I was finally able to get my HPT366 channels to work! But I do not feel
all that good about how I did it. Andre, if you are inclinded to look
into this, I hope the enclosed information is helpful to you. If you want
any additional information, just let me know. Please note that at no time
was I trying to boot off IDE3 or IDE4, so that was never an issue for me.
I am using an ABIT BE6 motherboard. I have upgraded it to the "PL"
version of the BIOS. This version of BIOS includes version 1.21 of the
HPT366 drivers (the same version as the "NJ" bios for board BP6.) My
kernel is 2.2.13 with patches: raid0145-19990824-2.2.11 and
ide.2.2.13.19991111.patch applied. Before the patch I made, I was able to
pin down where the system was hanging, by adding "printk()" calls, and
seeing where things stopped. Below is where the problem seems to be
occurring:
hpt366_tune_chiptset()
-calls-
ide_config_drive_speed()
-has this statement-
if (IDE_CONTROL_REG)
OUT_BYTE(drive->ctl | 2, IDE_CONTROL_REG);
during/after the "OUT_BYTE" operation, the system hangs. "OUT_BYTE" is an
inline macro that sends a byte directly to the hardware, and I have
no clue why sending this particular byte is hanging the system.
My solution was to comment out the call to ide_config_drive_speed() within
hpt366_tune_chiptset() (setting err=0), and let the BIOS driver set
the speed. The new BIOS driver has a screen that lets you set the transfer
mode. I set it to UDMA 3.
Once I made this change, I was able to boot, run cfdisk to create a
partition, and mke2fs to build a file system, then mount it. I will be
stress testing the drive over the next few days. But I am much farther
along than I was before. I assume the BE6 motherboard will be
increasingly popular for linux use, so I hope a better fix will be
eventually forthcoming.
I want to thank everyone who made suggestions and offered
encouragement.....
Best Regards,
Robert Laughlin
On Fri, 10 Dec 1999, Tim Niemueller wrote:
> Robert wrote:
> >
> > Tim, I have been trying for months to get the ATA66 channels to
> > work on an ABIT BE6 motherboard with no success. At the moment, despite
> > trying numerous kernal versions, numerous patch combinations and most
> > recently two different bios version, my system still locks up on boot when
> > a drive is attached to either ide3 or ide4. I would be very leary of
> > HPT366 at this stage.
>
> But the Component dbase (cdb.suse.de, perhaps there is also an
> international version under cdb.suse.com, I am not using SuSE) of SuSE
> says, that the board and the board are supported by kernel from 2.2.13.
> Have a look for "Motherboards, Abit". It will show you the results.
