[9fans] limited success [was: Install CD hanging on "probing floppy"]

["EBo" <ebo@sandien.com>]

Well it looks like I *finially* got my Gateway DX4300 to install and
run Plan9 (using 9atom version 3/19/2010).  I've decided to post the
following notes for the poor saps using the DX4300 for just about
anything, because I've read various posts with people having trouble
with these MB's.  Also, I hope that this might be useful as an
overview for those having weird SATA problems installing and running
Plan9.

Overview:

  As Erik Quanstrom pointed out, some of the EIDE/SATA interface
  chips are buggy, and one should not mix/match devices.  The problem
  on my machine is installing plan9 on any SATA hard drive on a
  DX4300 causes weird problems. (Maybe we can sort it out later, for
  for now a mixed IDE/SATA setup works.

  The DX4300 appears to have two SATA controllers.  The first
  controls SATA 1-4, they can be disabled, and have their mode set.
  The second, SATA 5-6, is always on and you have no control over the
  mode, etc.  My first success with plan9 on this machine was
  achieved by unplugging *all* SATA devices and booting off an EIDE
  CDROM and disk.  Once this worked I reconfigured one device at a
  time, reinstalled, tested, etc., until I ended up with what seems
  the most stable configuration.

  An interesting aside, on this MB, if you use SATA5/6, then the
  devices show up as hd*, and if you use SATA1-4 they show up as
  sd*.  This solves some anoying problems on this MB for Linux users
  who find that their drive letters float around alot...


Notes on Interesting Configurations...

=================================

SATA(6) - CDROM
SATA(5) - 1TB Disk
EIDE(M) - 250G Disk (DMA-0 must be set)

EIDE - Enabled
SATA - Enabled
  mode - Native IDE

This appears to be the most stable configuration.  It will boot Plan
9 from the CD, Linux from the SATA HD, and Plan9 from the IDE HD.
Booting plan9 from the SATA HD gives the following errors:

Plan9 on SATA(5):

  PBS2...
Plan 9 From Bell Labs
ELCR: 0C80
pcirouting: South bridge 1002, 439D not found
dev A0 port 1F0 config 427A capabilities 2F00 mwdma 0007 udma 047F    LLBA
sectors 1953525168
dev B0 port 1F0 config 85C0 capabilities 0F00 mwdma 0007 udma 013F
dev A0 port 170 config 427A capabilities 2F00 mwdma 0007 udma 013F    LLBA
sectors 488397168
.
1. 1
2. 1
3. none of the above
*nobiosload:

Booting from the EIDE MBR and using sdC0!9fat!9pcf (which is the SATA
drive, gives the following errors:

ELCR: 0C80
pcirouting: ignoring south bridge PCI.0.20.3 1002/439D
..
ohci interupt: unhandled sts 0x00000040
ohci interupt: unhandled sts 0x00000040

   and here is where it hangs.

In order to get this to work please note that I had to boot Plan 9
with nodma, and actually set the EIDE disk DMA to 0 in the BIOS.  I
have since then added extra SATA drives to 1+2, and they appear to
function properly.

=================================

SATA(6) - CDROM
SATA(5) - 1TB Disk
EIDE(M) - 250G Disk

EIDE - Enabled
SATA - Enabled
  mode - Native IDE and ACHI

This configuration will boot from the CD, Linux from the SATA HD.
Grub and Plan9 cannot see the IDE HD.  Attempting to boot plan9 from
the SATA HD gives the same *nobiosload error as above.

=================================

SATA(6) - CDROM
SATA(5) - 1TB Disk
EIDE(M) - 250G Disk

EIDE - Enabled
SATA - Disable

This configuration will boot from the CD, Linux from the SATA HD,
plan9 from the IDE HD, but plan9 from the SATA HD gives the same:

  ohci interupt: unhandled sts 0x00000040

errors from above.

=================================