# hangs at boot, SII3112 w maxtor 6B300S0 (np with a seagate)

## mla

I'm having trouble with my new drive Maxtor 6B300S0. 

i'm using ASUS A7N8X-DELUXE. (silicon image chip for sata, model 3112)

When i am booting my system, with a kernel that works with my other S-ata drive (a seagate), it hangs up on "calculating dependencies" - where it posts "disabling irq #11"

the system works fine if i boot with dsl-cd. (damn small linux) and it detects my new disk.

since my system was fine with my other s-ata disk, i really cannot figure out whats wrong here. but i guess all i need to do is recompile my kernel with an other config... i've tried various settings to no avail.

in dsl, i noticed that libata was used and that it used the sil_sata driver as well.

i'm pretty stuck with my problem, currently, i'm not using my new disk at all =((

does anyone have a clue about this? maybe someone could be so kind and tell me which packages i need in the kernel and which i should NOT use in this matter.

thanks in advance!

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## kiksen

Hi.

AFAIK the asus board is VIA KT800 based. And the disk is a 300Gig? I had to return it and get another one. It seems that it's the size that gives problems. If you haven't upgraded your bios it's worth a try first. (if my guessing is correct that is)

HTH

/Søren

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## mla

hello

the board is nforce2 based. and it works fine on damn small linux, so the bios cannot be the issue here =/ but thanks for your reply

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## DrWoland

 *kiksen wrote:*   

> Hi.
> 
> AFAIK the asus board is VIA KT800 based. And the disk is a 300Gig? I had to return it and get another one. It seems that it's the size that gives problems. If you haven't upgraded your bios it's worth a try first. (if my guessing is correct that is)
> 
> HTH
> ...

 

nforce2...

mla: What SATA support do you have compiled?

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## mla

i've tried various, i cannot really remember which... =(

is there a known issue where conflict may occur?

i'm puzzled, since it works fine with my other sata disk.

the various i've tried so far has been to no avail. right now i'm going to test if scsi-sata (only) compiled will do the trick. i'll post here in five minutes if it did the trick... =)

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## Wedge_

I'm using the SCSI SATA support on the same board with a Maxtor 160gb drive and it works fine. Hope it worked.

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## mla

it didnt =(

wedge, can u please post your part of the .config where the scsi and ide stuff is? 

this time, i got the error "nobody cared", disabling irq11.

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## Wedge_

This is from 2.6.9-cko3: 

```
CONFIG_IDE=y

CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDE=y

CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDEDISK=y

CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDECD=y

CONFIG_IDE_TASKFILE_IO=y

CONFIG_IDE_GENERIC=y

CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDEPCI=y

CONFIG_IDEPCI_SHARE_IRQ=y

CONFIG_BLK_DEV_GENERIC=y

CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDEDMA_PCI=y

CONFIG_IDEDMA_PCI_AUTO=y

CONFIG_BLK_DEV_AMD74XX=y

CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDEDMA=y

CONFIG_IDEDMA_AUTO=y

CONFIG_SCSI=y

CONFIG_SCSI_PROC_FS=y

CONFIG_BLK_DEV_SD=y

CONFIG_CHR_DEV_SG=y

CONFIG_SCSI_SATA=y

CONFIG_SCSI_SATA_SIL=y

CONFIG_SCSI_QLA2XXX=y
```

I think that's all the SCSI/IDE stuff. If you want the whole thing I can post that as well.

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## mla

=(

no difference. i think i'll just try with the sources you are using, those 2.6.9-cko3.

i'd very much appreciate if you'd post your whole config, i could use it as base when going  through the config from scratch.

thank you very much so far, i really appreciate your help

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## Wedge_

Here it is: .config

The cko patchset isn't actually in portage, so you'll need to patch a plain 2.6.9 kernel yourself. The -cko3 patch is here.

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## NeddySeagoon

mla,

I have a pair of Maxtor 6B300S0 on that motherboard.

I can post my 2.6.10-r1 config if you want, or even a tar of my kernel tree that you could use.

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## mla

Thanks wedge!

and NeddySeagoon, it would be wonderful to get your config as well! then i would most certainly have enough material to end this matter!

thanks in advance!

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## cylgalad

Did you upgrade your bios  :Question:  What's the rev. of your a7n8x, v1 or v2  :Question:  There's a beta 1009 bios for v1 with an updated sata bios.

I got the same drive (my 1st sata) and sometimes the bios doesn't see it (wierd) and I have to switch-off/switch-on until it's seen (bad  :Sad: ) using latest 1008 bios for v2 else no OS can see it at all. I use the scsi driver (damn I HATE scsi).

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## mla

i have none of those problems, my bios sees it everytime i boot. i have the v 1.4 and the latest bios for this. 

as dsl sets it upp correctly i figure it's not a bios-issue. 

when i get home from work i will try, with my girlfirends permission, with wedges stuff. probably with neddyseagoons first if he posts his config =)

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## mla

i've now tried various configs and kernels to no avail =( i'm starting to loose my hope on this issue.

the irq11 is shared between the sata and the graphic card, which is an nvidia (gf3ti200). maybe there are problems with big drives and nvidia on the same irq? =/ (doesnt feel like a winner).

its quite tiresome to test kernel after kernel... there has to be someone who've solved this issue...

=(

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## Wedge_

Have you tried the config from the DSL CD, if you can find it?

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## NeddySeagoon

mla,

Please post your lspci.

My config makes the SATA devices appear as /dev/sdX

The BIOS raid drver should detect the drive an boot and show you a special screen. Do you have the jumper set on the motherboard to disable the SATA interface ?

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## Wedge_

 *NeddySeagoon wrote:*   

> The BIOS raid drver should detect the drive an boot and show you a special screen. Do you have the jumper set on the motherboard to disable the SATA interface ?

 

I think the jumper must be set correctly, he mentioned that everything works with his Segate SATA drive.

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## gcasillo

Hmmm. I have been upgrading some boxes with similar specs from 2.6.9-r9 kernels to 2.6.10-r4 yesterday and today. The specs:

Intel 865PERL mobo

160GB (home) or 250GB (work) Maxtor SATA drives

I am using SCSI SATA support (found under low-level SCSI drivers). My computers at home upgraded without a hitch.

HOWEVER...two machines at work have had serious drive problems at boot shortly after I built 2.6.10-r4 kernels, updated some other packages (emerge sync; emerge world -u), and rebooted. Bad errors that would not allow me to boot. Something about "DriveSeekError" and "input/output error." The first box this happened to me, I booted from 2004.3 livecd, and I tried to zero the drive:

```
dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda
```

I couldn't even do that! I continued to get drive errors. I've done this scores and scores of times, but the drive errors were the first of their kind I have seen.

The type of drives we are using at work are Maxline II 250GB SATA hard drives. What is really odd is that one machine came away just fine after a kernel update and emerge -u world.

Don't know if it makes a difference, but the first machine to fail did so during an "emerge sync" where it was accessing a local rsync mirror (the machine that make it through the upgrade okay) and was compiling something at the same time (I know, I'm a busy body).

Just some an anecdote to throw on the fire...

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## mla

my lspci

```

0000:00:00.0 Class 0600: 10de:01e0 (rev a2)

0000:00:00.1 Class 0500: 10de:01eb (rev a2)

0000:00:00.2 Class 0500: 10de:01ee (rev a2)

0000:00:00.3 Class 0500: 10de:01ed (rev a2)

0000:00:00.4 Class 0500: 10de:01ec (rev a2)

0000:00:00.5 Class 0500: 10de:01ef (rev a2)

0000:00:01.0 Class 0601: 10de:0060 (rev a3)

0000:00:01.1 Class 0c05: 10de:0064 (rev a2)

0000:00:02.0 Class 0c03: 10de:0067 (rev a3)

0000:00:02.1 Class 0c03: 10de:0067 (rev a3)

0000:00:02.2 Class 0c03: 10de:0068 (rev a3)

0000:00:04.0 Class 0200: 10de:0066 (rev a1)

0000:00:05.0 Class 0401: 10de:006b (rev a2)

0000:00:06.0 Class 0401: 10de:006a (rev a1)

0000:00:08.0 Class 0604: 10de:006c (rev a3)

0000:00:09.0 Class 0101: 10de:0065 (rev a2)

0000:00:0c.0 Class 0604: 10de:006d (rev a3)

0000:00:0d.0 Class 0c00: 10de:006e (rev a3)

0000:00:1e.0 Class 0604: 10de:01e8 (rev a2)

0000:01:0a.0 Class 0401: 1102:0002 (rev 04)

0000:01:0a.1 Class 0980: 1102:7002 (rev 01)

0000:01:0b.0 Class 0104: 1095:3112 (rev 01)

0000:02:01.0 Class 0200: 10b7:9201 (rev 40)

0000:03:00.0 Class 0300: 10de:0201 (rev a3)

```

whatever that says =( 

when using dsl, my satadisk appears as hde, not sda.

could this give anyone a lead?

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## Wedge_

 *mla wrote:*   

> when using dsl, my satadisk appears as hde, not sda.
> 
> could this give anyone a lead?

 

I'm not sure since I didn't try it, but wouldn't that mean it's using the Silicon Image support listed in the IDE section of the kernel config, instead of the SCSI driver? Have you tried both drivers?

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## NeddySeagoon

mla,

Yout lspci appears broken. I was expecting it to turn those numbers into text. Never mind, I have the same motherboard. Yours appears to have earlier silicon than mine. 

My SATA, still a SIL 3112A is

```
0000:01:0b.0 Class 0104: 1095:3112 (rev 02)
```

I also have a later revision of the nForce2 chip. (rev c1) against your (rev a2). It may not be important.

There are two completely different SATA drivers in the linux kernel. You must only build one. One is under the normal IDE hdd configuration options (depreciated). Depending on your BIOS, it can make SATA drives appear as /dev/hde and /dev/hdg. There are no slaves in SATA but IDE reserves the letters, or they may replace two of your existing drives.

The other driver is SCSI SATA. You need to build the kernel with SCSI disk support, and choose SATA in the low level drivers, then choose your chipset.

If you switch from the IDE to SCSI driver, you need to update grub.conf, so it can find your root drive and /etc/fstab because what was /dev/hd... is now /dev/sd....

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## mla

hello again.

it seems i cannot use my new big maxtor with the scsi drivers, i'm very sure that i've done the right thing when trying to use it with scsi drivers.

when i get the chance, i will exclude scsi and just try the ide-drivers for my chipset, since it seems that these are the ones that dsl uses. they also give better performance (i got 60 Mb/sec in dsl with the maxtor drive). 

my system is on an ide drive so there wont be any issues with grub, thx anyway.

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## NeddySeagoon

mla,

PM me your kernel .config file, I'll look it over.

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## NeddySeagoon

mla,

Your config looks fine. I had to look throught it carefully to tell it from my own. In the disk department, the only thing I would need to change to make it run on my PC is to add support for raid1 and raid0. I will run it here if you think that will help.

Since dsl sees it OK, it cannot be that the BIOS has the 137Gb (28bit LBA limit)

Its worth trying the IDE SATA driver but that will change both drives. They will become /hde and /hdg.

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## mla

thanks for your help. i will post here as soon as i have tested the ide-sata drivers instead.

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## mla

okidoki, when running in pure ide-sata everything works fine.

the next step will be to investigate why you get much better performance with the dsl-cd. the performance with these drivers i use now is very poor... 

but i think i'll search for other threads about this issue.

what i can conclude about scsi-sata, SII and maxtor (large disk) is that it may not work on the same irq... well.

thanks for all your help!

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## Wedge_

Great to hear that it's working. 

 *mla wrote:*   

> the next step will be to investigate why you get much better performance with the dsl-cd. the performance with these drivers i use now is very poor...
> 
> but i think i'll search for other threads about this issue. 

 

You could start by checking that the version of the driver on the dsl CD is the same as the version you're using now.

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## mla

there was no performance issue, just that my other sata-disk (seagate) is on the "black list" for the sil-driver.

my new works very well, 60mb/s with hdparm.

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