[Linux 2.4.32] SATA ICH5/PIIX and Combined mode

[Linux 2.4.32] SATA ICH5/PIIX and Combined mode

[Paul Rolland]

Hello,

I have a machine with two SATA HDD, and one PATA CDRom.
Bios is configured for combined mode, and installing a RedHat ES3
(Kernel 2.4.21-ELsmp) is fine, the two HDD are up, the installation
is fine and the CDRom is working.

Then, upgrading to a vanilla 2.4.32, the ata_piix.c file contains
a "combined mode not supported" and booting the machine hangs, as
no VFS are up for root device.

Of course, I can disable the Combined setup in the BIOS, then I have
my two HDD, but no CDRom... 

What is the "trick" to have a 2.4.32 be able to do what a 2.4.21 was
doing ?

Thanks in advance,
Regards,
Paul

Paul Rolland, rol@as2917.net

Re: [Linux 2.4.32] SATA ICH5/PIIX and Combined mode

[Jeff Garzik]

On Wed, Dec 21, 2005 at 12:10:22PM +0100, Paul Rolland wrote:
> I have a machine with two SATA HDD, and one PATA CDRom.
> Bios is configured for combined mode, and installing a RedHat ES3
> (Kernel 2.4.21-ELsmp) is fine, the two HDD are up, the installation
> is fine and the CDRom is working.
> 
> Then, upgrading to a vanilla 2.4.32, the ata_piix.c file contains
> a "combined mode not supported" and booting the machine hangs, as
> no VFS are up for root device.
> 
> Of course, I can disable the Combined setup in the BIOS, then I have
> my two HDD, but no CDRom... 
> 
> What is the "trick" to have a 2.4.32 be able to do what a 2.4.21 was
> doing ?

Apply all the Red Hat-specific patches that you ditched, when you
switched to a vanilla kernel...  The patch that supported combined
mode for you is in there.

	Jeff

Re: [Linux 2.4.32] SATA ICH5/PIIX and Combined mode

[Paul Rolland]

Hi Jeff,

> Apply all the Red Hat-specific patches that you ditched, when you
> switched to a vanilla kernel...  The patch that supported combined
> mode for you is in there.
> 

Just had a quick look at everything that contains "SATA" or ICH in the
patch list from RedHat, and there are two :
 - one concerns pci_quirks and pci_irqs,
 - one concerns ata_piix.c and libata.c

If the first one seems quite OK, the second one implies going back to
libata 0.93 and switching to the "old" ata_piix.c, as the one in the
2.4.32 kernel contains :
	if (combined) {
		...
		return ENODEV;
	}
thus clearly preventing devices from being detected when combined
more is there.

Do you really think such a big step back is required ?

Regards,
Paul

Re: [Linux 2.4.32] SATA ICH5/PIIX and Combined mode

[Arjan van de Ven]

On Wed, 2005-12-21 at 12:10 +0100, Paul Rolland wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> I have a machine with two SATA HDD, and one PATA CDRom.
> Bios is configured for combined mode, and installing a RedHat ES3
> (Kernel 2.4.21-ELsmp) is fine, the two HDD are up, the installation
> is fine and the CDRom is working.
> 
> Then, upgrading to a vanilla 2.4.32, the ata_piix.c file contains
> a "combined mode not supported" and booting the machine hangs, as
> no VFS are up for root device.

you can't reliably run a non-NPTL kernel on RHES3. Really. Are you
really sure you want to ? 

Re: [Linux 2.4.32] SATA ICH5/PIIX and Combined mode

[Paul Rolland]

Hello,

> > I have a machine with two SATA HDD, and one PATA CDRom.
> > Bios is configured for combined mode, and installing a RedHat ES3
> > (Kernel 2.4.21-ELsmp) is fine, the two HDD are up, the installation
> > is fine and the CDRom is working.
> > 
> > Then, upgrading to a vanilla 2.4.32, the ata_piix.c file contains
> > a "combined mode not supported" and booting the machine hangs, as
> > no VFS are up for root device.
> 
> you can't reliably run a non-NPTL kernel on RHES3. Really. Are you
> really sure you want to ? 

Well, the other way around is to upgrade e1000 driver in the 2.4.21EL-smp,
as the machine I'm using is quite new, and RHES3 kernel can't find the
Ethernet device, so the machine has no network.
My first idea was to consider this as an opportunity to upgrade to the
latest 2.4.x kernel, but reading you, this looks like a bad idea...
2.6.x would be better ?

Regards,
Paul

Re: [Linux 2.4.32] SATA ICH5/PIIX and Combined mode

[Adrian Bunk]

On Wed, Dec 21, 2005 at 12:40:18PM +0100, Paul Rolland wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> > > I have a machine with two SATA HDD, and one PATA CDRom.
> > > Bios is configured for combined mode, and installing a RedHat ES3
> > > (Kernel 2.4.21-ELsmp) is fine, the two HDD are up, the installation
> > > is fine and the CDRom is working.
> > > 
> > > Then, upgrading to a vanilla 2.4.32, the ata_piix.c file contains
> > > a "combined mode not supported" and booting the machine hangs, as
> > > no VFS are up for root device.
> > 
> > you can't reliably run a non-NPTL kernel on RHES3. Really. Are you
> > really sure you want to ? 
> 
> Well, the other way around is to upgrade e1000 driver in the 2.4.21EL-smp,
> as the machine I'm using is quite new, and RHES3 kernel can't find the
> Ethernet device, so the machine has no network.

AFAIR, RedHat still adds support for new hardware to RHES3.

You should contact the RedHat support you are paying for for getting 
help with RHES3 running on your hardware.

> My first idea was to consider this as an opportunity to upgrade to the
> latest 2.4.x kernel, but reading you, this looks like a bad idea...
> 2.6.x would be better ?

RHES3 doesn't support kernel 2.6.

> Regards,
> Paul

cu
Adrian

-- 

       "Is there not promise of rain?" Ling Tan asked suddenly out
        of the darkness. There had been need of rain for many days.
       "Only a promise," Lao Er said.
                                       Pearl S. Buck - Dragon Seed

Re: [Linux 2.4.32] SATA ICH5/PIIX and Combined mode

[Jeff Garzik]

Adrian Bunk wrote:
> On Wed, Dec 21, 2005 at 12:40:18PM +0100, Paul Rolland wrote:
>>My first idea was to consider this as an opportunity to upgrade to the
>>latest 2.4.x kernel, but reading you, this looks like a bad idea...
>>2.6.x would be better ?
> 
> 
> RHES3 doesn't support kernel 2.6.

Kernel 2.6.x will boot just fine, on RHEL3 userland.

It is not -supported- in the commercial sense, however.

	Jeff

Re: [Linux 2.4.32] SATA ICH5/PIIX and Combined mode

[Paul Rolland]

> > RHES3 doesn't support kernel 2.6.
> 
> Kernel 2.6.x will boot just fine, on RHEL3 userland.
> 
> It is not -supported- in the commercial sense, however.

Yes, but I don't intend to ask RH for any support on a 2.6 vanilla
kernel on top of a RHES3 distro. ;)

I've installed 2.6.14.4, and it is really nice to have all this
running fine, both SATA and PATA connected to the same controler.

Regards,
Paul

Re: [Linux 2.4.32] SATA ICH5/PIIX and Combined mode

[Paul Rolland]

Hello,

> AFAIR, RedHat still adds support for new hardware to RHES3.
> 
> You should contact the RedHat support you are paying for for getting 
> help with RHES3 running on your hardware.

Sure, but I really don't like all the changes RH brings into the
kernel (as many vendors do), and I've always been running vanilla
kernels on top of the distribs, once the installation in completed.

Paul
 
> > My first idea was to consider this as an opportunity to 
> upgrade to the
> > latest 2.4.x kernel, but reading you, this looks like a bad idea...
> > 2.6.x would be better ?
> 
> RHES3 doesn't support kernel 2.6.
> 
> > Regards,
> > Paul
> 
> cu
> Adrian
> 
> -- 
> 
>        "Is there not promise of rain?" Ling Tan asked suddenly out
>         of the darkness. There had been need of rain for many days.
>        "Only a promise," Lao Er said.
>                                        Pearl S. Buck - Dragon Seed
> 

Re: [Linux 2.4.32] SATA ICH5/PIIX and Combined mode

[Jesse Brandeburg]

On 12/21/05, Paul Rolland <rol@witbe.net> wrote:
> Well, the other way around is to upgrade e1000 driver in the 2.4.21EL-smp,
> as the machine I'm using is quite new, and RHES3 kernel can't find the
> Ethernet device, so the machine has no network.
> My first idea was to consider this as an opportunity to upgrade to the
> latest 2.4.x kernel, but reading you, this looks like a bad idea...
> 2.6.x would be better ?

the latest e1000-6.3.9 driver from http://sf.net/projects/e1000 should
work fine with that original 2.4 kernel and will definitely support
your new network hardware.

let us know how that goes

Re: [Linux 2.4.32] SATA ICH5/PIIX and Combined mode

[Robert Hancock]

Paul Rolland wrote:
> Well, the other way around is to upgrade e1000 driver in the 2.4.21EL-smp,
> as the machine I'm using is quite new, and RHES3 kernel can't find the
> Ethernet device, so the machine has no network.
> My first idea was to consider this as an opportunity to upgrade to the
> latest 2.4.x kernel, but reading you, this looks like a bad idea...
> 2.6.x would be better ?

First make sure you have the latest RHEL3 errata kernel installed. If 
that still doesn't work, you could install the latest e1000 driver 
module from Intel.

Later vanilla 2.4 kernels are not necessarily an "upgrade" from Red Hat 
kernels based on older 2.4 versions as you lose all the Red Hat patches 
like NPTL and the O(1) scheduler.

If you are going to go to a 2.6 kernel you might as well just go to a 
newer distribution.

-- 
Robert Hancock      Saskatoon, SK, Canada
To email, remove "nospam" from hancockr@nospamshaw.ca
Home Page: http://www.roberthancock.com/

Re: [Linux 2.4.32] SATA ICH5/PIIX and Combined mode

[Robert Hancock]

Paul Rolland wrote:
> Hello,
> 
> 
>>AFAIR, RedHat still adds support for new hardware to RHES3.
>>
>>You should contact the RedHat support you are paying for for getting 
>>help with RHES3 running on your hardware.
> 
> 
> Sure, but I really don't like all the changes RH brings into the
> kernel (as many vendors do), and I've always been running vanilla
> kernels on top of the distribs, once the installation in completed.

You realize using a non-RH kernel on RHEL isn't a supported 
configuration.. and if you are fine with this, why are you paying out 
the money for RHEL instead of using Fedora or CentOS, etc. if you don't 
care about support?

There are other issues with this, as well.. RHEL4 with 2.6 probably 
doesn't suffer as many side effects as RHEL3 does since that kernel is 
closer to mainline. Running a vanilla 2.4 kernel on RHEL3 would be 
rather crippling - that kernel is closer to 2.6 than 2.4 in some ways.

-- 
Robert Hancock      Saskatoon, SK, Canada
To email, remove "nospam" from hancockr@nospamshaw.ca
Home Page: http://www.roberthancock.com/