Re: [opensuse] AHCI / NCQ problem

2008-01-22 Thread Greg Freemyer
On Jan 19, 2008 1:08 PM, Nick Zeljkovic [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 Hi,

 I'm having problems activating NCQ on Asus P5B-MX , Seagate Barracuda
 ST3250410AS (250GB) with Opensuse 10.3 installed.
 Before installation I've set in BIOS Enhanced IDE configuration for S-ATA
 mode (from my understanding that enables advanced features like NCQ),
 installed the system no problem. After first boot I've noticed ahci driver
 wasn't loaded, only ata_piix, so I've edited /etc/sysconfig/kernel and added
 ahci before ata_piix driver, rebuilt initrd, edited modprobe.conf and
 replaced ata_piix occurrences with ahci.
 Original line:
 # ata_piix can't handle ICH6 in AHCI mode
 install ata_piix /sbin/modprobe ahci 21 |:; /sbin/modprobe
 --ignore-install ata_piix

 My line:
 # ata_piix can't handle ICH6 in AHCI mode
 install ahci /sbin/modprobe ahci 21 |:; /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install
 ahci

 After reboot I saw ahci loaded under libata but after ata_piix
 libata | ata_piix, ahci

 and actually used was ata_piix despite being loaded first. I've then:
 # dmesg|grep NCQ

 And got a line back like:

 ata3.00: ATA-7, 321672960 sectors: LBA48 NCQ (depth 0/32)

 # echo 31  /sys/block/sda/device/queue_depth

 resulted in permission denied. (as I found on linux-ata FAQ) Further reading
 on linux-ata FAQ says:
 If the line containing the sector count and maximum UDMA speed does not
 mention NCQ, your drive does not support it.
 I'm puzzled since I have UDMA showing on:
 # dmesg|grep ata3

 Which displays all disk info, and NCQ (depth 0/32) would mean NCQ is
 present but disabled.

 From what I can see disk should support NCQ and I was informed by person who
 sold it to me that it was NCQ ready. (I specifically wanted NCQ disk).

 I don't know if I'm making a mistake somewhere or disk just doesn't support
 it. I'm in for some help please!

 P.S. Yes I've rebooted ;)

 --
 Best regards,
 Nick Zeljkovic

Nick,

Linux'es implementation of NCQ had some fundamental problems that have
been fixed in the soon to be released 2.6.24

Due to the bug, a bunch of drives got blacklisted.  The majority of
that blacklist has been removed from the 2.6.24 rc series.

I have not read about those patches having been released by Novell for
the SUSE kernels.  (A Novell employee found the problem and wrote the
fix so I would hope his work will get into their kernel eventually.)

So, you can either wait for that to happen (if it happens), or you can
move to a recent KOTD kernel.

FYI: I don't know how stable the KOTD kernels are right now.  2.6.24
has been very slow to get released, so I assume there must be some
regression(s) they are trying to resolve currently.

Greg
-- 
Greg Freemyer
Litigation Triage Solutions Specialist
http://www.linkedin.com/in/gregfreemyer
First 99 Days Litigation White Paper -
http://www.norcrossgroup.com/forms/whitepapers/99%20Days%20whitepaper.pdf

The Norcross Group
The Intersection of Evidence  Technology
http://www.norcrossgroup.com
-- 
To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]



RE: [opensuse] AHCI / NCQ problem

2008-01-22 Thread Nick Zeljkovic
Thanks Greg.

I've been asking a bunch of people and no one had a clue what was going on.
I wanted to enable this on a brand new MySQL server to help cope with I/O
load but I'm not in a hurry, we'll see if Novell releases a patch, if not I
can put a newer kernel once it arrives. Just out of curiosity, were the
steps I took correct ?

--
Best regards,
Nick Zeljkovic

-Original Message-
From: Greg Freemyer [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] 
Sent: Tuesday, January 22, 2008 6:06 PM
To: opensuse@opensuse.org
Subject: Re: [opensuse] AHCI / NCQ problem

On Jan 19, 2008 1:08 PM, Nick Zeljkovic [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
 Hi,

 I'm having problems activating NCQ on Asus P5B-MX , Seagate Barracuda
 ST3250410AS (250GB) with Opensuse 10.3 installed.
 Before installation I've set in BIOS Enhanced IDE configuration for S-ATA
 mode (from my understanding that enables advanced features like NCQ),
 installed the system no problem. After first boot I've noticed ahci driver
 wasn't loaded, only ata_piix, so I've edited /etc/sysconfig/kernel and
added
 ahci before ata_piix driver, rebuilt initrd, edited modprobe.conf and
 replaced ata_piix occurrences with ahci.
 Original line:
 # ata_piix can't handle ICH6 in AHCI mode
 install ata_piix /sbin/modprobe ahci 21 |:; /sbin/modprobe
 --ignore-install ata_piix

 My line:
 # ata_piix can't handle ICH6 in AHCI mode
 install ahci /sbin/modprobe ahci 21 |:; /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install
 ahci

 After reboot I saw ahci loaded under libata but after ata_piix
 libata | ata_piix, ahci

 and actually used was ata_piix despite being loaded first. I've then:
 # dmesg|grep NCQ

 And got a line back like:

 ata3.00: ATA-7, 321672960 sectors: LBA48 NCQ (depth 0/32)

 # echo 31  /sys/block/sda/device/queue_depth

 resulted in permission denied. (as I found on linux-ata FAQ) Further
reading
 on linux-ata FAQ says:
 If the line containing the sector count and maximum UDMA speed does not
 mention NCQ, your drive does not support it.
 I'm puzzled since I have UDMA showing on:
 # dmesg|grep ata3

 Which displays all disk info, and NCQ (depth 0/32) would mean NCQ is
 present but disabled.

 From what I can see disk should support NCQ and I was informed by person
who
 sold it to me that it was NCQ ready. (I specifically wanted NCQ disk).

 I don't know if I'm making a mistake somewhere or disk just doesn't
support
 it. I'm in for some help please!

 P.S. Yes I've rebooted ;)

 --
 Best regards,
 Nick Zeljkovic

Nick,

Linux'es implementation of NCQ had some fundamental problems that have
been fixed in the soon to be released 2.6.24

Due to the bug, a bunch of drives got blacklisted.  The majority of
that blacklist has been removed from the 2.6.24 rc series.

I have not read about those patches having been released by Novell for
the SUSE kernels.  (A Novell employee found the problem and wrote the
fix so I would hope his work will get into their kernel eventually.)

So, you can either wait for that to happen (if it happens), or you can
move to a recent KOTD kernel.

FYI: I don't know how stable the KOTD kernels are right now.  2.6.24
has been very slow to get released, so I assume there must be some
regression(s) they are trying to resolve currently.

Greg
-- 
Greg Freemyer
Litigation Triage Solutions Specialist
http://www.linkedin.com/in/gregfreemyer
First 99 Days Litigation White Paper -
http://www.norcrossgroup.com/forms/whitepapers/99%20Days%20whitepaper.pdf

The Norcross Group
The Intersection of Evidence  Technology
http://www.norcrossgroup.com
-- 
To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]

-- 
To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]



[opensuse] AHCI / NCQ problem

2008-01-19 Thread Nick Zeljkovic
Hi,

I’m having problems activating NCQ on Asus P5B-MX , Seagate Barracuda
ST3250410AS (250GB) with Opensuse 10.3 installed.
Before installation I’ve set in BIOS Enhanced IDE configuration for S-ATA
mode (from my understanding that enables advanced features like NCQ),
installed the system no problem. After first boot I’ve noticed ahci driver
wasn’t loaded, only ata_piix, so I’ve edited /etc/sysconfig/kernel and added
ahci before ata_piix driver, rebuilt initrd, edited modprobe.conf and
replaced ata_piix occurrences with ahci. 
Original line:
# ata_piix can't handle ICH6 in AHCI mode
install ata_piix /sbin/modprobe ahci 21 |:; /sbin/modprobe
--ignore-install ata_piix

My line:
# ata_piix can't handle ICH6 in AHCI mode
install ahci /sbin/modprobe ahci 21 |:; /sbin/modprobe --ignore-install
ahci

After reboot I saw ahci loaded under libata but after ata_piix
libata | ata_piix, ahci

and actually used was ata_piix despite being loaded first. I’ve then:
# dmesg|grep NCQ

And got a line back like:

ata3.00: ATA-7, 321672960 sectors: LBA48 NCQ (depth 0/32)

# echo 31  /sys/block/sda/device/queue_depth

resulted in permission denied. (as I found on linux-ata FAQ) Further reading
on linux-ata FAQ says:
“If the line containing the sector count and maximum UDMA speed does not
mention NCQ, your drive does not support it.”
I’m puzzled since I have UDMA showing on:
# dmesg|grep ata3

Which displays all disk info, and “NCQ (depth 0/32)” would mean NCQ is
present but disabled.
 
From what I can see disk should support NCQ and I was informed by person who
sold it to me that it was NCQ ready. (I specifically wanted NCQ disk).

I don’t know if I’m making a mistake somewhere or disk just doesn’t support
it. I’m in for some help please!

P.S. Yes I’ve rebooted ;)

--
Best regards,
Nick Zeljkovic 


--
To unsubscribe, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
For additional commands, e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]