# Gigabyte GA-7VT600 motherboard, no DMA working!!!???

## viperlin

I recently bought some new hardware, one of which was a Gigabyte GA-7VT600 motherboard. i have been trying to get uDMA or even normal DMA enabled on my harddrives again (worked on my old motherboard) but no sucess.

chipset:

 "VIA KT600 Memory/AGP/PCI Controller"

"Via VT8235 / VT2837 Intergrated Peripheral Controller"

i have VIA82CXXX enabled in the kernel.

hdparm gives me this:

 *Quote:*   

> [root@zion john]# hdparm -d1 /dev/hda
> 
> /dev/hda:
> 
>  setting using_dma to 1 (on)
> ...

 

also:

 *Quote:*   

> 
> 
> [root@zion john]# hdparm -X66 /dev/hda
> 
> /dev/hda:
> ...

 

sorry but i've tried probably all the things i found while searching, even took the harddrives off cable select but it's still not working.

can you give me a hand please, knoppix does not enable DMA or UDMA either so i'm gettin worried, however i have seen people with this chipset and it working (i think).

oh here is my dmesg

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## cyrillic

 *viperlin wrote:*   

> VP_IDE: Unknown VIA SouthBridge, contact Vojtech Pavlik <vojtech@ucw.cz> 

 

It looks like your kernel is not new enough to support your IDE controller, try ac-sources or even mm-sources.

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## viperlin

i'm using vanilla 2.4.20, i would like to stick with vanilla or gentoo-sources but it's going to be a big operation due to the encrypted harddrive. i'll try 2.4.21 and then maybe gentoo-sources.

after the 2 day de-crypt my harddrive operation. test kernels and then re-encrypt.

any way to find out which kernels have support for my IDE controller, or what my IDE controller is (i have the manual but not sure about which is my IDE controler in the Features, it's labeled weirdly

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## cyrillic

I think your southbridge is a VT8237 chip, so I grepped some kernel sources for it :

2.4.21 (vanilla) does not support this chip.

2.4.20-gentoo-r5 does

2.4.22-rc2-ac3 does

2.6.0-test3-mm2 does

You could always test a few kernels on a (spare) non-encrypted harddrive before you go through all that trouble on your main harddrive.

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## viperlin

hey i just thought if "2.4.20-gentoo-r5" supports the chip there must be like a 2.4.20 patch somewhere.

i'm going patch hunting first, and thanks for the help   :Wink: 

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## viperlin

erm grepping my kernel source shows that VT8237 is in there:

```

[john@zion linux]$ grep vt8237 -R *

drivers/ide/via82cxxx.c:        { "vt8237",     PCI_DEVICE_ID_VIA_8237,     0x00, 0x2f, VIA_UDMA_133 },

[john@zion linux]$

```

doesn't that mean it's supported? and the manual says "VIA VT8235 / VT2837 Intergrated P....

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## cyrillic

Oops, maybe grep is not showing enough information.  This is from 2.4.20-gentoo-r5 :

```
/*

 * Version 3.35

 *

 * VIA IDE driver for Linux. Supported southbridges:

 *

 *   vt82c576, vt82c586, vt82c586a, vt82c586b, vt82c596a, vt82c596b,

 *   vt82c686, vt82c686a, vt82c686b, vt8231, vt8233, vt8233c, vt8233a,

 *   vt8235

 *

 * Copyright (c) 2000-2002 Vojtech Pavlik

 *

 * Based on the work of:

 *      Michel Aubry

 *      Jeff Garzik

 *      Andre Hedrick

 */

...

#ifdef FUTURE_BRIDGES

        { "vt8237",     PCI_DEVICE_ID_VIA_8237,     0x00, 0x2f, VIA_UDMA_133 },

#endif

        { "vt8235",     PCI_DEVICE_ID_VIA_8235,     0x00, 0x2f, VIA_UDMA_133 },

        { "vt8233a",    PCI_DEVICE_ID_VIA_8233A,    0x00, 0x2f, VIA_UDMA_133 },

        { "vt8233c",    PCI_DEVICE_ID_VIA_8233C_0,  0x00, 0x2f, VIA_UDMA_100 },

        { "vt8233",     PCI_DEVICE_ID_VIA_8233_0,   0x00, 0x2f, VIA_UDMA_100 },

        { "vt8231",     PCI_DEVICE_ID_VIA_8231,     0x00, 0x2f, VIA_UDMA_100 },

        { "vt82c686b",  PCI_DEVICE_ID_VIA_82C686,   0x40, 0x4f, VIA_UDMA_100 },

 etc ... 
```

So, it looks like VT8237 is not supported, but it might work if you remove the ifdef/endif then recompile.

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## viperlin

i don't really want to start messing like that, does this mean my southbridge is not yet supported in linux but is under production. or is there a patch for it somewhere  :Sad: 

<sings>

i have a dream....

a kernel to patch.....

so help me now.....

coz DMA is phat.....

</sings>

(sorry, i'm tired:roll: , will do more searching for patches in the afternoon when i wake up)

EDIT: found these:

http://hypermail.idiosynkrasia.net/linux-kernel/archived/2003/week19/1669.html

i will make a tarball of /usr/src/linux and then try the patch, if it fails i can delete and extract again hopefully

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## viperlin

ok i have the patch but i need to know how i'm supposed to apply it, i've tried ways i know how but it came with no instructions.

i've tried "patch -p0 < vt8237-2.4.diff" from /usr/src/ and /usr/src/linux but it says cannot find file or something. can i have a hint coz it's a bit early in the morning (no i have not slept yet)

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## viperlin

here is the 2.4 kernel patch

it errors on line 13:

```

@@ -1,12 +1,12 @@

```

the error is:

```

[root@zion linux]# patch -p0 < vt8237-2.4.diff 

can't find file to patch at input line 13

Perhaps you used the wrong -p or --strip option?

The text leading up to this was:

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

|ChangeSet@1.1210, 2003-05-16 10:46:58+02:00, vojtech@suse.cz

|  Support for VIA vt8237 IDE.

|

|

| drivers/ide/pci/via82cxxx.c |   10 ++++------

| include/linux/pci_ids.h     |    7 ++++---

| 2 files changed, 8 insertions(+), 9 deletions(-)

|

|

|diff -Nru a/drivers/ide/pci/via82cxxx.c b/drivers/ide/pci/via82cxxx.c

|--- a/drivers/ide/pci/via82cxxx.c      Fri May 16 10:47:10 2003

|+++ b/drivers/ide/pci/via82cxxx.c      Fri May 16 10:47:10 2003

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

File to patch:

```

i am unsure of why it's doing this, not too knowlegeable on kernel patches yet (but this is great learning!)

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## viperlin

on carefull inspection of kernel code i found that vanilla 2.4.21 supports the chipset (has this patch applied)

thanks for your help.

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## Stoic

viper do you have it up and run now?  i am thinking on buying that motherboard.

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## viperlin

yes 2.4.21 and 2.4.22 both support it, however AGP is a little whippy and i can't get the cpu temperature monirot to work with lm_sensors, but both of them can be fixed i'm sure, i just can't be bothered at the moment.

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