[SOLVED] Can't access internal fakeRAID drives

saymonz · 2017-02-19 01:29:48

Hi there,

So, yesterday I installed Arch on a MSI GT73VR laptop, on an external USB HDD. Everything is fine except that I cannot access my internal drives consisting of 2 SSD in RAID 0 and a single non-RAID HDD. RAID is handled by a "fakeRAID" feature in UEFI (labeled Intel Rapid Storage).

Also, every boot hang for a minute or so at "triggering uevent" stage.

Some relevant informations:

== From lspci ==
00:17.0 RAID bus controller: Intel Corporation SATA Controller [RAID mode] (rev 31)

==From dmesg ==
[    1.714522] ahci 0000:00:17.0: AHCI 0001.0301 32 slots 3 ports 6 Gbps 0xe impl RAID mode
[    1.715367] ata1: DUMMY
[    1.715370] ata2: SATA max UDMA/133 abar m524288@0xda100000 port 0xda100180 irq 124
[    1.715374] ata3: SATA max UDMA/133 abar m524288@0xda100000 port 0xda100200 irq 125
[    1.715375] ata4: SATA max UDMA/133 abar m524288@0xda100000 port 0xda100280 irq 126
[    2.030410] ata2: SATA link down (SStatus 4 SControl 300)
[    2.030436] ata3: SATA link down (SStatus 4 SControl 300)
[    2.030462] ata4: SATA link up 6.0 Gbps (SStatus 133 SControl 300)
[    7.102333] ata4.00: qc timeout (cmd 0xec)
[    7.102342] ata4.00: failed to IDENTIFY (I/O error, err_mask=0x4)
[    7.416876] ata4: SATA link up 6.0 Gbps (SStatus 133 SControl 300)
[   17.555661] ata4.00: qc timeout (cmd 0xec)
[   17.555669] ata4.00: failed to IDENTIFY (I/O error, err_mask=0x4)
[   17.555673] ata4: limiting SATA link speed to 3.0 Gbps
[   17.870124] ata4: SATA link up 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 SControl 320)
[   49.128847] ata4.00: qc timeout (cmd 0xec)
[   49.128855] ata4.00: failed to IDENTIFY (I/O error, err_mask=0x4)
[   49.443461] ata4: SATA link up 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 SControl 320)

I tried adding mdadm and dmraid in my mkinipcio.conf's HOOKS section with no luck, which seems logical as I'm not trying to boot from RAID array, and can't access it even with system already booted.

Indeed, I have a swith in UEFI to disable RAID (AHCI mode), and doing so will make my drives showing correctly and allow me to boot with no stutter (didn't try to mount individually the RAID SSDs though, thought it would be a bad idea), but doing so would force me to switch RAID on/off everytime I boot on Windows.

So, maybe I'm screwed with unsupported hardware, but it would be great having it fully functional. Maybe the kernel is loading a bad driver? Any idea to troubleshoot any further?

Thanks in advance.

Last edited by saymonz (2019-05-13 18:56:55)

saymonz · 2017-02-26 00:01:08

Hello there,

So, I'm still looking for a solution to this problem. It's getting better using the linux-lts kernel, as I can detect my internal HDD, but I still cannot see my two RAID'ed SSD.

Here's the config I use at this point in mkinitpcio.conf:

BINARIES="/usr/bin/mdmon"
HOOKS="base udev autodetect modconf block mdadm filesystems keyboard fsck"

And my complete dmesg log is here.

Booting the non-lts kernel with the exact same config makes my HDD invisible again, si I guess I'm sticking with LTS for now, but isn't that some kind of regression that should be reported?

Any idea to make my RAID devices appear?

R00KIE · 2017-02-26 14:12:21

Trying to use fake raid is always a bad idea unless you really have to use it. That said, have you tried booting with the fallback initramfs image and did it work?

Lone_Wolf · 2017-02-26 15:25:01

Intel keeps RST technology very close to themselves, even microsoft doesn't get the info needed to support RST in MS generic chipset drivers.

Some chipsets with RST support have been reverse engineered for the linux kernel though, maybe you will be lucky.

MSI lists 2 possible chipsets for the GT73VR-6RF-Titan-Pro , the M270 and the CM236 .
Which one does your system have ?

Last edited by Lone_Wolf (2017-02-26 15:25:15)

saymonz · 2017-02-26 21:29:28

R00KIE: Yeah, I read about that, but the laptop came preinstalled like this and I don't want to change it for now. I want my archlinux installed on my USB drive, being a plug-in linux when I want to use it, Windows remains my main system because of gaming.

Booting non-LTS kernel with fallback image is the same as non-fallback.

Lone_Wolf: both Speccy and Driverscloud reports my chipset as Skylake-H rev. 07, southbridge IDA150 rev. 31. Are these the references you're asking? If not, please tell me how I can find these?

Thanks for your replies btw. For now, my arch system in running and I can access my hard drive which is the most important. I continue to dig this issue for the SSDs because I like when everything work as intended.

Lone_Wolf · 2017-02-27 11:32:00

The support for RST is likely in the kernel module for the controller, so lspci -k is our best chance to find it.

saymonz · 2019-05-13 18:56:40

Thanks everybody for your replies, sorry I didn't answer sooner.

It's kind of solved now. New kernel versions doesn't hang at boot when in RAID mode, though RAID disks still can't be accessed but like Lone_Wolf said, even Windows require a specific driver for this during the installation. I dont use the RAID feature anymore and everything runs smooth.

Arch Linux

#1 2017-02-19 01:29:48

[SOLVED] Can't access internal fakeRAID drives

#2 2017-02-26 00:01:08

Re: [SOLVED] Can't access internal fakeRAID drives

#3 2017-02-26 14:12:21

Re: [SOLVED] Can't access internal fakeRAID drives

#4 2017-02-26 15:25:01

Re: [SOLVED] Can't access internal fakeRAID drives

#5 2017-02-26 21:29:28

Re: [SOLVED] Can't access internal fakeRAID drives

#6 2017-02-27 11:32:00

Re: [SOLVED] Can't access internal fakeRAID drives

#7 2019-05-13 18:56:40

Re: [SOLVED] Can't access internal fakeRAID drives

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