just built a rig with a Gigabyte mobo. Mine has setting like yours. I asked on here and was told that AHCI is the new way to do things. So, I set mine to that and it has worked fine. The only issue I did have is not being able to boot from a CD/DVD with it set to AHCI. No idea why that matters. My DVD drive is SATA too. I need to play with that more later on. See if it was that or something else that I missed. Thought I would mention that just in case you try to boot a CD or something and get a nasty error message or something. May want to file that in the back of your brain for future reference. Dale :-) :-) Hi Dale, *IDEA* Mark said, that the kernel alone is defining, whether to talk AHCI or IDE to the harddisk and there is not a single result here from my experiments, that makes me believe, that Mark is wrong with that... Why not to switch back to IDE in the BIOS, which again makes it possible to boot from USB/DVD since it is used far before the kernel image takes over. When the kernel boots, the chips are brainwashed and after that they are thinking AHCI instead of IDE ? may be an option ? Best regards, mcc
Re: [gentoo-user] AHCI/IDE-question
Hi Mike, thank you for your explanations! :) But Mike Edenfield kut...@kutulu.org [11-01-21 21:48]: On 1/21/2011 3:05 PM, meino.cra...@gmx.de wrote: solfire:/rootdmesg | grep -i ahci ahci :00:11.0: version 3.0 *0* ahci :00:11.0: PCI INT A - GSI 19 (level, low) - IRQ 19 *1* ahci :00:11.0: irq 78 for MSI/MSI-X *2* ahci :00:11.0: AHCI 0001.0200 32 slots 6 ports 3 Gbps 0x3f impl SATA mode *3* ahci :00:11.0: flags: 64bit ncq sntf ilck pm led clo pmp pio slum part ahci :07:00.0: PCI INT A - GSI 44 (level, low) - IRQ 44 *4* ahci :07:00.0: AHCI 0001. 32 slots 2 ports 3 Gbps 0x3 impl SATA mode *5* ahci :07:00.0: flags: 64bit ncq pm led clo pmp pio slum part *6* ahci :07:00.0: setting latency timer to 64 For me bare eye this looks like the kernel ha switched all seven ports to AHCI. To say that the kernel switched the ports is probably misleading. The kernel is just trying to hook up the devices it finds to the device drivers it has available. You told the kernel it was ok to use the AHCI driver. The kernel located those ports, detected that they supported the AHCI interface, and thus, attached the AHCI SATA driver to them. If you had told your BIOS that those ports should be operated as IDE instead of AHCI, then the kernel wouldn't have found any supported AHCI hardware and you probably wouldn't be able to boot. .before the BIOS was set to IDE the kernel used AHCI. After switching the BIOS to AHCI the kernel acts identical to what it did before. So it seems, that the BIOS has no influence. Mark mentioned this before. Only switching the kernel to IDE (only for experimenting) leads to a non-bootable system. Why is line *1* of the first block missing in the second block, Volker? Why is line *2* talking about 0x3f while line *4* is using 0x3, Volker? Why differ line *5* from line *3*, Volker? What does all these flags mean? You could also dig into the internals of the libahci.c driver to figure out what all of those display items mean. In this case, your seeing two different PCI busses with slightly different capabilities; just off the top of my head, one is probably a 6-port PCI-X bus and the other a 2-port PCI bus, but I'd have to go look up the specs to your motherboard to really find out. Ok, I save this for tommorrow. Here it is now 21r:59 in the evening and I stood up 3:40 this night/morning today. I think, there is enough AHCI and IDE left for tommorow... :) --Mike Thanks to you all who have helped ! mcc
Re: [gentoo-user] AHCI/IDE-question
On Fri, 21 Jan 2011 19:45:07 +0100, meino.cra...@gmx.de wrote: I did an experiment an disabled AHCI in the kernel (to make the kernel settings consistent with the BIOS.) Result: The kernel did not find the root partition. You disabled the driver for your hard disk controller and you wonder why the kernel cannot find the hard disk? Did you remember to build in support for the specific chipset drivers? -- Neil Bothwick ... Never say anything more predictive than Watch this!
Re: [gentoo-user] AHCI/IDE-question
On Fri, Jan 21, 2011 at 12:40 PM, Mike Edenfield kut...@kutulu.org wrote: SNIP You could also dig into the internals of the libahci.c driver to figure out what all of those display items mean. In this case, your seeing two different PCI busses with slightly different capabilities; just off the top of my head, one is probably a 6-port PCI-X bus and the other a 2-port PCI bus, but I'd have to go look up the specs to your motherboard to really find out. --Mike Maybe lspci -t Would show something? - Mark firefly ~ # lspci -t -[:00]-+-00.0 +-02.0 +-16.0 +-16.2 +-16.3 +-19.0 +-1a.0 +-1b.0 +-1c.0-[01]-- +-1c.4-[02]-- +-1d.0 +-1e.0-[03]--+-00.0 |+-01.0 |\-02.0 +-1f.0 +-1f.2 \-1f.3 firefly ~ #
Re: [gentoo-user] AHCI/IDE-question
On Fri, Jan 21, 2011 at 12:53 PM, meino.cra...@gmx.de wrote: SNIP Hi Dale, *IDEA* Mark said, that the kernel alone is defining, whether to talk AHCI or IDE to the harddisk and there is not a single result here from my experiments, that makes me believe, that Mark is wrong with that... Mark also said 'Don't trust Mark' so be careful about anything Mark says here! ;-)) Why not to switch back to IDE in the BIOS, which again makes it possible to boot from USB/DVD since it is used far before the kernel image takes over. If Mike's assessment is correct then the reason not to do that is that once the kernel boots it wouldn't know that the hardware is AHCI capable and you almost certainly would get lower performance. When the kernel boots, the chips are brainwashed and after that they are thinking AHCI instead of IDE I think it's more what Mike suggested. The chips have a control bit in them that changes the way they work. If the bit is set to IDE then then chips never tell the kernel that they can do SATA so the kernel never tries. I booted into BIOS here. I have an option called SATA Configuration which is set to Enhanced. It offers Disabled and Compatible also. BIOS then gives me another choice Configure SATA as which I have set to IDE. It offers RAID and AHCI also. This allows the system to boot CDs and still allows the kernel to run SATA at full speed. - Mark
Re: [gentoo-user] AHCI/IDE-question
On Fri, Jan 21, 2011 at 12:45 PM, meino.cra...@gmx.de wrote: Hi, I got a little confused about the sense or nonsense of AHCI vs. IDE. I run a ASUS Crosshair IV Formula, which BIOS has a menu entry to configure the SATA ports either for IDE or AHCI or RAID. Forget RAID for a momen -- I dont use it (nothing against RAID ! ;) Consider IDE to mean Compatibility mode. I just RTFM for your manual, it tells that if you want to use NCQ or hot-plugging you must enable AHCI in BIOS. I have a Gigabyte motherboard and it's the same way. If I use IDE mode, kernel must use a different driver (it's still not really IDE. When I use AHCI, it uses the ahci driver in kernel and all features and full speed are available. I think it's a bad name, just like Keyboard: DOS/USB setting, when DOS really means PS/2 Emulation from BIOS or whatever. So, use AHCI, be happy. ;)
Re: [gentoo-user] AHCI/IDE-question
Apparently, though unproven, at 22:37 on Friday 21 January 2011, Dale did opine thusly: meino.cra...@gmx.de wrote: Last thing which remains is: Why does the help of the kernel says to both AHCI-settings: If unsure, say N... ? I just built a rig with a Gigabyte mobo. Mine has setting like yours. I asked on here and was told that AHCI is the new way to do things. So, I set mine to that and it has worked fine. The only issue I did have is not being able to boot from a CD/DVD with it set to AHCI. No idea why that matters. My DVD drive is SATA too. I need to play with that more later on. See if it was that or something else that I missed. Thought I would mention that just in case you try to boot a CD or something and get a nasty error message or something. May want to file that in the back of your brain for future reference. My notebook works like that too. Hard disk works fine when everything is set to AHCI, but then the system won't boot from CD. So I enabled the IDE driver and the IDE driver for CD-ROMs. My take on this is that Dell had a vast stock of cheap-skate CD-ROM hardware and used them up. The engineering logic would have been it doesn't matter that we use the slow interface for that device, it's still faster than we can get the data off the media. -- alan dot mckinnon at gmail dot com
Re: [gentoo-user] AHCI/IDE-question
Alan McKinnon wrote: My notebook works like that too. Hard disk works fine when everything is set to AHCI, but then the system won't boot from CD. So I enabled the IDE driver and the IDE driver for CD-ROMs. My take on this is that Dell had a vast stock of cheap-skate CD-ROM hardware and used them up. The engineering logic would have been it doesn't matter that we use the slow interface for that device, it's still faster than we can get the data off the media. And I thought there was something weird with me on this one. o_O I did switch it back to AHCI after I got done booting the CD thingy. I really can't tell any difference in speed between the two and neither could hdparm -tT either. root@fireball / # hdparm -Tt /dev/sda /dev/sda: Timing cached reads: 6408 MB in 2.00 seconds = 3205.06 MB/sec Timing buffered disk reads: 328 MB in 3.00 seconds = 109.22 MB/sec root@fireball / # I get about the same either way. Could that mean that when the kernel boots that it switched over to AHCI regardless of the BIOS setting? This is a little info too: root@fireball / # dmesg | grep -i ahci [0.827837] ahci :00:11.0: version 3.0 [0.827855] ahci :00:11.0: PCI INT A - GSI 22 (level, low) - IRQ 22 [0.828285] ahci :00:11.0: AHCI 0001.0100 32 slots 6 ports 3 Gbps 0x3f impl SATA mode [0.828840] ahci :00:11.0: flags: 64bit ncq sntf ilck pm led clo pmp pio slum part ccc [0.830342] scsi0 : ahci [0.830734] scsi1 : ahci [0.831103] scsi2 : ahci [0.831474] scsi3 : ahci [0.831843] scsi4 : ahci [0.832204] scsi5 : ahci root@fireball / # Someone may can talk be into rebooting and switching AHCI off and testing again. Big may there. ;-) Dale :-) :-) P. S. Seriously off topic. I used hugin the other day to stitch together about a dozen pics from a 10Mpxl camera. It was awesome to watch all four cores crunch on that thing. It was fast too. Going from a single 2.5Ghz CPU to a four core 3.2Ghz CPU is a huge difference.
Re: [gentoo-user] AHCI/IDE-question
On Friday 21 January 2011 11:35:06 Mark Knecht wrote: On Fri, Jan 21, 2011 at 11:27 AM, Volker Armin Hemmann volkerar...@googlemail.com wrote: On Friday 21 January 2011 11:12:34 kashani wrote: On 1/21/2011 10:53 AM, Volker Armin Hemmann wrote: so, why are you doing soemthing incredible stupid in the first place? How about you go have some coffee, maybe have a banana to even out the blood sugar, take a walk around the block, and try this email again without being a complete ass? kashani I am sorry that over the years I lost my patience with none-existing problems. So why rip the guy a new one? You have years of experience? We don't know meino's experience level. He was clearly just doing experiments and trying to learn something. You pop up and try to push him down does him no good. Mom said If you don't have anything nice to say then say nothing at all. - Mark but: If you always ask and never research for yourself you will never learn.
Re: [gentoo-user] AHCI/IDE-question
On Friday 21 January 2011 21:05:30 meino.cra...@gmx.de wrote: Mark Knecht markkne...@gmail.com [11-01-21 20:36]: On Fri, Jan 21, 2011 at 11:16 AM, Volker Armin Hemmann volkerar...@googlemail.com wrote: SNIP I'm happy to be corrected (by Volker I'm sure) but that's my guess as to what you're seeing. you are confusing bios calls and bios programming chips as also - is there any good reason to use IDE mode? Any? At all? I don't believe I'm 'confusing bios calls with bios programming'. The BIOS can do whatever it wants to in programming the chips as long as grub can still find the kernel. After grub finds the kernel the kernel is free to override whatever chip programming the BIOS has done and reprogram the chips as it sees best. I think the issue meino possibly has is that he likely didn't include an Int13 type driver in the kernel or most likely his system would have booted like it did in the _very_ old days. I agree that there isn't any good reason I know of to use IDE mode unless the other modes the BIOS provides don't work. I cannot get into my Asus BIOS at the moment, but as I remember it Asus gave me something like IDE AHCI AHCI + compatibility IIRC I had to use the last one to get mine to boot but I may be wrong about that. I only mention this as meino is also using Asus so he might look for similar options. - Mark Hi, I switched the BIOS from IDE (kernel is using AHCI) to AHCI (kernel uses AHCI). The dmesg says (I did a dmesg | grep -i ahci now, previous check was done with dmesg | grep AHCI only): solfire:/rootdmesg | grep -i ahci ahci :00:11.0: version 3.0 *0* ahci :00:11.0: PCI INT A - GSI 19 (level, low) - IRQ 19 *1* ahci :00:11.0: irq 78 for MSI/MSI-X *2* ahci :00:11.0: AHCI 0001.0200 32 slots 6 ports 3 Gbps 0x3f impl SATA mode *3* ahci :00:11.0: flags: 64bit ncq sntf ilck pm led clo pmp pio slum part scsi0 : ahci scsi1 : ahci scsi2 : ahci scsi3 : ahci scsi4 : ahci scsi5 : ahci ahci :07:00.0: PCI INT A - GSI 44 (level, low) - IRQ 44 *4* ahci :07:00.0: AHCI 0001. 32 slots 2 ports 3 Gbps 0x3 impl SATA mode *5* ahci :07:00.0: flags: 64bit ncq pm led clo pmp pio slum part *6* ahci :07:00.0: setting latency timer to 64 scsi6 : ahci scsi7 : ahci For me bare eye this looks like the kernel ha switched all seven ports to AHCI. Lines marked with *n* are still a riddle to me. May be Volker will give us some enlightment? Why is line *1* of the first block missing in the second block, Volker? Why is line *2* talking about 0x3f while line *4* is using 0x3, Volker? Why differ line *5* from line *3*, Volker? What does all these flags mean? you know - there are websites for that. Google is your friend. But even a glance would reveal to you: two different chips. One using MSI for interrupts the second not. I find this interesting: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-hardware-18/6-tips-for-improvi ng-hard-drive-performance-835034/ it is a start. But the first link there... just saying.. there is no magically correct value for stride or chunk. Oh and if you are using AFT drives make sure the partitions are set up correctly. Also: https://ata.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Main_Page
Re: [gentoo-user] AHCI/IDE-question
Mark Knecht markkne...@gmail.com [11-01-22 03:04]: On Fri, Jan 21, 2011 at 12:40 PM, Mike Edenfield kut...@kutulu.org wrote: SNIP You could also dig into the internals of the libahci.c driver to figure out what all of those display items mean. In this case, your seeing two different PCI busses with slightly different capabilities; just off the top of my head, one is probably a 6-port PCI-X bus and the other a 2-port PCI bus, but I'd have to go look up the specs to your motherboard to really find out. --Mike Maybe lspci -t Would show something? - Mark firefly ~ # lspci -t -[:00]-+-00.0 +-02.0 +-16.0 +-16.2 +-16.3 +-19.0 +-1a.0 +-1b.0 +-1c.0-[01]-- +-1c.4-[02]-- +-1d.0 +-1e.0-[03]--+-00.0 |+-01.0 |\-02.0 +-1f.0 +-1f.2 \-1f.3 firefly ~ # Hi Mark, I got this (lspci -tv): -[:00]-+-00.0 ATI Technologies Inc RD890 Northbridge only single slot PCI-e GFX Hydra part +-00.2 ATI Technologies Inc Device 5a23 +-02.0-[08]--+-00.0 nVidia Corporation Device 0de1 |\-00.1 nVidia Corporation Device 0bea +-04.0-[07]--+-00.0 JMicron Technology Corp. JMB362/JMB363 Serial ATA Controller |\-00.1 JMicron Technology Corp. JMB362/JMB363 Serial ATA Controller +-05.0-[06]00.0 VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6315 Series Firewire Controller +-06.0-[05]00.0 Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88E8059 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller +-07.0-[04]00.0 NEC Corporation uPD720200 USB 3.0 Host Controller +-0d.0-[02-03]00.0-[03]--+-00.0 Oxford Semiconductor Ltd OX16PCI954 (Quad 16950 UART) function 0 (Uart) |\-00.1 Oxford Semiconductor Ltd OX16PCI954 (Quad 16950 UART) function 1 (8bit bus) +-11.0 ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 SATA Controller [AHCI mode] +-12.0 ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 USB OHCI0 Controller +-12.2 ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 USB EHCI Controller +-13.0 ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 USB OHCI0 Controller +-13.2 ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 USB EHCI Controller +-14.0 ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 SMBus Controller +-14.2 ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA) +-14.3 ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 LPC host controller +-14.4-[01]--+-06.0 Brooktree Corporation Bt878 Video Capture |\-06.1 Brooktree Corporation Bt878 Audio Capture +-14.5 ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 USB OHCI2 Controller +-16.0 ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 USB OHCI0 Controller +-16.2 ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 USB EHCI Controller +-18.0 Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 10h Processor HyperTransport Configuration +-18.1 Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 10h Processor Address Map +-18.2 Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 10h Processor DRAM Controller +-18.3 Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 10h Processor Miscellaneous Control \-18.4 Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 10h Processor Link Control
Re: [gentoo-user] AHCI/IDE-question
On Fri, Jan 21, 2011 at 6:11 PM, meino.cra...@gmx.de wrote: SNIP Hi Mark, I got this (lspci -tv): -[:00]-+-00.0 ATI Technologies Inc RD890 Northbridge only single slot PCI-e GFX Hydra part +-00.2 ATI Technologies Inc Device 5a23 +-02.0-[08]--+-00.0 nVidia Corporation Device 0de1 | \-00.1 nVidia Corporation Device 0bea +-04.0-[07]--+-00.0 JMicron Technology Corp. JMB362/JMB363 Serial ATA Controller | \-00.1 JMicron Technology Corp. JMB362/JMB363 Serial ATA Controller +-05.0-[06]00.0 VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6315 Series Firewire Controller +-06.0-[05]00.0 Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88E8059 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller +-07.0-[04]00.0 NEC Corporation uPD720200 USB 3.0 Host Controller +-0d.0-[02-03]00.0-[03]--+-00.0 Oxford Semiconductor Ltd OX16PCI954 (Quad 16950 UART) function 0 (Uart) | \-00.1 Oxford Semiconductor Ltd OX16PCI954 (Quad 16950 UART) function 1 (8bit bus) +-11.0 ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 SATA Controller [AHCI mode] +-12.0 ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 USB OHCI0 Controller +-12.2 ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 USB EHCI Controller +-13.0 ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 USB OHCI0 Controller +-13.2 ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 USB EHCI Controller +-14.0 ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 SMBus Controller +-14.2 ATI Technologies Inc SBx00 Azalia (Intel HDA) +-14.3 ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 LPC host controller +-14.4-[01]--+-06.0 Brooktree Corporation Bt878 Video Capture | \-06.1 Brooktree Corporation Bt878 Audio Capture +-14.5 ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 USB OHCI2 Controller +-16.0 ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 USB OHCI0 Controller +-16.2 ATI Technologies Inc SB700/SB800 USB EHCI Controller +-18.0 Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 10h Processor HyperTransport Configuration +-18.1 Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 10h Processor Address Map +-18.2 Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 10h Processor DRAM Controller +-18.3 Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 10h Processor Miscellaneous Control \-18.4 Advanced Micro Devices [AMD] Family 10h Processor Link Control Interesting. This is (apparently) the Asus/AMD version of the motherboard I'm using which is Asus/Intel. (Both ROG) It's almost feature for feature identical http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16813131352cm_re=Rampage_II_extreme-_-13-131-352-_-Product I'm using the Intel Core i7-980x Extreme in mine, so it's 6 cores/12 threads. Here's mine again: c2stable ~ # lspci -tv -[:00]-+-00.0 Intel Corporation X58 I/O Hub to ESI Port +-01.0-[01]-- +-03.0-[02]-- +-07.0-[03]--+-00.0 ATI Technologies Inc Device 68b8 |\-00.1 ATI Technologies Inc Device aa58 +-14.0 Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub System Management Registers +-14.1 Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub GPIO and Scratch Pad Registers +-14.2 Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub Control Status and RAS Registers +-14.3 Intel Corporation 5520/5500/X58 I/O Hub Throttle Registers +-1a.0 Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #4 +-1a.1 Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #5 +-1a.2 Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #6 +-1a.7 Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #2 +-1b.0 Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) HD Audio Controller +-1c.0-[07]-- +-1c.2-[06]00.0 Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88E8056 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller +-1c.4-[05]--+-00.0 JMicron Technology Corp. 20360/20363 Serial ATA Controller |\-00.1 JMicron Technology Corp. 20360/20363 Serial ATA Controller +-1c.5-[04]00.0 Marvell Technology Group Ltd. 88E8056 PCI-E Gigabit Ethernet Controller +-1d.0 Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #1 +-1d.1 Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #2 +-1d.2 Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB UHCI Controller #3 +-1d.7 Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller #1 +-1e.0-[08]02.0 VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6306 Fire II IEEE 1394 OHCI Link Layer Controller +-1f.0 Intel Corporation 82801JIR (ICH10R) LPC Interface Controller +-1f.2 Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) 4 port SATA IDE Controller +-1f.3 Intel Corporation 82801JI (ICH10 Family) SMBus Controller \-1f.5
Re: [gentoo-user] AHCI/IDE-question
Volker Armin Hemmann volkerar...@googlemail.com [11-01-22 03:04]: On Friday 21 January 2011 21:05:30 meino.cra...@gmx.de wrote: Mark Knecht markkne...@gmail.com [11-01-21 20:36]: On Fri, Jan 21, 2011 at 11:16 AM, Volker Armin Hemmann volkerar...@googlemail.com wrote: SNIP I'm happy to be corrected (by Volker I'm sure) but that's my guess as to what you're seeing. you are confusing bios calls and bios programming chips as also - is there any good reason to use IDE mode? Any? At all? I don't believe I'm 'confusing bios calls with bios programming'. The BIOS can do whatever it wants to in programming the chips as long as grub can still find the kernel. After grub finds the kernel the kernel is free to override whatever chip programming the BIOS has done and reprogram the chips as it sees best. I think the issue meino possibly has is that he likely didn't include an Int13 type driver in the kernel or most likely his system would have booted like it did in the _very_ old days. I agree that there isn't any good reason I know of to use IDE mode unless the other modes the BIOS provides don't work. I cannot get into my Asus BIOS at the moment, but as I remember it Asus gave me something like IDE AHCI AHCI + compatibility IIRC I had to use the last one to get mine to boot but I may be wrong about that. I only mention this as meino is also using Asus so he might look for similar options. - Mark Hi, I switched the BIOS from IDE (kernel is using AHCI) to AHCI (kernel uses AHCI). The dmesg says (I did a dmesg | grep -i ahci now, previous check was done with dmesg | grep AHCI only): solfire:/rootdmesg | grep -i ahci ahci :00:11.0: version 3.0 *0* ahci :00:11.0: PCI INT A - GSI 19 (level, low) - IRQ 19 *1* ahci :00:11.0: irq 78 for MSI/MSI-X *2* ahci :00:11.0: AHCI 0001.0200 32 slots 6 ports 3 Gbps 0x3f impl SATA mode *3* ahci :00:11.0: flags: 64bit ncq sntf ilck pm led clo pmp pio slum part scsi0 : ahci scsi1 : ahci scsi2 : ahci scsi3 : ahci scsi4 : ahci scsi5 : ahci ahci :07:00.0: PCI INT A - GSI 44 (level, low) - IRQ 44 *4* ahci :07:00.0: AHCI 0001. 32 slots 2 ports 3 Gbps 0x3 impl SATA mode *5* ahci :07:00.0: flags: 64bit ncq pm led clo pmp pio slum part *6* ahci :07:00.0: setting latency timer to 64 scsi6 : ahci scsi7 : ahci For me bare eye this looks like the kernel ha switched all seven ports to AHCI. Lines marked with *n* are still a riddle to me. May be Volker will give us some enlightment? Why is line *1* of the first block missing in the second block, Volker? Why is line *2* talking about 0x3f while line *4* is using 0x3, Volker? Why differ line *5* from line *3*, Volker? What does all these flags mean? you know - there are websites for that. Google is your friend. But even a glance would reveal to you: two different chips. One using MSI for interrupts the second not. I find this interesting: http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-hardware-18/6-tips-for-improvi ng-hard-drive-performance-835034/ it is a start. But the first link there... just saying.. there is no magically correct value for stride or chunk. Oh and if you are using AFT drives make sure the partitions are set up correctly. Also: https://ata.wiki.kernel.org/index.php/Main_Page Hi Volker, I have done the partition alignment thingy when I installed my disk a year ago (or so). Thanks for the hint anyway... :) If you know a webite, which explains all that low level stuff like the flags I mentioned I would be happy, if would be so kind to post the link here. Thanks a lot for your help in advance! Best regards, mcc
Re: [gentoo-user] AHCI/IDE-question
Volker Armin Hemmann wrote: On Friday 21 January 2011 11:35:06 Mark Knecht wrote: On Fri, Jan 21, 2011 at 11:27 AM, Volker Armin Hemmann volkerar...@googlemail.com wrote: On Friday 21 January 2011 11:12:34 kashani wrote: On 1/21/2011 10:53 AM, Volker Armin Hemmann wrote: so, why are you doing soemthing incredible stupid in the first place? How about you go have some coffee, maybe have a banana to even out the blood sugar, take a walk around the block, and try this email again without being a complete ass? kashani I am sorry that over the years I lost my patience with none-existing problems. So why rip the guy a new one? You have years of experience? We don't know meino's experience level. He was clearly just doing experiments and trying to learn something. You pop up and try to push him down does him no good. Mom said If you don't have anything nice to say then say nothing at all. - Mark but: If you always ask and never research for yourself you will never learn. Research doesn't always make things better. I don't even want to count the number of times I have researched something, found info that doesn't make sense, then ask here and find out it is not anything like that anymore. All the info I found was outdated. If I can research something and find info that is recent, then that may help, otherwise, I ask here and get some up to date info from some of the smartest folks there is. Prime example, if I have a problem with my DVD drive, I know there is a person here that will answer my questions and to put it simply, if he doesn't know the answer, we all got problems. Hi Jörg. On the other hand, we have other people on here that are good with servers, networks and various other things. We also have people that explain things in a simple way usually with long posts. Me and Duncan come to mind here but there are others too. Hi Duncan. So, Research can be a good thing and a person can learn a lot but it doesn't always answer your questions or answer them the way a persons needs them to be answered. I ran into this recently with my router setup. I read, even followed a howto, didn't work and didn't learn anything either. Folks on here explained it and now I understand it and it works VERY well for me. I don't think any amount of research would have ever got me to where I am in weeks but the folks on here had me running in a day or so plus I understand networks better. I had that light bulb moment. ;-) Dale :-) :-)
