Well the good news is the Raptor is now running at 54.7 MB/sec in hdparm -t test. Had to manually set the dma function with hdparm. Oddly enough hdparm -I indicated the drive was in UDMA Mode 5. hdparm -i however indicated the drive was not in UDMA mode. Had to use both -X & -m switches to get the beast to run.

Well, I sure would like to know what the kernel configuration is, and what any other hoops people have jumped throught to get SATA working [properly] . Doesn't matter the distro or kernel, or hdparms- I have tried them all.

Trying to enable DMA (via hdparm) only starts off a chaing of errors mostly filled with errors like "dma_timer_expiry" and "dma_status=0x21". Try to set it in /etc/sys/config/harddisks and you are in for a little journey to get back to where you where, but , alas, no DMA. Disabling 'framebuffers' in the kernel, was suggested by one disk-doctor (related to witch doctors), but that did nothing either.
I started with RH9 plain vanilla distro, then ran the rpm kernel update to 2.4.20-13.9, then got really brave and just dl'd the vanilla source from kernel.org for 2.4.20 then installed the patch to 2.4.21-rc3 (rc4 just appeared but doesn't look like the answer either). Oh, yes - enabled the various SII3112 kernel options, and lot's of enable DMA options as well.

Finally, I have read long interchanges between Linux Torvalds and others concerning the future drivers for ide-scsi... I thought maybe the companies selling the SATA products would care.. well both SEAGATE and ASUS support have been dead ends-- invariably pointing fingers at each other, and sending me windows drivers. Oh, and the link on SII (who I haven't managed to contact yet).. just goes to http://www.linux-ide.org/ where are kernel patches that look to be many months out of date (so let me know if you really installed them and the really worked, but I am not so brave)
.
So at the end of the day (or the week monkeying with this).. I was able to improve my transfer rate up from 1.7 to 3.2 MB/s!! Yee hah! (added idebus=66 to my grub.conf so that the ide drivers don't default to 33).

So, it is now firmly my belief that it may be a long time before SATA works on Linux (those earlier in this post who said it was working .. really you should do "hdparm -tT /dev/hdx" and see your speed".

I would be really really interested in learning if anyone actauly has got there sata drives to perform like they should! Until then, I guess my recommendation is to save the money and not by SATA drives or controllers if you are looking for an immediate working solutions....

aghhh.. all that said.. HELP!

*********hdparm -tT for my Seagate 120 *********
/dev/hde:
Timing buffer-cache reads: 128 MB in 0.25 seconds =512.00 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 64 MB in 19.43 seconds = 3.29 MB/sec

***Compared to my old standard IDE drive:
/dev/hda:
Timing buffer-cache reads: 128 MB in 0.25 seconds =512.00 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 64 MB in 1.73 seconds = 36.99 MB/sec

********************My computer: ******************************

Asus P4G8X Deluxe (onboard SII 3112) / P4 2.4 / 1 GB DDR400 / Bios 1005G

********************SATA info: ************
/dev/hde:
multcount = 16 (on)
IO_support = 3 (32-bit w/sync)
unmaskirq = 0 (off)
using_dma = 0 (off)
keepsettings = 0 (off)
readonly = 0 (off)
readahead = 8 (on)
geometry = 232581/16/63, sectors = 234441648, start = 0

***********info galore: *****************
hdparm -I /dev/hde

/dev/hde:

ATA device, with non-removable media
Model Number: ST3120023AS
Serial Number: 3KA1FB98
Firmware Revision: 3.01
Standards:
Used: ATA/ATAPI-6 T13 1410D revision 2
Supported: 6 5 4 3
Configuration:
Logical max current
cylinders 16383 16383
heads 16 16
sectors/track 63 63
--
CHS current addressable sectors: 16514064
LBA user addressable sectors: 234441648
device size with M = 1024*1024: 114473 MBytes
device size with M = 1000*1000: 120034 MBytes (120 GB)
Capabilities:
LBA, IORDY(can be disabled)
bytes avail on r/w long: 4 Queue depth: 1
Standby timer values: spec'd by Standard
R/W multiple sector transfer: Max = 16 Current = 16
Recommended acoustic management value: 128, current value: 0
DMA: *mdma0 mdma1 mdma2 udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 udma5 udma6
Cycle time: min=120ns recommended=120ns
PIO: pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4
Cycle time: no flow control=240ns IORDY flow control=120ns
Commands/features:
Enabled Supported:
* READ BUFFER cmd
* WRITE BUFFER cmd
* Host Protected Area feature set
* Look-ahead
* Write cache
* Power Management feature set
Security Mode feature set
* SMART feature set
* Mandatory FLUSH CACHE command
* Device Configuration Overlay feature set
Automatic Acoustic Management feature set
SET MAX security extension
* DOWNLOAD MICROCODE cmd
* SMART self-test
* SMART error logging
Security:
supported
not enabled
not locked
not frozen
not expired: security count
not supported: enhanced erase
HW reset results:
CBLID- above Vih
Device num = 0

Right now Im' testing P4G8X with Seagate SATA drive under Suse 8.2 linux. I found that if you try to enable UDMA, you should forget about -c and -m options. Probably the problem is related to Sil 3112 controller/driver. (Don't forget that we'r dealing with SATA controller not a SouthBridge). Anyway with hdparm -X69 -u1 -d1 I managed to get 41 Mb/sec speed and no problems.

Speaking of -X70 key. Well.. There is some confusion here. Udma6 is related to ATA133 standart not ATA150.

Also I couldn't understand your system specification. DDR400 on P4G8X? You'r kidding right? DRR266 is max E7205 can support :-)

Sorry to jump into your thread here, but I just wanted to know what lan driver you are using for the onboard lan on your d845pebt2, if you are using the onboard lan?

I had to do a CD install of Debian bf24 because none of the drivers listed would work. As you can imagine I would really like to get the lan up, so let me know if you can.

Thanks!

P.S. SATA is great; I own a small computer business and have played with a couple (only in windows though). Several drives are out right now, but stock is really crazy because of all of the quick enhancements happening to them.

Ok so I tried the hdparm -X69 -u1 -d1 settings and the drives froze up just as quickly as normal (actually didn't get any erros. it just went to lunch).

Are you perhaps setting in /etc/sysconfig/harddisks? Wondering if the timing of the setting makes a difference?

Anybody do anything to their kernel?


Arxik....
Nope wasnt' kidding on the DDR400---

http://www6.tomshardware.com/motherb...9/7204-01.html

http://www.pricewatch.com has a lot of places that sell the SATA drives as well.

Sorry I failed to post the vital info.

Using Redhat 9.0 stock from the box.
Asus P4PE with original bios 512 M RAM
Silicon Images SATA Controller card using Sil3112ACT chip
Western Digital WDC360 drive

The P4PE onboard Promise SATA will not work. Disabled the Promise SATA in the BIOS setup. There is currently no driver that I am aware of that will work with the Promise product under Linux.

Once I had the SiL3112 chip in I had to use the following to get it to run.

In the grub.conf I added idebus=66 although I am not sure that was necessary.

hdparm -X70 -d1 /dev/hde

The Sil3112 chip came up with initial install and was recognized by the OS thus the drives would run at the paltry rate of 1.6 MB/sec. The hdparm commands allowed me to get the drives to run faster i.e. 54 MB/sec. The speed tests were conducted with hdparm -t /dev/hde.

After setting d1 and X70 running hdparm -I /dev/hde I viewed the setting with hdparm -v /dev/hde. The drive was now in UDMA mode 6 and dma was active.

/dev/hde:
multcount = 16 (on)
IO_support = 3 (32-bit w/sync)
unmaskirq = 0 (off)
using_dma = 1 (on) <----------- NOTE THIS LINE in hdparm -v
keepsettings = 0 (off) you do not want it to be 0 (off)
readonly = 0 (off)
readahead = 8 (on)



In my situation the SiL3112 ports came up as hde & hdf. Also I have been working in the command line environment. I have not tried this when running Xwindows.

Has anyone been able to get SATA and Linux to play nicely on a board using the Intel 865 or 875 chipsets?

Can't remember which one, but read that either Andre Hedrick or Linus Torvald have a standoff with Promise over intellectual property rights. Seems the Linux group is worried that Promise will incorporate the Linux code into thier product and claim it. I can understand that position.

Hope this helps. I banged my head against the wall for several days before stumbing into the driver thread on Promise SATA.

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------


So, it is now firmly my belief that it may be a long time before SATA works on Linux (those earlier in this post who said it was working .. really you should do "hdparm -tT /dev/hdx" and see your speed".

I would be really really interested in learning if anyone actauly has got there sata drives to perform like they should! Until then, I guess my recommendation is to save the money and not by SATA drives or controllers if you are looking for an immediate working solutions....

aghhh.. all that said.. HELP!

*********hdparm -tT for my Seagate 120 *********
/dev/hde:
Timing buffer-cache reads: 128 MB in 0.25 seconds =512.00 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 64 MB in 19.43 seconds = 3.29 MB/sec

***Compared to my old standard IDE drive:
/dev/hda:
Timing buffer-cache reads: 128 MB in 0.25 seconds =512.00 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 64 MB in 1.73 seconds = 36.99 MB/sec

********************My computer: ******************************

Asus P4G8X Deluxe (onboard SII 3112) / P4 2.4 / 1 GB DDR400 / Bios 1005G

********************SATA info: ************
/dev/hde:
multcount = 16 (on)
IO_support = 3 (32-bit w/sync)
unmaskirq = 0 (off)
using_dma = 0 (off)
keepsettings = 0 (off)
readonly = 0 (off)
readahead = 8 (on)
geometry = 232581/16/63, sectors = 234441648, start = 0

***********info galore: *****************
hdparm -I /dev/hde

/dev/hde:

ATA device, with non-removable media
Model Number: ST3120023AS
Serial Number: 3KA1FB98
Firmware Revision: 3.01
Standards:
Used: ATA/ATAPI-6 T13 1410D revision 2
Supported: 6 5 4 3
Configuration:
Logical max current
cylinders 16383 16383
heads 16 16
sectors/track 63 63
--
CHS current addressable sectors: 16514064
LBA user addressable sectors: 234441648
device size with M = 1024*1024: 114473 MBytes
device size with M = 1000*1000: 120034 MBytes (120 GB)
Capabilities:
LBA, IORDY(can be disabled)
bytes avail on r/w long: 4 Queue depth: 1
Standby timer values: spec'd by Standard
R/W multiple sector transfer: Max = 16 Current = 16
Recommended acoustic management value: 128, current value: 0
DMA: *mdma0 mdma1 mdma2 udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 udma5 udma6
Cycle time: min=120ns recommended=120ns
PIO: pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4
Cycle time: no flow control=240ns IORDY flow control=120ns
Commands/features:
Enabled Supported:
* READ BUFFER cmd
* WRITE BUFFER cmd
* Host Protected Area feature set
* Look-ahead
* Write cache
* Power Management feature set
Security Mode feature set
* SMART feature set
* Mandatory FLUSH CACHE command
* Device Configuration Overlay feature set
Automatic Acoustic Management feature set
SET MAX security extension
* DOWNLOAD MICROCODE cmd
* SMART self-test
* SMART error logging
Security:
supported
not enabled
not locked
not frozen
not expired: security count
not supported: enhanced erase
HW reset results:
CBLID- above Vih
Device num = 0 [/B][/QUOTE]

Just a quick note on SATA / LINUX
You do need to install a new kernel from kernel.org
Sil3112 is not supportend in current stable 2.4.20 kernel (in RedHat 9, Suse 8.2, etc)
SATA controllers are typically mapped as MMIO:
<6>SiI3112 Serial ATA: IDE controller at PCI slot 02:04.0
<6>SiI3112 Serial ATA: chipset revision 2
<6>SiI3112 Serial ATA: not 100%% native mode: will probe irqs later
<6> ide2: MMIO-DMA at 0xf8806000-0xf8806007, BIOS settings: hde : pio, hdf : pio

and there is a problem in mapping code.



coolersites, if you have P4G8X then your DDR400 memory runs in DDR266 mode. Intel E7205 supports DDR 1600 / 2100 only. I know that you can overclock it up to 200 Mhz speed but you won't see any difference in linux. Try it for yourself :-)

I found a RC for the Intel ICH5 chipset. Is there one for Silicon Image?

"RC"? I saw there was some work on getting it ich5/i875p SATA to work, but I'm at all sure if it works that well yet. Any status reports on that?

I need drivers for the PDC20378 chip on the P4C800, so I can use my two other IDE drives...


On a side note, the P-ATA100 in the ICH5 isn't too bad.

/dev/hda:
Timing buffer-cache reads: 128 MB in 0.15 seconds =853.33 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 64 MB in 1.16 seconds = 55.17 MB/sec

/dev/hdb:
Timing buffer-cache reads: 128 MB in 0.16 seconds =800.00 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 64 MB in 1.17 seconds = 54.70 MB/sec

Dual "DDR320".

Hi
PDC20378 is a Promise chipset. As far as I know there are NO official (from linux developers) linux drivers for any Promise chipsets. IT happened because Promise wants to develop its own drivers. And there is an issue with patent rights. Still you may find some third party linux kernel patches on the Internet.

Where do the kernel drivers come from, then? :-d
There is support for Promise PDC202{46-77} in 2.5.70:
http://www.mirar.org/incoming/promise.gif (Don't seem I'm trusted with IMG tags, though.)

So Promise have gone bad and started to be proprietary too... That's sad news. Anyone that *isn't* proprietary-only anymore, except Intel?
Or can recommend an IDE controller for PCI I can plugin, that do work under Linux?

Just a note - I have the latest somewhat stable kernel 2.4.21-rc3 and still am unable to enable dma on the sata. I have tried every variation of kernel compile and of hdparm that exists in nature. No results beside lockups so far. Can someone who has it work post their /usr/src/linux/.config as well as do a hdparm -i , and gee while you are at it, maybe a /etc/sysconfig/harddisks or your grub.conf if you have modified them.. I just can't figure out what would be different with my setup.

(All suggestions posted here have been tried too.. )

BTW - Arxik the DDR400 was sold to me at the same price as DDR266 because my techno-dealer was out of the 266. I had planned on the 266 but after researching I couldn't find any downsides of the 400 and actaully gives me some room to play. My eventual plan was to wait for the P4/3+ to come down in price before replacing the cheapo 2.4.
However, I don't understand what you mean that it won't make a difference in linux-- are you telling me that linux is optimized to ignore overclocking and faster hardware? :-)

coolersites,
I'll try to compile the last 2.4.21-rc6 kernel in 2 days.
I'll keep u posted. From what I know right now, Sil3112 was included in 2.4.20-rc1 kernel. To get it to work u do need to set up the driver without -c -m16 and -u options. (the last one is important coz Sil3112 usually works on shared IRQ)

Speaking of DDR400 I meant that memory is not a bottleneck in linux. Also you cannot have 4 Gb DDR400 configuration. There is no high density 1GB DDR400 (only DDR266) . Another reason is CAS latency. System would be unstable with say 4 DDR400 chips unless u run it with CAS3 (and DDR400 with cas 3 runs as DDR266 with cas 2). But if u have only 2 DDR400 than it's ok

The Intel i875 northbridge happily handles 4xDDR400 up to 4Gb. Of course, it's not an AMD northbridge like KT400, so the comparison might be invalid? I think it handles them in banks of two, too, to get around issues like CAS and refresh (and doubling the bandwidth).