ASUS A7N8X Deluxe and Seagate SATA

[Judokas]

First let me say I have read MANY posts on this subject and though they have all been helpfull my SATA is still not functioning. I am sorry if you feel that this issue is resolved elsewhere but I have tried alot of the post info with little success (though it did speed up my DMA access slightly). I have compiled my kernel numerous times with different options and all have failed. In my current Kernel 2.4.22 self compiled on a RedHat 9 base. I want to resolve my SATA problem prior to worrying about sound and graphics (I lose because I also have a ASUS graphics card with Nvidia FX 5600 )

My ASUS iMother Board is revision 2.

My SATA Drive is

Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 120G Model ST3120026AS

Results of /sbin/hdparm -i /dev/hde

/dev/hde:

Model=ST3120026AS, FwRev=3.05, SerialNo=3JT0772V
Config={ HardSect NotMFM HdSw>15uSec Fixed DTR>10Mbs RotSpdTol>.5% }
RawCHS=16383/16/63, TrkSize=0, SectSize=0, ECCbytes=4
BuffType=unknown, BuffSize=8192kB, MaxMultSect=16, MultSect=16
CurCHS=16383/16/63, CurSects=16514064, LBA=yes, LBAsects=234441648
IORDY=on/off, tPIO={min:240,w/IORDY:120}, tDMA={min:120,rec:120}
PIO modes: pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4
DMA modes: mdma0 mdma1 mdma2
UDMA modes: udma0 udma1 udma2
AdvancedPM=no WriteCache=enabled
Drive conforms to: ATA/ATAPI-6 T13 1410D revision 2: 1 2 3 4 5 6


Results of /sbin/hdparm -t -T /dev/hde

/dev/hde:
Timing buffer-cache reads: 128 MB in 0.35 seconds =365.71 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 64 MB in 2.88 seconds = 22.22 MB/sec
[root@localhost HDTester]#

Results of dmesg

Linux version 2.4.22 (root@localhost.localdomain) (gcc version 3.2.2 20030222 (Red Hat Linux 3.2.2-5)) #2 Fri Oct 24 01:11:54 EDT 2003
BIOS-provided physical RAM map:
BIOS-e820: 0000000000000000 - 000000000009f800 (usable)
BIOS-e820: 000000000009f800 - 00000000000a0000 (reserved)
BIOS-e820: 00000000000f0000 - 0000000000100000 (reserved)
BIOS-e820: 0000000000100000 - 000000003fff0000 (usable)
BIOS-e820: 000000003fff0000 - 000000003fff3000 (ACPI NVS)
BIOS-e820: 000000003fff3000 - 0000000040000000 (ACPI data)
BIOS-e820: 00000000fec00000 - 00000000fec01000 (reserved)
BIOS-e820: 00000000fee00000 - 00000000fee01000 (reserved)
BIOS-e820: 00000000ffff0000 - 0000000100000000 (reserved)
127MB HIGHMEM available.
896MB LOWMEM available.
On node 0 totalpages: 262128
zone(0): 4096 pages.
zone(1): 225280 pages.
zone(2): 32752 pages.
Kernel command line: ro root=LABEL=/ hda=ide-scsi hdc=ide-scsi acpi=off
ide_setup: hda=ide-scsi
ide_setup: hdc=ide-scsi
Initializing CPU#0
Detected 1837.526 MHz processor.
Console: colour VGA+ 80x25
Calibrating delay loop... 3670.01 BogoMIPS
Memory: 1033372k/1048512k available (1312k kernel code, 14752k reserved, 497k data, 128k init, 131008k highmem)
Dentry cache hash table entries: 131072 (order: 8, 1048576 bytes)
Inode cache hash table entries: 65536 (order: 7, 524288 bytes)
Mount cache hash table entries: 512 (order: 0, 4096 bytes)
Buffer cache hash table entries: 65536 (order: 6, 262144 bytes)
Page-cache hash table entries: 262144 (order: 8, 1048576 bytes)
CPU: L1 I Cache: 64K (64 bytes/line), D cache 64K (64 bytes/line)
CPU: L2 Cache: 512K (64 bytes/line)
Intel machine check architecture supported.
Intel machine check reporting enabled on CPU#0.
CPU: After generic, caps: 0383fbff c1c3fbff 00000000 00000000
CPU: Common caps: 0383fbff c1c3fbff 00000000 00000000
CPU: AMD Athlon(tm) XP 2500+ stepping 00
Enabling fast FPU save and restore... done.
Enabling unmasked SIMD FPU exception support... done.
Checking 'hlt' instruction... OK.
POSIX conformance testing by UNIFIX
mtrr: v1.40 (20010327) Richard Gooch (rgooch@atnf.csiro.au)
mtrr: detected mtrr type: Intel
PCI: PCI BIOS revision 2.10 entry at 0xfb490, last bus=3
PCI: Using configuration type 1
PCI: Probing PCI hardware
PCI: Probing PCI hardware (bus 00)
PCI: Using IRQ router default [10de/01e0] at 00:00.0
isapnp: Scanning for PnP cards...
isapnp: No Plug & Play device found
Linux NET4.0 for Linux 2.4
Based upon Swansea University Computer Society NET3.039
Initializing RT netlink socket
apm: BIOS version 1.2 Flags 0x07 (Driver version 1.16)
Starting kswapd
allocated 32 pages and 32 bhs reserved for the highmem bounces
VFS: Disk quotas vdquot_6.5.1
pty: 2048 Unix98 ptys configured
Serial driver version 5.05c (2001-07-08) with MANY_PORTS MULTIPORT SHARE_IRQ SERIAL_PCI ISAPNP enabled
ttyS00 at 0x03f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A
ttyS01 at 0x02f8 (irq = 3) is a 16550A
Real Time Clock Driver v1.10e
FDC 0 is a post-1991 82077
NET4: Frame Diverter 0.46
RAMDISK driver initialized: 16 RAM disks of 4096K size 1024 blocksize
Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 7.00beta4-2.4
ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx
NFORCE2: IDE controller at PCI slot 00:09.0
NFORCE2: chipset revision 162
NFORCE2: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later
AMD_IDE: nVidia Corporation nForce2 IDE (rev a2) UDMA100 controller on pci00:09.0
ide0: BM-DMA at 0xf000-0xf007, BIOS settings: hda:DMA, hdb:DMA
ide1: BM-DMA at 0xf008-0xf00f, BIOS settings: hdc:DMA, hdd:DMA
SiI3112 Serial ATA: IDE controller at PCI slot 01:0b.0
SiI3112 Serial ATA: chipset revision 2
SiI3112 Serial ATA: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later
ide2: MMIO-DMA , BIOS settings: hde:pio, hdf:pio
ide3: MMIO-DMA , BIOS settings: hdg:pio, hdh:pio
hda: SONY CD-RW CRX300E, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
hdc: PLEXTOR DVDR PX-708A, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
hde: ST3120026AS, ATA DISK drive
blk: queue c031fd28, I/O limit 4095Mb (mask 0xffffffff)
hdg: no response (status = 0xfe)
ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14
ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15
ide2 at 0xf880d080-0xf880d087,0xf880d08a on irq 11
hde: attached ide-disk driver.
hde: host protected area => 1
hde: 234441648 sectors (120034 MB) w/8192KiB Cache, CHS=14593/255/63
Partition check:
hde: hde1 hde2 hde3 hde4 < hde5 >
ide: late registration of driver.
md: md driver 0.90.0 MAX_MD_DEVS=256, MD_SB_DISKS=27
md: Autodetecting RAID arrays.
md: autorun ...
md: ... autorun DONE.
NET4: Linux TCP/IP 1.0 for NET4.0
IP Protocols: ICMP, UDP, TCP, IGMP
IP: routing cache hash table of 8192 buckets, 64Kbytes
TCP: Hash tables configured (established 262144 bind 65536)
Linux IP multicast router 0.06 plus PIM-SM
NET4: Unix domain sockets 1.0/SMP for Linux NET4.0.
RAMDISK: Compressed image found at block 0
Freeing initrd memory: 145k freed
VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem).
Journalled Block Device driver loaded
kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
Freeing unused kernel memory: 128k freed
usb.c: registered new driver usbdevfs
usb.c: registered new driver hub
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 00:02.0 to 64
usb-ohci.c: USB OHCI at membase 0xf884d000, IRQ 5
usb-ohci.c: usb-00:02.0, nVidia Corporation nForce2 USB Controller
usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1
hub.c: USB hub found
hub.c: 3 ports detected
PCI: No IRQ known for interrupt pin B of device 00:02.1. Please try using pci=biosirq.
usb-ohci.c: found OHCI device with no IRQ assigned. check BIOS settings!
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 00:02.2 to 64
ehci_hcd 00:02.2: nVidia Corporation nForce2 USB Controller
ehci_hcd 00:02.2: irq 11, pci mem f8855000
usb.c: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 2
PCI: 00:02.2 PCI cache line size set incorrectly (0 bytes) by BIOS/FW.
PCI: 00:02.2 PCI cache line size corrected to 64.
ehci_hcd 00:02.2: USB 2.0 enabled, EHCI 1.00, driver 2003-Jun-19/2.4
hub.c: USB hub found
hub.c: 6 ports detected
usb.c: registered new driver hiddev
usb.c: registered new driver hid
hid-core.c: v1.8.1 Andreas Gal, Vojtech Pavlik <vojtech@suse.cz>
hid-core.c: USB HID support drivers
mice: PS/2 mouse device common for all mice
EXT3 FS 2.4-0.9.19, 19 August 2002 on ide2(33,5), internal journal
Adding Swap: 2040244k swap-space (priority -1)
kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3 FS 2.4-0.9.19, 19 August 2002 on ide2(33,2), internal journal
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
ohci1394: $Rev: 1010 $ Ben Collins <bcollins@debian.org>
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 00:0d.0 to 64
ohci1394_0: OHCI-1394 1.1 (PCI): IRQ=[5] MMIO=[ef084000-ef0847ff] Max Packet=[2048]
ohci1394_0: SelfID received outside of bus reset sequence
ieee1394: Host added: ID:BUS[0-00:1023] GUID[00e018000028504a]
SCSI subsystem driver Revision: 1.00
hda: attached ide-scsi driver.
hdc: attached ide-scsi driver.
scsi0 : SCSI host adapter emulation for IDE ATAPI devices
Vendor: SONY Model: CD-RW CRX300E Rev: KYS2
Type: CD-ROM ANSI SCSI revision: 02
Vendor: PLEXTOR Model: DVDR PX-708A Rev: 1.01
Type: CD-ROM ANSI SCSI revision: 02
parport0: PC-style at 0x378 (0x778) [PCSPP,TRISTATE]
parport0: irq 7 detected
Attached scsi CD-ROM sr0 at scsi0, channel 0, id 0, lun 0
Attached scsi CD-ROM sr1 at scsi0, channel 0, id 1, lun 0
sr0: scsi3-mmc drive: 8x/40x writer cd/rw xa/form2 cdda tray
Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.12
sr1: scsi3-mmc drive: 40x/40x writer cd/rw xa/form2 cdda tray
ip_tables: (C) 2000-2002 Netfilter core team
3c59x: Donald Becker and others. www.scyld.com/network/vortex.html
See Documentation/networking/vortex.txt
02:01.0: 3Com PCI 3c905C Tornado 2 at 0xc000. Vers LK1.1.18-ac
00:26:54:10:54:9b, IRQ 5
product code ffff rev 00.0 date 15-31-127
Internal config register is 1600000, transceivers 0x40.
8K byte-wide RAM 5:3 Rx:Tx split, autoselect/MII interface.
MII transceiver found at address 2, status 786d.
Enabling bus-master transmits and whole-frame receives.
02:01.0: scatter/gather enabled. h/w checksums enabled
divert: allocating divert_blk for eth0
ip_tables: (C) 2000-2002 Netfilter core team
parport0: PC-style at 0x378 (0x778) [PCSPP,TRISTATE]
parport0: irq 7 detected
lp0: using parport0 (polling).
lp0: console ready
hde: Speed warnings UDMA 3/4/5 is not functional.

I had to run the kernel (from boot) with acpi=off or my SATA drive would start grinding after a couple of minutes (memory issue from above?)

I am just installing a floppy drive to flash the bios - that is why it doesn't show up.

Let me know if you want my .config - the post is just pretty long already.

Questions:

1. Before Starting (Again) should I update to BIOS C1007? (I think the answer is yes given the fact that it updates the SATA rom. - but I am wondering if anyone has had problems with this.

2. Is there anything in the BIOS that I must turn eg Plug and Play

3. Is anyone else using 2.4.22 with a similar setup and can they post there .config file. I saw some posts about turning off Generic DMA but I have no button for that.

4. Is there a better kernel version I should use and if so what patches should I apply?

5. What speeds should I expect (what are yours if you have a similar system).

6. Anything you would like to add.


I have done many compiles with different kernels and patches but none seem to get my speeds any higher so I am looking for these answers to give me a start point.

I have Windows XP on a different partition and it does use the SATA, Nforce sound, Accelerated Graphics etc I am slowly going insane ....... but I refuse to go back to Windows

[Judokas]

Updating where I am at.

Upgraded to BIOS 1007 but it makes no difference. Anyone have a view on ithe kernel compilation? Should I recompile without APIC (or whatever it is - I cannot see my bios now cause I am typing ). I still see the same HD MB/sec. Any Ideas.

[Judokas]

Wow 111 views and nobody knows (or its too simple to waste anyones time ) . I have decided to reinstalll from scratch as I went all the way to 2.6 -test9. I am only lucky I have an old PC runniing Linux to check the internet.. If someone has this working - did you apply the Nvidia nForce Patch to 2.4.23XXX or 2.6.XX? I did not as the docs implied this was included (2.4.22 as well I believe). Again I am only talking for DMA Perf - need to get basic disk access before I worry about things like sound and 3D Graphics.

The choice to re-install is based on the package selection and available libraries - with all my tests its possble I screwed something up in the dependancy lists.

If you have the ASUS A7N8X rev 2.0 and have it working with a SATA drive (hopefully Seagate) - Please let me know so I at least know its possible. Also include the distribution you used, BIOS version, and kernel version. Thanks.

[newbenji]

I have an ASUS A7N8X Deluxe v 1.3..
Im using a Maxtor SATA disk..
right now im running with kernel 2.6.0-test9 on Gentoo and its working like a charm


hdparm -Tt /dev/hde

/dev/hde:
Timing buffer-cache reads: 1484 MB in 2.00 seconds = 740.63 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 118 MB in 3.03 seconds = 38.98 MB/sec

hdparm -i /dev/hde

/dev/hde:

Model=Maxtor 6Y120M0, FwRev=YAR51BW0, SerialNo=Y3JT2PKE
Config={ Fixed }
RawCHS=16383/16/63, TrkSize=0, SectSize=0, ECCbytes=4
BuffType=DualPortCache, BuffSize=7936kB, MaxMultSect=16, MultSect=16
CurCHS=16383/16/63, CurSects=16514064, LBA=yes, LBAsects=240121728
IORDY=on/off, tPIO={min:120,w/IORDY:120}, tDMA={min:120,rec:120}
PIO modes: pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4
DMA modes: mdma0 mdma1 mdma2
UDMA modes: udma0 udma1 udma2
AdvancedPM=yes: disabled (255) WriteCache=enabled
Drive conforms to: (null):

* signifies the current active mode



Im not running any hdparm to enable dma. Just include the Driver in kernel.
Device Drivers > ATA/ATAPI/MFM/RLL SUPPORT > Silicon Image chipset support


I now it was working in kernel 2.4.23 also, but there you need to run the hdparm with an -X parm.. i mean its -X66...

and a little tip.. if youre using lilo, and you dont want to wait for kernel to look for hdg then put in append ="hdg=none"


Hope its working..
/benji

[sroeck]

Hi,

I have an ASUS A7N8X Deluxe with seagate 120GB SATA drive and I have the same problem. Looking around in the Kernel mailing lists, It seems to be a bug that has to be fixed in the drivers. ( see threads with Andre Hedrick and Alan Cox )

However, I cannot get any info on the status of this problem - whether there is a definitive fix and in which kernel it is included ... if somone else knows more on that, i think we all would be glad to know.

PLAYING AROUND with hdparm options didn't solve the problem for me and is a waste of time in my opinion !!!

[Artur Lipowski]

ASUS A7N8X Deluxe with seagate 120GB SATA, Barton 2500, 512MB RAM, Radeon9600, Toshiba DVD (first IDE (PATA) channel , master)

Linux 2.4.23pre7 (over Redhat 9)

Kernel compiled with native nVidia AGP and IDE support, SI SATA controller (no generic IDE support!)
The graphic card works with original ATI modules.
There are also recompiled (from src.rpm) nVidia modules for net and audio.

boot parameters: ide=reverse hdc=none

hdparm -X66 -d1 /dev/hda

Id o not exacly remmber values of hdparm timings but it was not far from below values:
buffer-cache reads: >500 MB/sec
buffered disk reads: >40 MB/sec

no lockups (so far )

The only problem is not working NFS. SMB transfers work OK, so probably it is not connected strctly to the hardware.

Regards,

[Cao]

The disk speed is low because the max_kb_per_request on 2.4.22 is 15 (7.5kb) by default. It´s safety measure as some hardware combinations are buggy. You may try to change it to 128 (64kb). Most people can do it without any problems. Your speeds should go to something about 47mb/s.

Code: Select all

echo ¨max_kb_per_request:128¨ > /proc/ide/hde/settings

should do it. The developers are looking at the best way to enable this workaround just on buggy hardware.

And, you don´t need to disable ACPI, just APIC. Boot with:

Code: Select all

pci=noacpi noapic nolapic

No one seems to be working on this APIC problem at the moment, and it affects the nForce2 IDE also.

[Judokas]

Thanks for all the replys this is really helpful - I am not just typing that - this has been sooo frustrating it is nice to get some feedback. I am new to these disk timings so I apologize if these are simple questions.

I guess my first question is what is the expected performance (approx). Is 40+ MB/sec on the hdparm -t /dev/hdX what I expect? I have seen claims of much higher speeds.quoted but both both here and in some web benchmarks this seems to be the average. I think this is just because I don't understand the 150 MB/s limit vs actual expected values.

2. Should I not see hdparm -i /dev/hdX return udma3 4 5 and 6? When I use the -I the drive tells me all of these with udma5 being preferred. yet in newbenji's post his identifier doesn't show them either.


I am goiing to go to 2.4.23 and use the options you guys have suggested. I will let you know how it goes.

Thanks again.

[Judokas]

First Triall Results:

BIOS 1007
ACPI is off in BIOS

Kernel 2.4.22 with patch-2.4.22-ac4.bz2 patch
(It had many references to nvidia and nforce where the other two did not - bk42 and pre8)
In IDE, ATA and ATAPI Block Devices
Turned off Generic PCI IDE Chipset Support
Ensured AMD and nVidia IDE support was on
Ensured Silicon Image Chipset Support was on

Didn't play with anything else off of the RH9 default config that came with 2.20-9

Added NO boot parameters

Booted and once I was in X windows (Gnome) ran
hdparm -X66 -d1 /dev/hda

Ran hdparm -t -T /dev/hde and got the same results as above.

Performed following command:
echo ¨max_kb_per_request:128¨ > /proc/ide/hde/settings

New results:

/dev/hde:
Timing buffer-cache reads: 128 MB in 0.35 seconds =365.71 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 64 MB in 1.51 seconds = 42.38 MB/sec

Much better but the buffer cache seems a little slow and am an unsure of what the Seagate SATA1 numbers should be running full throttle.

I also still don't see UDMA3456 when I hdparm -i /dev/hde

I will try again with the boot options and then with the 2.4.23 kernel - one question is what patches did you apply to get 2.4.23 - just the pre8 or all three?

I will give another update depending on what I find.

If any of you have a chance - could you answer my questions from my last post.

Thanks for all of the insights. Once I get this to the expected values I will document the exact procedure for RH9

[Judokas]

With the same setup as I just posted I have seen 425MB/s and 47-48MB/s when not in X (Ctrl Alt and F1). I assume that this means that my current kernel is probably as good as I will get it for my system.