IDE controller 8212 with 3+ drives -> trouble ?

[collatz]

Hi I ve noticed that , whenever placing a 3rd drive onto my ITE Eagle 8212 PCI IDE controller
my mouse and keyboard go crazy shortly after, mouse moving by itself, keyboard typing by itself and keys no longer typing what they say they are, mostly because Caps Lock switches on and off a lot (by itself). Mounting, reading and writing are still possible, but its quickly a pain since you cant type what you d like. Only way to cure it is to reboot.
For info, I ve a HP keyboard (with volume knob, "Connect button" and everything under the sun) and mouse.
The problem only appears when Im running Linux (Debian Sarge w/ 2.4.21).

I dont think it s an IRQ problem ? :

:~$ cat /proc/interrupts
CPU0
0: 24626339 XT-PIC timer
1: 138952 XT-PIC <B>keyboard</B>
2: 0 XT-PIC cascade
9: 48420596 XT-PIC usb-uhci, eth0, <B>it8212</B>
11: 2666316 XT-PIC RIPTIDE
12: 3190875 XT-PIC <B>PS/2 Mouse</B>
15: 7812168 XT-PIC ide1
NMI: 0
LOC: 24626725
ERR: 0
MIS: 0


...... :confused:

[gehidore]

You are hotswapping IDE drives?

[collatz]

no, just trying to have
Primary: Master Only
Secondary: Master and Slave.

Anytime there s a Slave drive, this happens.

It starts when i "insmod iteraid.o" to insert the driver module.

Here s everything that s fighting over my PCI bus:

$ lspci
0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C693A/694x [Apollo PRO133x] (rev c4)
0000:00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C598/694x [Apollo MVP3/Pro133x AGP]
0000:00:04.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C596 ISA [Mobile South] (rev 22)
0000:00:04.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 10)
0000:00:04.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 11)
0000:00:04.3 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C596 Power Management (rev 30)
0000:00:09.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd. RTL-8139/8139C/8139C+ (rev 10)
0000:00:0a.0 Unknown mass storage controller: Integrated Technology Express, Inc. IT/ITE8212 Dual channel ATA RAID controller (PCI version seems to be IT8212, embedded seems (rev 11)
0000:00:0b.0 Multimedia audio controller: Creative Labs SB Audigy (rev 03)
0000:00:0b.1 Input device controller: Creative Labs SB Audigy MIDI/Game port (rev 03)
0000:00:0b.2 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Creative Labs SB Audigy FireWire Port
0000:00:0c.0 Multimedia audio controller: Rockwell International Riptide PCI Audio Controller
0000:00:0c.1 Communication controller: Rockwell International Riptide HCF 56k PCI Modem
0000:00:0c.2 Input device controller: Rockwell International Riptide PCI Game Controller
0000:01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV5 [RIVA TNT2/TNT2 Pro] (rev 15)

(Audigy is 'disabled' through OSS soundconf)

[collatz]

Seems like it could be a bug in the driver - but then, it doesnt affect everyone ...

this is what syslog says:

Nov 6 22:19:03 mypc kernel: scsi9 : ITE RAIDExpress133
Nov 6 22:19:04 mypc kernel: Vendor: ITE Model: IT8212F Rev: 1.3
Nov 6 22:19:04 mypc kernel: Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 00
Nov 6 22:19:04 mypc kernel: SCSI device sda: 234441648 512-byte hdwr sectors (120034 MB)
Nov 6 22:19:04 mypc kernel: sda: asking for cache data failed
Nov 6 22:19:04 mypc kernel: sda: assuming drive cache: write through
Nov 6 22:19:04 mypc kernel: sda:<4>atkbd.c: Unknown key pressed (translated set 2, code 0x0 on isa0060/serio0).
Nov 6 22:19:04 mypc kernel: atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes 00 <keycode>' to make it known.
Nov 6 22:19:04 mypc kernel: sda1<4>atkbd.c: Unknown key pressed (translated set 2, code 0x0 on isa0060/serio0).
Nov 6 22:19:04 mypc kernel: atkbd.c: Use 'setkeycodes 00 <keycode>' to make it known.

Followed by a score of those last two lines -
each set of those last two lines seems to match the appearance of an unwanted keyboard input on my prompt.

Im fairly desperate about avoiding this problem with my present config, since I dont understand what s going on at all, why the setkeycode and atkbd is acting up.. however,
I wish someone who s successfully using 3+ drives on this controller, would post his detailed config/setup so I can try to imitate.
thanks

[leonpmu]

Arb question, what make and size are the drives, because some drives don't work well with others.
Have you tried combinations of the system ie Master/Slave master and perhaps moving the drives around a bit (just remap your fstab and boot loader or nothing will work!).

L

[collatz]

All the drives are identical Maxtor Diamondflex 9 's with 8 Mb cache, so swapping them seems of no avail?
The disk with /boot and the system is on the ide1 controller of the mobo, not off the card - which i just use for ide storage.
"difft combinations of master/slave"->if you mean the jumpers, i do set those carefully, and anyway,since theres no problem under another OS, that means they re setup correctly, right?