From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S263480AbTJVQg0 (ORCPT ); Wed, 22 Oct 2003 12:36:26 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S263545AbTJVQgZ (ORCPT ); Wed, 22 Oct 2003 12:36:25 -0400 Received: from rebo.lancs.ac.uk ([148.88.16.230]:25062 "EHLO rebo.lancs.ac.uk") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S263480AbTJVQgW (ORCPT ); Wed, 22 Oct 2003 12:36:22 -0400 Message-ID: <3F96B203.4060808@lancaster.ac.uk> Date: Wed, 22 Oct 2003 17:36:19 +0100 From: Alex Finch User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; Linux i686; en-US; rv:1.4) Gecko/20030624 Netscape/7.1 X-Accept-Language: en, en-us MIME-Version: 1.0 To: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: Single P4, many IDE PCI cards == trouble?? Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org For what it's worth, here is my experience. Hope it helps you, and anyone else searching for solutions to the problems I have encountered... Our New Server ============== (+ Lessons learnt along the way) ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Motherboard: Asus P4S8X-X CPU: Intel Pentium 4 2400MHz Memory: 2 x 512Mb PC2700 +was supposed to be 3x512Mb but the motherboard can't handle 3xPC2700 ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Network: 3Com 3c905C-TX/TX-M [Tornado] Do NOT use the onboard LAN - performance is diabolical! ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Additional controller cards: 2xPromise Ultra133 Tx2 PCI-IDE cards 1xPromise Ultra66 PCI-IDE card Do note use 3 identical Promise IDE cards, either system will not +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ boot or there will be i/o errors! ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Disks ===== (In addition to system disk) 10 x Maxtor 6Y060L0 60Gb attached to onboard ide and Promise Ultra133 cards 4 x Maxtor 4A250J0 240Gb disk attached to Promise Ultra66 cards Software: RedHat 9 kernel 2.4.20 Boot parameters modified as follows: Edit /boot/grub/menu.lst and append ide2=noautotune ide3=noautotune ide4=noutotune ide5=noautotune ide6=noautotune ide7=noautotune to the line kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.4.20-8 ro root=LABEL=/ this avoids errors of the type: ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ hdh: dma_intr: bad DMA status (dma_stat=75) when accessing the disks on the Promise cards Thereafter formatted disks/created raid arrays/started raid/made filesystem no problem. Four 240Gb disks formatted as one big disk via raid0! (/dev/md8 Size=989GB) Tape drive: Spectra Logic 2000 (a.k.a. TreeFrog) attached via Adaptec AIC-7892A SCSI card Use mtx version 1.2.17rel to drive the robot, more recent versions cause problems (author informed). Alex Finch, Research Fellow, Physics Department, Lancaster University. NB ( I am not subscribed to the list so contact me directly for more information)