First SATA drive - not working

Giles Orr gilesorr-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org
Mon Oct 1 14:06:51 UTC 2007


On 10/1/07, Lennart Sorensen <lsorense-1wCw9BSqJbv44Nm34jS7GywD8/FfD2ys at public.gmane.org> wrote:
> On Sat, Sep 29, 2007 at 03:33:26PM -0400, Giles Orr wrote:
> > Thanks to everyone who posted suggestions.  I tried another cable, no
> > joy.  Today I took the drive back and the store showed that the drive
> > itself is fine.  So we're down to a very limited number of options.
> > When I told the store guy the motherboard I'm using (Gigabyte
> > 7VT600-P-RZ - and I do have the most recent BIOS) he said that he'd
> > worked with that generation of Gigabytes and the drive WON'T be
> > recognized by the BIOS: you have to boot into the OS and load the
> > right drivers (he uses only Windows).  So I went home and put the disk
> > back in the computer and booted Debian testing kernel 2.6.21-2-k7 and
> > ... no luck.  The chipset is apparently the VIA Apollo KT600, and the
> > sata_via kernel module is loading, but I don't see a new drive.  I
> > don't even know how it would be designated ...  Is it /dev/sd? ?  Is
> > there any program I should run?  I don't see anything that looks new
> > or different in /var/log/messages , although I have to admit I'm not
> > an expert and I didn't use a fine tooth comb, but ... there doesn't
> > appear to be a new drive.
>
> Well is far as I can tell from the documentation, it should work.
>
> It seems the manual says the first SATA port (SATA0) is the one closest
> to the PCI slots.  So connect the drive to there.  Apparently RAID mode
> is weird on that board, so you may have to set it to IDE mode instead
> for the SATA part.

Hooked up to that connector, set to IDE mode.

> The guy is correct that windows needs help to see SATA drives, but
> windows xp always needed help for SATA.
>
> Make sure 'Onchip SATA' is enabled.

Done.

> Make sure you use a distribution new enough to support the chipset.

Debian testing, kernel 2.6.21-2-k7.  It's auto-loading the sata_via
kernel module.

I'm still not seeing a drive.  Here's an extract from
/var/log/messages (in the name of brevity, I've included only the
stuff I thought was related - I hope I haven't snipped too much):

...
Oct  1 09:47:06 glo kernel: sata_via 0000:00:0f.0: routed to hard irq line 11
Oct  1 09:47:06 glo kernel: ata1: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0x00019000 ctl
0x00019402 bmdma 0x0001a000 irq 16
Oct  1 09:47:06 glo kernel: ata2: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0x00019800 ctl
0x00019c02 bmdma 0x0001a008 irq 16
Oct  1 09:47:06 glo kernel: scsi0 : sata_via
...
Oct  1 09:47:06 glo kernel: ata1: SATA link down 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 1
SControl 300)
Oct  1 09:47:06 glo kernel: ATA: abnormal status 0x80 on port 0x00019007
Oct  1 09:47:06 glo kernel: scsi1 : sata_via
Oct  1 09:47:06 glo kernel: ata2: SATA link down 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 0
SControl 300)
Oct  1 09:47:06 glo kernel: ATA: abnormal status 0x7F on port 0x00019807
Oct  1 09:47:06 glo kernel: Attempting manual resume
...

This message was almost but not quite identical before the insertion
of the drive: prior to the drive, both said "abnormal status 0x7F."  I
suppose that's progress.  I'm mostly using "fdisk -l /dev/sd?" to see
if I have new, unformatted drive ...  What else would make sense?

This is really making me think that I should buy a SATA PCI card ...
That would allow me to use SATA drives in any of my other computers,
so it might solve not only the current problem but potentially some
future ones as well.  Does that make sense?

-- 
Giles
http://www.gilesorr.com/
gilesorr-Re5JQEeQqe8AvxtiuMwx3w at public.gmane.org
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