[9fans] CD iso image and SATA CDROM on P5Q Pro

[9fans] CD iso image and SATA CDROM on P5Q Pro

[kokamoto]

I'm making a fossil+venti file server using two 500GB SATA drives and
a SATA DVD, and have trouble to use the DVD drive.

Using a iso image of a couple of days ago, it does not come up, but only
9load from CD can run.

So, I connected the SATA HDD drive to another machine and installed the
system.  Why that CDROM cannot be detected?

Another question:

Why the SATA drive begins from /dev/sdE0, not /dev/sdC0?
More deeply, why HDD drives start from /dev/sdC0 fro IDE, but not /dev/sdA0?

Kenji

Re: [9fans] CD iso image and SATA CDROM on P5Q Pro

[erik quanstrom]

On Tue Mar  2 06:11:54 EST 2010, kokamoto@hera.eonet.ne.jp wrote:
> I'm making a fossil+venti file server using two 500GB SATA drives and
> a SATA DVD, and have trouble to use the DVD drive.
>
> Using a iso image of a couple of days ago, it does not come up, but only
> 9load from CD can run.
>
> So, I connected the SATA HDD drive to another machine and installed the
> system.  Why that CDROM cannot be detected?

without knowing more about your symptoms, it's hard to say.

>
> Another question:
>
> Why the SATA drive begins from /dev/sdE0, not /dev/sdC0?
> More deeply, why HDD drives start from /dev/sdC0 fro IDE, but not /dev/sdA0?

that's bios tradition.  ide port 0x1f0 bios disk 0x80 == sdC0,
port 0x170 bos disk 0x81 == sdD0.  if a drive doesn't have
a port, or it's not one of the two legacy ports, it
starts with the letter 'E' and works its way up.  i have
a few machines with sdI0.  :-).

i think the current drive lettering situation is a bit
out of hand.  dos compatability isn't very compelling
any more.  and dealing with a lumpy, irregular
enumeration is difficult.  i think it would be a better idea to
start with sd00 and work our way up to sdxx without
regard to controller.  they should all be compatable,
right?  sdctl could be used to map drive numbers to
controllers for the few applications that might care.

- erik

Re: [9fans] CD iso image and SATA CDROM on P5Q Pro

[kokamoto]

> On Tue Mar  2 06:11:54 EST 2010, kokamoto@hera.eonet.ne.jp wrote:
>> I'm making a fossil+venti file server using two 500GB SATA drives and
>> a SATA DVD, and have trouble to use the DVD drive.
> without knowing more about your symptoms, it's hard to say.
 One 500GB is connected to SATA1, and another 400GB is to SATA2, and super DVD drive
to SATA 3 port.
Then, insert with the live-CD iso disk, and then the first messages from 9load
was displayed, and at that point system hang.
I think 9load cannot read CDROM's kernel.
Then, I got off the first drive, and connected it to another machine (P5K motherboard),
and installed the live-cd image using IDE mode...
After a bit more things to do, now I'm using fossil on the P5Q Pro motherboard with
two SATA mode HDD (DVD is not detected yet though).

>i think it would be a better idea to
> start with sd00 and work our way up to sdxx without
> regard to controller.  they should all be compatable,
> right?  sdctl could be used to map drive numbers to
> controllers for the few applications that might care.

I agree. It's much much better.

Kenji

Re: [9fans] CD iso image and SATA CDROM on P5Q Pro

[erik quanstrom]

On Tue Mar  2 09:36:27 EST 2010, kokamoto@hera.eonet.ne.jp wrote:
>  One 500GB is connected to SATA1, and another 400GB is to SATA2, and super DVD drive
> to SATA 3 port.
> Then, insert with the live-CD iso disk, and then the first messages from 9load
> was displayed, and at that point system hang.
> I think 9load cannot read CDROM's kernel.
> Then, I got off the first drive, and connected it to another machine (P5K motherboard),
> and installed the live-cd image using IDE mode...
> After a bit more things to do, now I'm using fossil on the P5Q Pro motherboard with
> two SATA mode HDD (DVD is not detected yet though).

most likely, you're running into the fact that the distribution
wants the cd to be in sdD0 and no place else.  i have added
the ability to load from any drive to 9load.  this is done by
setting $bootdev and $bootpath and by allowing boot parameters
to be used as variables.  9load knows $bootdev.  that's where
plan9.ini is.  then plan9.ini can say

	[install]
	nobootprompt=local!/boot/bzroot
	bootfile=$bootdev!cdboot!9pcflop.gz
	*nobiosload=1

and you can boot from any device.
many thanks to rsc for suggesting a much better
syntax.

- erik

Re: [9fans] CD iso image and SATA CDROM on P5Q Pro

[kokamoto]

Thanks eric.
Tommorow I'll check sources of your change.

Another problem here.

I said I'm running fossil here with SATA mode on P5Q Pro.
Fossil runs very fast and charm, however, venti has problem.

When I run venti, I get huge size of venti process and got suicide.
ps says venti process' s size are 1479496K!
I'm not kidding, and not got wrong with the value.
It is more than 1.4GB!

I don't know it relevants to this problem, however, I see a kind of messages like:

sb600: did 0x954f has zero bar
sb600: did 0xaa38 has zero bar

Kenji

Re: [9fans] CD iso image and SATA CDROM on P5Q Pro

[erik quanstrom]

> I don't know it relevants to this problem, however, I see a kind of messages like:
>
> sb600: did 0x954f has zero bar
> sb600: did 0xaa38 has zero bar

should be harmless.  are you running maybe
an old kernel?  the reason i ask is that i don't
see any such print in the kernel.  but it looks
like (guessing) sdiahci.c is trying to use devices
that can't be used:

grep 954f /lib/pci ;  grep 954f
	954f	RV710 [Radeon HD 4350]
	aa38	RV710/730
		174b	aa38  R700 Audio Device [Radeon HD 4000 Series]

but the code in sdiahci says this:

		if(p->mem[Abar].bar == 0)
			continue;

i'm pretty sure you'll get no message there.

- erik

Re: [9fans] CD iso image and SATA CDROM on P5Q Pro

[kokamoto]

> should be harmless.  are you running maybe
> an old kernel?

No, I downloaded the live-cd image about a few days ago.

I also see the messages while running fossil only like:
sdiahci: drive 1 in state ready
sdiahci: drive 2 won't come up; in state new after 10 resets
sdE2: wait ready: [new] task=50 sstate=113

This drive 2 is DVD-RAM drive as I wrote yesterday (connected to SATA 3).
Then, I think kernel thinks the drive 2 must be HDD drive, but it's not.
How we can teach the kernel it's DVD drive but not HDD.
Does your recent change can do this?

Kenji

Re: [9fans] CD iso image and SATA CDROM on P5Q Pro

[erik quanstrom]

> > should be harmless.  are you running maybe
> > an old kernel?
>
> No, I downloaded the live-cd image about a few days ago.
>
> I also see the messages while running fossil only like:
> sdiahci: drive 1 in state ready
> sdiahci: drive 2 won't come up; in state new after 10 resets
> sdE2: wait ready: [new] task=50 sstate=113

the first message is of course from 9load.

>
> This drive 2 is DVD-RAM drive as I wrote yesterday (connected to SATA 3).
> Then, I think kernel thinks the drive 2 must be HDD drive, but it's not.
> How we can teach the kernel it's DVD drive but not HDD.
> Does your recent change can do this?

the first error doesn't really have anything to do with the
type of drive.  this is at the sata negotiation level;
this is the hba's phy talking to the drive's phy.

the second error could be either
(a) a driver bug.  the sources driver may have trouble
with some bugs in the sb600 that you've got.
(b) a misbehaving drive.  if this is the case, the drive
could be unhealthy.

if you don't mind trying the 9atom kernel, it
would be worth investigating if all this is already
fixed.  if you already have a working machine, there
both 9load and the kernels are at
ftp://ftp.quanstro.net/other/

if the error persists, there are some tests that are
easier with the new kernels since we can send
arbitrary ata commands.

- erik

Re: [9fans] CD iso image and SATA CDROM on P5Q Pro

[kokamoto]

> the second error could be either
> (a) a driver bug.  the sources driver may have trouble
> with some bugs in the sb600 that you've got.
> (b) a misbehaving drive.  if this is the case, the drive
> could be unhealthy.

Of course, I suppose so.
The bios can load 9load, I suppose it's driver bug.

> if you don't mind trying the 9atom kernel, it
> would be worth investigating if all this is already
> fixed.  if you already have a working machine, there
> both 9load and the kernels are at
> ftp://ftp.quanstro.net/other/

Why you don't use sources?
I downloaded the live-cd again today, and that the same as before.

Anyway, now I'm getting understand what is the problem, and
I don't nedd DVD driver for a while, I'll set up fossil+venti terminal
using this ahci driver.   I think I can do it.   After that, I may try your
9atom etc.

Kenji

PS
if anyone got success with P5Q motherboard for Plan 9 installation,
please let write it here.