Sata errors. Please help!

[raid517]

Hi, I have an Abit Nforce 7 S motherboard and am using a SATA adapter on my existing harddrive. (i know there might not be much point in it - but I have windows on the drive and for some weird reason it won't boot if I swap it back to a plain old IDE drive - and I'm not in the mood to redoo a 5 month install all over again).

Well anyhoo I keep getting this error message during boot:


hde: sata_error = 0x00000000, watchdog = 0, siimage_mmio_ide_dma_test_irq

The message is repeated over and over maybe 50 times - kind of like what you would see during a panic - although in this instance it eventually seems to stop and then booting continues as normal.

I did a search (somewhat unusually perhaps) and found this message on the Linux Kernel archives of a possible workaround:

The driver needs to have "drive->id->hw_config |= 0x6000;" added in
siimagemask... for the device id only.

This commits a LIE, but so what.


We just tell the driver that SATA does not care about cable detect.

The question is, how do I do this? I mean if I have to pass some perameters to the SATA driver, where exactly do I write them?

Also I'm something of a Slackware n00b, so could anybody kindly tell me how I get my preferred drivers to load during boot time? I mean what do I have to do exactly if for example I wanted to get the 'radeon' driver to load during boot time?

In any case my impressions of Slackware 10 are mixed.

The main improvement seems to have been in terms of speed - as it certainly feels quite responsive.

However I am extremely dissaponted that there is no 2.6x Kernel included. I undstood that it wasn't included as default, but I thought I would at least be able to select it as an option during the install.

This means a huge amount of buggering about, downloading compiling the kernel and whatnot in the hope that if/when I do, I can still get everything to work.

Slackware 10 also seems unable to get my audigy 2.0 soundcard to work via digital out (I have unmuted everything in alsamixer and added myself to the audio group) and I still have no accelerated video. I know ATI's fglrx driversare propriatory, but hell for once I wish there was a simple way to download and install them. So all in all this pretty much represents zero progress (beyond some minor graphical refinements) in the 2 and a half years I have been using Linux.

All in all, a very dissapointing experience.

I possibly wouldn't bother, except that I paid for my Slackware CDs this time - so it's not like I'm just *****ing while doing nothing to support them.

Any input anyone can offer would be very much appreciated.

Yours,

Somewhat depressed,

GJ

[hard candy]

On the installation cd is a directory called /test, the new kernel is located in there. I would try the new kernel and see if the SATA will work with the new kernel.
For sound run "alsaconf" as su.
ATI:
"yeah i also am using slack 10 and my graphic card is 9600 pro
here is how i did it

1. download the ati drivers, make sure you get the xfree 4.3 ones.
2. open terminal.
3. su
4. cd into directory containing the drivers you just downloaded
5. rpm2tgz fglrx****.rpm
6. installpkg fglrx****.tgz
7. cd /lib/modules/fglrx/build_mod
8. sh make.sh
9. cd ..
10. sh make_install.sh
11. fglrxconfig
12. rename /etc/X11/XF86Config-4 to xorg.conf (backup your xorg.conf first)
13. reboot or restart x server
14. open terminal
15. glxinfo it should say near the top direct rendering YES. (which means hardware opengl working)

[raid517]

Thanks man, I'll work on that. Hopefully it will help. But how do I pass those parameters to the SATA driver? I think it was Andrew morton who suggested this, but he gave no hint on how to do it.

Just to add a new annoyance.... Slackware only mounts my external USB 2.0 hard drive about 50% of the time.

It's listed as sda1 in /dev - when I can mount it that is... Slack also very weirdly deleted the folder I made for it in /mount (i.e. /mount/sda1), so I have no clue why if felt it had permission to do that...

Anyhoo, before I burst in to tears of frustration, how do I add modules to slackware to get them to load during boot? There is no 'modules' or 'modules.conf' that I can find.

Again any input would be appreciated.

GJ

[raid517]

Oh and which CD? And do I have to compile the kernel? I mean I can - but I kinda agree with those that say such practices should be unnecessary in a modern OS. (Not that I want to start a flamewar over it. I mean I know some people actually enjoy it).

GJ

[hard candy]

From /etc/modules.conf:
# --- BEGIN: Generated by ALSACONF, do not edit. ---
# --- ALSACONF verion 1.0.5 ---
alias char-major-116 snd
alias char-major-14 soundcore
alias sound-service-0-0 snd-mixer-oss
alias sound-service-0-1 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-3 snd-pcm-oss
alias sound-service-0-8 snd-seq-oss
alias sound-service-0-12 snd-pcm-oss
alias snd-card-0 snd-cs46xx
alias sound-slot-0 snd-cs46xx
# --- END: Generated by ALSACONF, do not edit. ---

alias char-major-195 nvidia
As you can see, I have the /etc/modules.conf file. It was there when I installed Slackware.
The kernel can be used without reconfiguring. There are installation instructions included, It is on the second cd under /testing.
When you plug in your USB drive browse to /mnt and see if a directory is created by hotplug.

[raid517]

I don't quite understand all this alias stuff..., in gentoo all I had was a simple list of drivers to load at boot.

Say for example I wanted to load my fglrx (ati) drivers at boot, what would be the format I would use to do that? Indeed what is the format used to load all the different classes of drivers at boot? I'm having a little difficulty getting my head around the syntax used.

As it happens I did have to compile the kernel to get agpgart support and lan support for my Abit Nforce S chipset. However there doesn't appear to be an option to run my Nforce sound driver. I assume it is possible, as it is only a little Realtek ACL650 onboard chip - and I have seen this on other Linux distros. Does Nvidia provide their own drivers? (I have an audigy card and the onboard sound - so I would be happy to get either of these working - or both).

Lastly, as I will be using a 2.6x kernel on Slackware, do I need to include dri support and /dev file system support in the kernel?

I intend to use the ATI propriatory drivers, so I'm not sure if DRI is required or not?

And how do I pass the parameters suggested on the Linux kernel archive to my serial ATA drivers. That is:

The driver needs to have "drive->id->hw_config |= 0x6000;" added in
siimagemask... for the device id only.

This commits a LIE, but so what.


We just tell the driver that SATA does not care about cable detect.

Right now it's taking maybe 10 minutes for the kernel to work out what's going on and for it to finally boot my system. Needless to say, waiting this long after a reboot can be extremely frustrating.

If you guys can help out here I will pretty much have all of my questions answered.

Thanks again for any input anyone can offer.

GJ

[hard candy]

Sounds as if a little research is in order. look through this thread in another forum:
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/showthread.php?threadid=197326

[raid517]

I'm not too clear how all that applies. I can boot from my SATA disk with slackware 10. I just get these error messages. Additionally it sounds like a horrendously convoluted (if not complex) way to do things. Can't I just pass the parameters to the stata driver as suggested in the reply from the kernel archives? If so how?

Has anyone got any hints on the other questions I asked?

I'm sorry if you think I'm being lazy, but I have been trying to get a working Linux distro going for 2 and a half years. I don't think the term lazy applies here. What I am is frustrated. I would like a simple Linux install for once. I had fantasised that if my Linux install worked out smoothly this time, I would recommend it to my friends to install.

Unfortunately, even if I can work through all these problems, we are still clearly not there yet. Not by a long measure.

I really would appreciate some help. I am willing to work to get this going, but unfortunately I doubt I will be able to unless someone is at least willing to offer some input.

If needs be I will follow the bootdisk method to get rid of these SATA error messages (although that's all they are, just error messages) but I would much rather know how to pass these parameters to the driver - and also how to understand the slackware syntax/methodology for module/driver loading.

Surely it shouldn't be that hard?

GJ

[hard candy]

The original thread you asked about with Andrew Morton was talking about a kernel with the "mm" patch.
Take a look at this thread:
http://www.uwsg.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0311.3/1065.html

[hard candy]

'm sorry if you think I'm being lazy, but I have been trying to get a working Linux distro going for 2 and a half years. I don't think the term lazy applies here. What I am is frustrated. I would like a simple Linux install for once. I had fantasised that if my Linux install worked out smoothly this time, I would recommend it to my friends to install.
In 2 1/2 years I have installed Linux at least 30 times, of those- 15 were very simple with Redhat, Suse, Mepis, Yoper, Fedora Core 1, and some others being "boot up, click, click, click, reboot, and ready to go".
Others such as Slackware, Gentoo, Debian, Evil Entity, and some others required configuration of some sort or another (from partitioning, formating to compiling drivers, rewriting files, etc).
I do not think I would have stuck with Linux for 2 1/2 years if I had never gotten a "working" installation.
Why not try one of the "simple" distros like Suse or Mepis?

[raid517]

Well I've got it working. But I've rarely got it all working. I've had sound but no video, no accelerated video but good sound, no sound and no video, a rock solid kernel install coupled by a myriad of unstable applications etc (the major file browsers being among the worst offenders). I did briefly have it all working in SuSe 9.0 a short time ago - but that was mainly due to having bought a cheap Nvidia video card - which SuSe happily configured without any intervention from me.

I have probably installed just as many distros (or even more) as you in that time - indeed pretty much all of those on your list. One of the problems I guess is in generally having fairly 'modern' hardware. I wouldn't describe it as 'bleeding edge' - as frankly I can't afford bleeding edge stuff (not unless you think the Nforce 2.0 chipset and the Radeon 9800XT is still 'bleeding edge') - as Linux seems to like much older hardware a lot better. I mean I once recently installed it on an old Via 1.2 GHZ KT133MHZ FSB 512MB DDR 133 machine - and it was pretty much as happy as a lark. That really was a zero configuration install. Unfortunately in terms of speed, it wasn't very usable - so I sold it to some guy for office work.

Why do I persist? Well hell believe it or not, some of us out here really would like an alternative to MS Windows. (I also build computers as a hobby, so since it has to fit with that, Mac isn't really an option). It is unfortunate perhaps that there are only two options available for this - and those are Windows and Linux. Windows isn't so bad. I used to curse it day and night for it's terrible stability - but I eventually found that if you get good hardware, it's about as stable as anything you will find. However I do not like all of the negative corporate associations that using it entails.

Linux on the other hand always feels like a half done project - however I always seem to get enticed by the promise that the next big GUI release, or the next major kernel release will represent a huge leap forward. Unfortunately it rarely does. A case and point is Slackware 10, where despite it being an 'update' (and in my case a fresh install) several things that worked fine in their 9.0 release (such as those listed above) don't work in this one. It almost begs the question of in what way does this represent progress? After 2 and a half years i still have to compile a kernel to get some things to work. How can Linux ever become a real desktop OS if this is still the case after all this time? What is an average Joe Blow user to make of that? Well I recently came across a popular PC magazine's forum of exactly this kind of user, where a small rebel section of them (all very average un*****ious Windows users) had read about Linux on one of the magazines features and had decided to try it. Unsurprisingly they hit nothing but snags - and ran back to their familiar Windows based environment. And what is the moral of this story? Should we be l33t and say that 'the Linux community' is better off without them? Or do we admit that the truth that what it is is an opportunity lost - where several potential converts were lost because Linux just didn't live up to all the hype and promises made for it?

Well anyway, I don't know where I'm going with this. It's just a rant I guess. I'm disappointed from what I can see (knoppix and Slackware so far, Suse and VidaLinux/Gentoo next) that after all the GUI updates and all the kernel tweaks and improvements there has been in this last few months that if anything compatibility appears to have taken a big step backwards.

I could be an avid and vocal supporter of Linux, but I sure wish I could see some genuine progress (on the desktop at least) instead of the few minor graphical enhancements between for example KDE 3.1 and 3.2, or the last version of Gnome and the most recent. But I also know it isn't going to change. So I guess complaining about it is pointless.

This is all very off topic - but I guess the topic wasn't going anywhere anyway. You seem to get a store of only a couple of questions you can ask on forums like this before people loose interest and stop answering, Lol.

It seems I out stayed my welcome in this regard some time ago.

Anyhoo, peace out. I'm getting Suse, so it should arrive in the next day or two. Of all the distros this is the one that has tended to give me least trouble. So let's see if they can repeat this feat this time.

GJ

[XiaoKJ]

Actually, I would compile a kernel myself and add the apporpriate SATA drivers...

Most SATA users seem to have absolutely no problem with using it.

And for all nvidia cards, installation is very easy -- just get the nvidia official drivers and they will work flawlessly, just that you have to run a script and edit xorg.conf or xf86config[-4]

sound? alsa and alsamixer always saves the day for me.

[raid517]

Actually, I would compile a kernel myself and add the apporpriate SATA drivers...

I would have prefered to do this, but could find no clear instructions on how to do it on Slackware. I compiled the kernel, set the driver as a module and was then left scratching my head over how to load the driver at boot (re my questions on syntax) and how to make sure I didn't render my sytem unbootable in the process. I could see that this was a prospect - as Slackware seemed insistent that my SATA drive was really an IDE drive. (That is /dev/hde).

And for all nvidia cards, installation is very easy -- just get the nvidia official drivers and they will work flawlessly, just that you have to run a script and edit xorg.conf or xf86config[-4]

Yes Nvidia cards are easy. However I do not own an Nvidia card. If you read what I said, I said I owned a low end one briefly - but that I have now upgraded to an ATI 9800XT. ATI cards are certainly not so easy to configure.

sound? alsa and alsamixer always saves the day for me.

It didn't for me this time, despite having compiled in the correct drivers, despite having unmuted all the volumes, despite changing kernels, despite ensuring that my sound drivers were correctly loaded, despite adding myself and root to the audio group (a bizzar practice at any rate) and despite trying all the various different mixers. Which kind of begs the question of just what do you have to do? Now don't get me wrong, sound did work, but unlike Slackware 9.0 sound only worked through analogue and not digital outs no matter what I did. (I confirmed this by using a cheap £2 pair of headphones, as I simply do not, nor have I had for some years, any facility to play analogue sound). So hopefully you will forgive me for feeling that this does feel like something of a step backwards.

GJ

[hard candy]

For the 2.6 kernel on Slackware:
http://www.justlinux.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=126156
(From the "How I Did It" forum).
Also there are some very good sites also:
Here (http://shilo.is-a-geek.com/slack/) is one and check out his links. Also, linuxpackages.net has a good slackware forum.
Check my sig, I'm not running old hardware, I've left SATA alone since the benefits for linux don't seem to outweigh the drawbacks as far as installation goes. IDE is plenty fast these days.
And Linux works on the new 64 bit processors a whole lot better than windows does. The new dvdrw 8x work well in linux. So I believe the statement "Linux prefers older hardware" is incorrect. Distros may prefer older hardware to automaticaly install without any user configuration.

[raid517]

Well as you pointed out, it depends what level of investment in terms of time and effort you are willing to devote to get things going. Perhaps your concept of what's reasonable and my concept (and potentially the same is true for most other potential Linux converts) are somewhat different? I mean I spent perhaps 12 hours in total trying to get digital out sound working on my Slackware install. Is that 'reasonable' in your estimation? I spent a similar amount of time trying to figure out my SATA issues, I spent maybe another 5 hours learning how to get modules to load correctly in Slackware, because very few people were either able, or willing to impart this information directly, or to point to an intelligible source for this data. Is that a 'reasonable' investment of time and effort in your view too?

In the end I had to give up on sound, since there was no sane reason any longer for it not to work.

There is one thing you can't accuse me of, and that's a lack of effort - or an unwillingness to try. (Since these are the usual retorts). Because boy, I assure you, have I tried!

At least you can say that SATA in Linux can present problems. But in my case due to the forces of computer weirdness, removing my OS drive from the SATA connector/adapter and putting it on the IDE connector instead rendered my 5 and a half month, 100% stable Windows install unbootable. And since I didn't relish the idea of redoing it all again, I am kind of stuck with SATA. I'm not here to start shouting about the benefits of Windows, so don't get me wrong, I'm not a Windows dweeb. To be honest as stable as it is, I would still rather use something else. My frustration arrises from the fact that I can't, there isn't anything - and Linux just won't play ball.

But there you are. That's the world we live in I guess. There's not much anyone can do to change it.

GJ

[hard candy]

http://opensource.creative.com/soundcard.html says:
USB Audio
The ALSA project supports USB audio, and Creative devices such as the Audigy 2 NX appear to work. Is that the same as yours?

Extigy Driver- http://exaudio.sourceforge.net/

ALSA site for the audigy
http://www.alsa-project.org/alsa-doc/doc-php/template.php?company=Creative+Labs&card=Soundblaster+Extigy&chip=Extigy&module=usb-audio

[raid517]

I'll take alook at that thanks. Although since I'm getting SuSe hopefully that won't be so much of an issue any more. (But what I don't like about SuSe is the limited package selection). I will try Gentoo again first - although it will be Anaconda Gentoo this time as I have nothing left to prove with Gentoo (I expect I could install it in my sleep I've done it so often) as I can't be assed with too much fiddling about. I also find the Gentoo instructions on how to get sound and video going very easy to follow, so hopefully I should have better luck.

The only thing that lets Gentoo down is portage. It's a great idea, if only the compiler could gurantee a 100% compile success rate on critically important system packages - which sadly it can't. With so much compiling and so much code someone is bound to make a mistake somewhere. Unfortunately it tends to happen on the one package that has the potential to break everything else.

But anyhoo I will look at building alsa myself. I am aware of the alsa matrix, but I'm not certain how I gave you the impression that I had an external Audigy 2.0 sound card. I don't. It's a simple 'bulk' internal PCI one.

Thanks for all the input anyway. That's worth something - even if there's not a lot else that is.

Best regards,

GJ

[hard candy]

http://www.edworak.os1.kappa.pl/index.php?location=navynos&lang=en is a gentoo with an installer. Boot up the live cd and then install it on your hard drive.
Look at the "iso. confused-Which Distro" forum for some feed back.

[raid517]

OK well I'm not entirely retracting what I said about Linux. However I thought I might as well just pop back and report that I now have what appears to be the most complete and functional Linux install I have ever had.

Everything works, sound video you name it - and after a lot of messing about (maybe 2 weeks) I now have a system that produces no errors. Right now although not perfect, I would say that this is probably about as good as Linux gets.

I was right about gentoo in one respect, in that although it is time consuming, it is relatively easy to understand. And if something goes wrong, it is usually possible to fix it.

Gentoo is useful in that it maintains it's simplicity. There isn't a part of the system you can't reach into and change if you wanted to.

I still have some minor annoyances though, like I have no new/second line on my console and I can't get any movies to show up on my TV out (I get a nice clear X display on my TV with a full desktop, but no video when I play a movie, regardless of which application I use).

Also disk performance in Linux sucks somewhat compared to windows. I am running an Ext3 file system and I ran a test on a 200GB disk, by searching it end to end for a non existant file. In Windows my search took all of 36 seconds. In Linux it took 4 and a half minutes. Is there anyway anyone knows of to improve on this?

I chose EXT3 as it is the only file system I can read from in Windows/NTFS.

One more thing I find interminably annoying is that there appears to be no way to automatically arrange the icons on my desktop in KDE. I would love it if I could just pin my 'home' directory to the top left of my screen, have my drives and system folders underneath this and all other icons neatly arranged after this.

Having to keep rearranging my icons in this order every time I log in is a real pain. I know I could always select save session, but that saves all the other stuff I was doing too - which isn''t what I want. Having system icons listed first would be a real boon.

And lastly but not least ark sucks. For all of the time I have used Linux it has never been a case of asking if ark will crash rather than when. Set it to work on a large zip file or any other file and then just sit back and wait for it to crap out. I wish there was something as versitile as winrar for Linux. (I know there's rar and unrar - but they have no gui other than ark - and they only do rar files).

Appart from that, this is the furthest I have ever got with Linux ever.

Whether the the sheer effort involved in getting here could be described as reasonable is again another matter, but it is possibly best if we let that go for the moment. ;)

Best regards,

GJ