[9fans] Kernel regression on nforce2 motherboard

[9fans] Kernel regression on nforce2 motherboard

[sqweek]

 So, I'm trying to get my file server back up and running since my old
hardware died. I know I've had plan 9 running on my desktop before,
and it's a little aged so I decided to upgrade to some new hardware
and convert the desktop to a file server. As it turns out, not that
simple. But at least now I feel a bit justified in being pedantic
enough to date my CDs:

2008/02/08 boots, livecd runs fine
2009/03/04 doesn't boot
2009/09/13 doesn't boot

 09/13 gets as far as:

PBS1...
Plan 9 from Bell Labs
ELCR: 0C20
pcirouting: South bridge 10DE, 01E0 not found
islba: drive 0x80 extensions version 33.0 cx 0x5
extgetsize: drive 0x80 info flags 0x1
bios0: drive 0x80: 300,069,052,416 bytes, type 3
islba: drive 0x81 extensions version 33.0 cx 0x5
extgetsize: drive 0x81 info flags 0x1
bios1: drive 0x81: 300,069,052,416 bytes, type 3
reading drive 0x80 offset 0 into seg:off 600:0...

 I think 03/04 got to the same point, but wasn't so verbose about it.

 9atom boots fine so I think I owe Erik another beer :)

 Just for completeness, the system is an oldish amd - nforce2
motherboard, SIL3112 SATA with a couple of 300g ST3300831AS disks.
-sqweek

Re: [9fans] Kernel regression on nforce2 motherboard

[erik quanstrom]

>  9atom boots fine so I think I owe Erik another beer :)
>
>  Just for completeness, the system is an oldish amd - nforce2
> motherboard, SIL3112 SATA with a couple of 300g ST3300831AS disks.

take a look on segate's site for a firmware update for those drives.
i'm not saying that's your problem, but older AS drives (consumer)
have had firmware problems.

i'll just beat a dead horse here and repeat that it is very important
to choose a high-quality disk drive, and fewer platters leads to better
reliability.  (fewer heads to crash.)  here are the spec sheet numbers
i think are important
unrecoverable read errors	< 1 in 1e15
mtbf			> 750000 hrs	(1% afr)
duty cycle		100%
unload cycles		> 200000

mostly enterprise drives fit this definition.

- erik