Repeatable File Corruption (ECS K7S5A w/SIS735)

Repeatable File Corruption (ECS K7S5A w/SIS735)

[dan]

===== SUMMARY

I have found a file corruption issue when writing files seemingly related
to my new motherboard.


===== HARDWARE

  It is repeatable and verified on other boards of the same model.  This
just started happening when I upgraded the system.  The following is a
link to the ECS K7S5A board in question, the SIS735 chipset, and a
hardware description:

  http://www.ecsusa.com/ecsusa/www.ecs.com.tw/products/k7s5a.htm
  http://www.sis.com/products/chipsets/oa/socketa/735.htm

  ECS K7S5A motherboard
  AMD 1.4Ghz Tbird
  2x256Mb Micron DDR PC2100
  hda: ST36421A, ATA DISK drive
  hdb: QUANTUM FIREBALLP LM10.2, ATA DISK drive
  hdc: IC35L060AVER07-0, ATA DISK drive


===== DESCRIPTION

The bug was first noticed when running a game server that verifies client
map files with the server map files.  Some of the maps, no matter what I
did, were always different, causing the server to reject clients.  Using
the commands md5sum and cmp, I noticed that each time I copied a new file
into place, it was slightly different:

  $ cp de_aztec.bsp de_aztec.bsp2
  $ cmp de_aztec.bsp de_aztec.bsp2
  de_aztec.bsp de_aztec.bsp2 differ: char 2287174, line 6590
  $ md5sum de_aztec.bsp de_aztec.bsp2
  c138a969edf84abcfc5fe4b4b2a2c5ed  de_aztec.bsp
  36b5bdd244d69a8d0fb3c81ba25e1df1  de_aztec.bsp2

Not only that, every copy is different from every other copy:

  $ cp de_aztec.bsp de_aztec.bsp3
  $ cp de_aztec.bsp de_aztec.bsp4
  $ cp de_aztec.bsp de_aztec.bsp5
  $ md5sum de_aztec.bsp de_aztec.bsp?
  c138a969edf84abcfc5fe4b4b2a2c5ed  de_aztec.bsp
  fe858630be18e37eba8ea73a6be941c9  de_aztec.bsp2
  87bd1ad8b0ff2c58ebff5372f865fa35  de_aztec.bsp3
  7cffbffca0600c80e6cae336f52c885b  de_aztec.bsp4
  91287ef7c8eb047d8f305315b4e0ce55  de_aztec.bsp5

It does not seem to be an issue with reading from the drive because the
md5sum of the original file is always the same.

This is repeatable with any command that will write a file out including
tar, rsync, and ftp.  If I move the file within the partition, there is no
corruption.  Copying the file one character at a time works.

This does not happen with every file on the drive.  In fact, out of the
1400 files related to the server, I only found a few dozen that I could
repeat this issue with.  I also have complaints from other users of the
system of files being corrupt and have found a number myself.

I have repeated this with the following:

  Duplicate systems (I have 5)
  Multiple hard drives (IBM, Quantum, Seagate)
  Different filesystems on multiple drives (reiserfs, ext2)
  With and without different drivers in the kernel (IDE chipset support)
  Kernels 2.4.10 through 2.4.13
  Drives running at different speeds  (ATA-100, 66, 33)
  Slow processor (AMD 1.2GHz Tbird)


===== WORKAROUND

The problem only went away when I replaced the motherboard.  I also
haven't had any file corruption issues running Windows2000 on the same
hardware with the same files.  I moved all of the hardware in the original
system to a new motherboard (ASUS A7A266)  and the problem went away.

I have CC'd the IDE chipset maintainer because I can only assume it might
be related.

Thank you for fighting through this email, I know it was long and boring.


dan

Re: Repeatable File Corruption (ECS K7S5A w/SIS735)

[Andre Hedrick]

Greetings dan,

Well no kidding !!!
Just maybe it is the VM layer getting it wrong again.
Please try an -ac kernel and see if it still exist.

As most know that there are corrections there that have not been accepted
into the main tree ..... OUCH that hurts ....

Cheers,

On Thu, 25 Oct 2001, dan wrote:

> 
> ===== SUMMARY
> 
> I have found a file corruption issue when writing files seemingly related
> to my new motherboard.
> 
> 
> ===== HARDWARE
> 
>   It is repeatable and verified on other boards of the same model.  This
> just started happening when I upgraded the system.  The following is a
> link to the ECS K7S5A board in question, the SIS735 chipset, and a
> hardware description:
> 
>   http://www.ecsusa.com/ecsusa/www.ecs.com.tw/products/k7s5a.htm
>   http://www.sis.com/products/chipsets/oa/socketa/735.htm
> 
>   ECS K7S5A motherboard
>   AMD 1.4Ghz Tbird
>   2x256Mb Micron DDR PC2100
>   hda: ST36421A, ATA DISK drive
>   hdb: QUANTUM FIREBALLP LM10.2, ATA DISK drive
>   hdc: IC35L060AVER07-0, ATA DISK drive
> 
> 
> ===== DESCRIPTION
> 
> The bug was first noticed when running a game server that verifies client
> map files with the server map files.  Some of the maps, no matter what I
> did, were always different, causing the server to reject clients.  Using
> the commands md5sum and cmp, I noticed that each time I copied a new file
> into place, it was slightly different:
> 
>   $ cp de_aztec.bsp de_aztec.bsp2
>   $ cmp de_aztec.bsp de_aztec.bsp2
>   de_aztec.bsp de_aztec.bsp2 differ: char 2287174, line 6590
>   $ md5sum de_aztec.bsp de_aztec.bsp2
>   c138a969edf84abcfc5fe4b4b2a2c5ed  de_aztec.bsp
>   36b5bdd244d69a8d0fb3c81ba25e1df1  de_aztec.bsp2
> 
> Not only that, every copy is different from every other copy:
> 
>   $ cp de_aztec.bsp de_aztec.bsp3
>   $ cp de_aztec.bsp de_aztec.bsp4
>   $ cp de_aztec.bsp de_aztec.bsp5
>   $ md5sum de_aztec.bsp de_aztec.bsp?
>   c138a969edf84abcfc5fe4b4b2a2c5ed  de_aztec.bsp
>   fe858630be18e37eba8ea73a6be941c9  de_aztec.bsp2
>   87bd1ad8b0ff2c58ebff5372f865fa35  de_aztec.bsp3
>   7cffbffca0600c80e6cae336f52c885b  de_aztec.bsp4
>   91287ef7c8eb047d8f305315b4e0ce55  de_aztec.bsp5
> 
> It does not seem to be an issue with reading from the drive because the
> md5sum of the original file is always the same.
> 
> This is repeatable with any command that will write a file out including
> tar, rsync, and ftp.  If I move the file within the partition, there is no
> corruption.  Copying the file one character at a time works.
> 
> This does not happen with every file on the drive.  In fact, out of the
> 1400 files related to the server, I only found a few dozen that I could
> repeat this issue with.  I also have complaints from other users of the
> system of files being corrupt and have found a number myself.
> 
> I have repeated this with the following:
> 
>   Duplicate systems (I have 5)
>   Multiple hard drives (IBM, Quantum, Seagate)
>   Different filesystems on multiple drives (reiserfs, ext2)
>   With and without different drivers in the kernel (IDE chipset support)
>   Kernels 2.4.10 through 2.4.13
>   Drives running at different speeds  (ATA-100, 66, 33)
>   Slow processor (AMD 1.2GHz Tbird)
> 
> 
> ===== WORKAROUND
> 
> The problem only went away when I replaced the motherboard.  I also
> haven't had any file corruption issues running Windows2000 on the same
> hardware with the same files.  I moved all of the hardware in the original
> system to a new motherboard (ASUS A7A266)  and the problem went away.
> 
> I have CC'd the IDE chipset maintainer because I can only assume it might
> be related.
> 
> Thank you for fighting through this email, I know it was long and boring.
> 
> 
> dan
> 

Andre Hedrick
CTO ASL, Inc.
Linux ATA Development
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
ASL, Inc.                                     Tel: (510) 857-0055 x103
38875 Cherry Street                           Fax: (510) 857-0010
Newark, CA 94560                              Web: www.aslab.com

Re: Repeatable File Corruption (ECS K7S5A w/SIS735)

[lung]

I just tried 2.4.10-ac12 with no solution.  The same file corruption still
exists.

Not that it's relevant, but I was unable to get any of the 2.4.12 -ac
patches to compile:

make[3]: Entering directory `/usr/src/kernel-source-2.4.12/fs/partitions'
gcc -D__KERNEL__ -I/usr/src/kernel-source-2.4.12/include -Wall
-Wstrict-prototypes -Wno-trigraphs -O2 -fomit-frame-pointer
-fno-strict-aliasing -fno-common -pipe -mpreferred-stack-boundary=2
-march=i686 -malign-functions=4     -DEXPORT_SYMTAB -c msdos.c
msdos.c: In function `handle_ide_mess':
msdos.c:550: warning: implicit declaration of function `invalidate_bdev'
msdos.c:551: structure has no member named `bd_inode'
make[3]: *** [msdos.o] Error 1

# gcc -v
Reading specs from /usr/lib/gcc-lib/i386-linux/2.95.4/specs
gcc version 2.95.4 20011006 (Debian prerelease)




On Thu, 25 Oct 2001, Andre Hedrick wrote:

>
> Greetings dan,
>
> Well no kidding !!!
> Just maybe it is the VM layer getting it wrong again.
> Please try an -ac kernel and see if it still exist.
>
> As most know that there are corrections there that have not been accepted
> into the main tree ..... OUCH that hurts ....
>
> Cheers,
>
> On Thu, 25 Oct 2001, dan wrote:
>
> >
> > ===== SUMMARY
> >
> > I have found a file corruption issue when writing files seemingly related
> > to my new motherboard.
> >
> >
> > ===== HARDWARE
> >
> >   It is repeatable and verified on other boards of the same model.  This
> > just started happening when I upgraded the system.  The following is a
> > link to the ECS K7S5A board in question, the SIS735 chipset, and a
> > hardware description:
> >
> >   http://www.ecsusa.com/ecsusa/www.ecs.com.tw/products/k7s5a.htm
> >   http://www.sis.com/products/chipsets/oa/socketa/735.htm
> >
> >   ECS K7S5A motherboard
> >   AMD 1.4Ghz Tbird
> >   2x256Mb Micron DDR PC2100
> >   hda: ST36421A, ATA DISK drive
> >   hdb: QUANTUM FIREBALLP LM10.2, ATA DISK drive
> >   hdc: IC35L060AVER07-0, ATA DISK drive
> >
> >
> > ===== DESCRIPTION
> >
> > The bug was first noticed when running a game server that verifies client
> > map files with the server map files.  Some of the maps, no matter what I
> > did, were always different, causing the server to reject clients.  Using
> > the commands md5sum and cmp, I noticed that each time I copied a new file
> > into place, it was slightly different:
> >
> >   $ cp de_aztec.bsp de_aztec.bsp2
> >   $ cmp de_aztec.bsp de_aztec.bsp2
> >   de_aztec.bsp de_aztec.bsp2 differ: char 2287174, line 6590
> >   $ md5sum de_aztec.bsp de_aztec.bsp2
> >   c138a969edf84abcfc5fe4b4b2a2c5ed  de_aztec.bsp
> >   36b5bdd244d69a8d0fb3c81ba25e1df1  de_aztec.bsp2
> >
> > Not only that, every copy is different from every other copy:
> >
> >   $ cp de_aztec.bsp de_aztec.bsp3
> >   $ cp de_aztec.bsp de_aztec.bsp4
> >   $ cp de_aztec.bsp de_aztec.bsp5
> >   $ md5sum de_aztec.bsp de_aztec.bsp?
> >   c138a969edf84abcfc5fe4b4b2a2c5ed  de_aztec.bsp
> >   fe858630be18e37eba8ea73a6be941c9  de_aztec.bsp2
> >   87bd1ad8b0ff2c58ebff5372f865fa35  de_aztec.bsp3
> >   7cffbffca0600c80e6cae336f52c885b  de_aztec.bsp4
> >   91287ef7c8eb047d8f305315b4e0ce55  de_aztec.bsp5
> >
> > It does not seem to be an issue with reading from the drive because the
> > md5sum of the original file is always the same.
> >
> > This is repeatable with any command that will write a file out including
> > tar, rsync, and ftp.  If I move the file within the partition, there is no
> > corruption.  Copying the file one character at a time works.
> >
> > This does not happen with every file on the drive.  In fact, out of the
> > 1400 files related to the server, I only found a few dozen that I could
> > repeat this issue with.  I also have complaints from other users of the
> > system of files being corrupt and have found a number myself.
> >
> > I have repeated this with the following:
> >
> >   Duplicate systems (I have 5)
> >   Multiple hard drives (IBM, Quantum, Seagate)
> >   Different filesystems on multiple drives (reiserfs, ext2)
> >   With and without different drivers in the kernel (IDE chipset support)
> >   Kernels 2.4.10 through 2.4.13
> >   Drives running at different speeds  (ATA-100, 66, 33)
> >   Slow processor (AMD 1.2GHz Tbird)
> >
> >
> > ===== WORKAROUND
> >
> > The problem only went away when I replaced the motherboard.  I also
> > haven't had any file corruption issues running Windows2000 on the same
> > hardware with the same files.  I moved all of the hardware in the original
> > system to a new motherboard (ASUS A7A266)  and the problem went away.
> >
> > I have CC'd the IDE chipset maintainer because I can only assume it might
> > be related.
> >
> > Thank you for fighting through this email, I know it was long and boring.
> >
> >
> > dan
> >
>
> Andre Hedrick
> CTO ASL, Inc.
> Linux ATA Development
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> ASL, Inc.                                     Tel: (510) 857-0055 x103
> 38875 Cherry Street                           Fax: (510) 857-0010
> Newark, CA 94560                              Web: www.aslab.com
>
> -
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
> Please read the FAQ at  http://www.tux.org/lkml/
>

Re: Repeatable File Corruption (ECS K7S5A w/SIS735)

[Daniela Engert]

On Thu, 25 Oct 2001 22:21:47 -0400 (EDT), dan wrote:

>  It is repeatable and verified on other boards of the same model.  This
>just started happening when I upgraded the system.  The following is a
>link to the ECS K7S5A board in question, the SIS735 chipset, and a

>  hda: ST36421A, ATA DISK drive
>  hdb: QUANTUM FIREBALLP LM10.2, ATA DISK drive
>  hdc: IC35L060AVER07-0, ATA DISK drive

>The problem only went away when I replaced the motherboard.  I also
>haven't had any file corruption issues running Windows2000 on the same
>hardware with the same files.  I moved all of the hardware in the original
>system to a new motherboard (ASUS A7A266)  and the problem went away.

>I have CC'd the IDE chipset maintainer because I can only assume it might
>be related.

It very likely is. The current Linux SiS IDE driver doesn't initialize
the the EIDE controller in the SiS735 (and most likely all other
ATA/100 capable members, too) correctly.

The SiS735 IDE cycle timing registers have a layout that is different
from the older predecessors!

>From my experiences, drivers taking this not into account *do* actually
work most of the time even if the timing of the layer 0 communication
protocol is wrong, but fail mysteriously sometimes. Andre needs to
update the SiS5513 code.

Ciao,
  Dani

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Daniela Engert, systems engineer at MEDAV GmbH
Gräfenberger Str. 34, 91080 Uttenreuth, Germany
Phone ++49-9131-583-348, Fax ++49-9131-583-11

Re: Repeatable File Corruption (ECS K7S5A w/SIS735)

[Andre Hedrick]

[-- Warning: decoded text below may be mangled, UTF-8 assumed --]
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Daniela,

I just love it when you bust my crops, dear ;-)
How about some init code to resolve the problem?

Cheers,

On Fri, 26 Oct 2001, Daniela Engert wrote:

> On Thu, 25 Oct 2001 22:21:47 -0400 (EDT), dan wrote:
> 
> >  It is repeatable and verified on other boards of the same model.  This
> >just started happening when I upgraded the system.  The following is a
> >link to the ECS K7S5A board in question, the SIS735 chipset, and a
> 
> >  hda: ST36421A, ATA DISK drive
> >  hdb: QUANTUM FIREBALLP LM10.2, ATA DISK drive
> >  hdc: IC35L060AVER07-0, ATA DISK drive
> 
> >The problem only went away when I replaced the motherboard.  I also
> >haven't had any file corruption issues running Windows2000 on the same
> >hardware with the same files.  I moved all of the hardware in the original
> >system to a new motherboard (ASUS A7A266)  and the problem went away.
> 
> >I have CC'd the IDE chipset maintainer because I can only assume it might
> >be related.
> 
> It very likely is. The current Linux SiS IDE driver doesn't initialize
> the the EIDE controller in the SiS735 (and most likely all other
> ATA/100 capable members, too) correctly.
> 
> The SiS735 IDE cycle timing registers have a layout that is different
> from the older predecessors!
> 
> >From my experiences, drivers taking this not into account *do* actually
> work most of the time even if the timing of the layer 0 communication
> protocol is wrong, but fail mysteriously sometimes. Andre needs to
> update the SiS5513 code.
> 
> Ciao,
>   Dani
> 
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Daniela Engert, systems engineer at MEDAV GmbH
> Gräfenberger Str. 34, 91080 Uttenreuth, Germany
> Phone ++49-9131-583-348, Fax ++49-9131-583-11
> 
> 

Andre Hedrick
CTO ASL, Inc.
Linux ATA Development
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
ASL, Inc.                                     Tel: (510) 857-0055 x103
38875 Cherry Street                           Fax: (510) 857-0010
Newark, CA 94560                              Web: www.aslab.com

Re: Repeatable File Corruption (ECS K7S5A w/SIS735)

[lung]

[-- Warning: decoded text below may be mangled, UTF-8 assumed --]
[-- Attachment #1: Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=X-UNKNOWN, Size: 2160 bytes --]


I've received one report of someone using the same motherboard, but using
SCSI and having no issues.  I think after a little testing, this will
point directly at IDE.

I've made me test file available for more testing, but I think I can
dig up an old SCSI drive tomorrow to test this myself.


On Fri, 26 Oct 2001, Daniela Engert wrote:

> On Thu, 25 Oct 2001 22:21:47 -0400 (EDT), dan wrote:
>
> >  It is repeatable and verified on other boards of the same model.  This
> >just started happening when I upgraded the system.  The following is a
> >link to the ECS K7S5A board in question, the SIS735 chipset, and a
>
> >  hda: ST36421A, ATA DISK drive
> >  hdb: QUANTUM FIREBALLP LM10.2, ATA DISK drive
> >  hdc: IC35L060AVER07-0, ATA DISK drive
>
> >The problem only went away when I replaced the motherboard.  I also
> >haven't had any file corruption issues running Windows2000 on the same
> >hardware with the same files.  I moved all of the hardware in the original
> >system to a new motherboard (ASUS A7A266)  and the problem went away.
>
> >I have CC'd the IDE chipset maintainer because I can only assume it might
> >be related.
>
> It very likely is. The current Linux SiS IDE driver doesn't initialize
> the the EIDE controller in the SiS735 (and most likely all other
> ATA/100 capable members, too) correctly.
>
> The SiS735 IDE cycle timing registers have a layout that is different
> from the older predecessors!
>
> >From my experiences, drivers taking this not into account *do* actually
> work most of the time even if the timing of the layer 0 communication
> protocol is wrong, but fail mysteriously sometimes. Andre needs to
> update the SiS5513 code.
>
> Ciao,
>   Dani
>
> ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> Daniela Engert, systems engineer at MEDAV GmbH
> Gräfenberger Str. 34, 91080 Uttenreuth, Germany
> Phone ++49-9131-583-348, Fax ++49-9131-583-11
>
>
> -
> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
> Please read the FAQ at  http://www.tux.org/lkml/
>

Re: Repeatable File Corruption (ECS K7S5A w/SIS735)

[Andre Hedrick]

[-- Warning: decoded text below may be mangled, UTF-8 assumed --]
[-- Attachment #1: Type: text/plain; charset=X-UNKNOWN, Size: 3053 bytes --]


On Fri, 26 Oct 2001 lung@theuw.net wrote:

> 
> I've received one report of someone using the same motherboard, but using
> SCSI and having no issues.  I think after a little testing, this will
> point directly at IDE.
> 
> I've made me test file available for more testing, but I think I can
> dig up an old SCSI drive tomorrow to test this myself.
> 
> 
> On Fri, 26 Oct 2001, Daniela Engert wrote:
> 
> > On Thu, 25 Oct 2001 22:21:47 -0400 (EDT), dan wrote:
> >
> > >  It is repeatable and verified on other boards of the same model.  This
> > >just started happening when I upgraded the system.  The following is a
> > >link to the ECS K7S5A board in question, the SIS735 chipset, and a
> >
> > >  hda: ST36421A, ATA DISK drive
> > >  hdb: QUANTUM FIREBALLP LM10.2, ATA DISK drive
> > >  hdc: IC35L060AVER07-0, ATA DISK drive
> >
> > >The problem only went away when I replaced the motherboard.  I also
> > >haven't had any file corruption issues running Windows2000 on the same
> > >hardware with the same files.  I moved all of the hardware in the original
> > >system to a new motherboard (ASUS A7A266)  and the problem went away.
> >
> > >I have CC'd the IDE chipset maintainer because I can only assume it might
> > >be related.
> >
> > It very likely is. The current Linux SiS IDE driver doesn't initialize
> > the the EIDE controller in the SiS735 (and most likely all other
> > ATA/100 capable members, too) correctly.
> >
> > The SiS735 IDE cycle timing registers have a layout that is different
> > from the older predecessors!
> >
> > >From my experiences, drivers taking this not into account *do* actually
> > work most of the time even if the timing of the layer 0 communication
> > protocol is wrong, but fail mysteriously sometimes. Andre needs to
> > update the SiS5513 code.
> >
> > Ciao,
> >   Dani
> >
> > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> > Daniela Engert, systems engineer at MEDAV GmbH
> > Gräfenberger Str. 34, 91080 Uttenreuth, Germany
> > Phone ++49-9131-583-348, Fax ++49-9131-583-11
> >
> >
> > -
> > To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in
> > the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> > More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
> > Please read the FAQ at  http://www.tux.org/lkml/
> >
> 
> 


Dan,

If I give you a patch and a test tool kit, will you run destructive data
tests?  If the low-level tool passes and the high-level fails we know it
is not in the driver.  If the low-level fails then it is in the chipset
setup code or the main loop.  If neither fail then it is random wrt the
driver or the block layer above and time to get worried.

Can you scratch a disk of content?

Regards,

Andre Hedrick
CTO ASL, Inc.
Linux ATA Development
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
ASL, Inc.                                     Tel: (510) 857-0055 x103
38875 Cherry Street                           Fax: (510) 857-0010
Newark, CA 94560                              Web: www.aslab.com

Re: Repeatable File Corruption (ECS K7S5A w/SIS735)

[lung]

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You just let me know what you need me to do.  If you need some hands on, I
can throw up a box for you to break as well.  My service eagerly awaits.

Dan



On Thu, 25 Oct 2001, Andre Hedrick wrote:

>
> On Fri, 26 Oct 2001 lung@theuw.net wrote:
>
> >
> > I've received one report of someone using the same motherboard, but using
> > SCSI and having no issues.  I think after a little testing, this will
> > point directly at IDE.
> >
> > I've made me test file available for more testing, but I think I can
> > dig up an old SCSI drive tomorrow to test this myself.
> >
> >
> > On Fri, 26 Oct 2001, Daniela Engert wrote:
> >
> > > On Thu, 25 Oct 2001 22:21:47 -0400 (EDT), dan wrote:
> > >
> > > >  It is repeatable and verified on other boards of the same model.  This
> > > >just started happening when I upgraded the system.  The following is a
> > > >link to the ECS K7S5A board in question, the SIS735 chipset, and a
> > >
> > > >  hda: ST36421A, ATA DISK drive
> > > >  hdb: QUANTUM FIREBALLP LM10.2, ATA DISK drive
> > > >  hdc: IC35L060AVER07-0, ATA DISK drive
> > >
> > > >The problem only went away when I replaced the motherboard.  I also
> > > >haven't had any file corruption issues running Windows2000 on the same
> > > >hardware with the same files.  I moved all of the hardware in the original
> > > >system to a new motherboard (ASUS A7A266)  and the problem went away.
> > >
> > > >I have CC'd the IDE chipset maintainer because I can only assume it might
> > > >be related.
> > >
> > > It very likely is. The current Linux SiS IDE driver doesn't initialize
> > > the the EIDE controller in the SiS735 (and most likely all other
> > > ATA/100 capable members, too) correctly.
> > >
> > > The SiS735 IDE cycle timing registers have a layout that is different
> > > from the older predecessors!
> > >
> > > >From my experiences, drivers taking this not into account *do* actually
> > > work most of the time even if the timing of the layer 0 communication
> > > protocol is wrong, but fail mysteriously sometimes. Andre needs to
> > > update the SiS5513 code.
> > >
> > > Ciao,
> > >   Dani
> > >
> > > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
> > > Daniela Engert, systems engineer at MEDAV GmbH
> > > Gräfenberger Str. 34, 91080 Uttenreuth, Germany
> > > Phone ++49-9131-583-348, Fax ++49-9131-583-11
> > >
> > >
> > > -
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> > > the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
> > > More majordomo info at  http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
> > > Please read the FAQ at  http://www.tux.org/lkml/
> > >
> >
> >
>
>
> Dan,
>
> If I give you a patch and a test tool kit, will you run destructive data
> tests?  If the low-level tool passes and the high-level fails we know it
> is not in the driver.  If the low-level fails then it is in the chipset
> setup code or the main loop.  If neither fail then it is random wrt the
> driver or the block layer above and time to get worried.
>
> Can you scratch a disk of content?
>
> Regards,
>
> Andre Hedrick
> CTO ASL, Inc.
> Linux ATA Development
> -----------------------------------------------------------------------------
> ASL, Inc.                                     Tel: (510) 857-0055 x103
> 38875 Cherry Street                           Fax: (510) 857-0010
> Newark, CA 94560                              Web: www.aslab.com
>
>