Arch Linux

funkyou

Member

From: Berlin, DE

Registered: 2006-03-19

Posts: 848

Website

[solved] Problem with hdd (DMA, hdparm)

Hello there,

I have just switched to Arch after years of using Debian and i must say its
the distro i have searched for years now, finally feeling "at home"

I have encountered a small problem with my hdd, well it seems that its not
really a problem as everything seems to be working ok, but i just want to
know what it is, maybe one of you experienced this too or know how to
deal with it...

Whenever i start up, there is this message appearing in my messages.log:

hda: set_drive_speed_status: status=0x58 { DriveReady SeekComplete DataRequest }
hda: dma_intr: status=0x58 { DriveReady SeekComplete DataRequest }
ide: failed opcode was: unknown
hda: CHECK for good STATUS

I experience this message only once every bootup and have already
searched Google about this problem and it always seems to be a slighty
defect IDE-Cable... So i purchased a high quality 80-ribbon cable, but the
problem is not gone...

Well, here some more and relevant specs about my machine, kernel etc:
-VIA KT133a Chipset
-Samsung SP2514N U133 Harddrive (1 Month old)
-Shiny new high quality ATA Cable (80-Ribbon)

Kernel is a custom built 2.6.15 + cK patch, and the support for my chipset
is compiled in (VIA82CXXX Chipset Support)...

I am using hdparm with the following parameters to tune my drives:
-a1024 -d1 -X69 -c3 -m16 -u1 and i have already tried to lower the
ATA-mode to X68, X67 and so on, but the problem stays... I have hdparm
activated every bootup and it does its job proper:

/dev/hda:
 multcount    = 16 (on)
 IO_support   =  3 (32-bit w/sync)
 unmaskirq    =  1 (on)
 using_dma    =  1 (on)
 keepsettings =  0 (off)
 readonly     =  0 (off)
 readahead    = 1024 (on)
 geometry     = 30401/255/63, sectors = 488397168, start = 0

With the old broken cable DMA was not activated on bootup and i had to
force it manually every time after booting up, so the purchase of the new
cable was already a step in the right direction, but it seems there are
already some small problems left with my config...

So, what do you think about this message?

Thanks

Funkyou

---

want a modular and tweaked KDE for arch? try kdemod

morphus

Member

From: Braunschweig

Registered: 2003-08-06

Posts: 145

Re: [solved] Problem with hdd (DMA, hdparm)

Just a small suggestion: How long is your ide-cable? Is the length of the old one the same as of the new one? I've had some problems in the past with too long cables.

Greetings, morph

funkyou

Member

From: Berlin, DE

Registered: 2006-03-19

Posts: 848

Website

Re: [solved] Problem with hdd (DMA, hdparm)

Thanks for your suggestion...

The cable is about 40cm long and i had the drive attached at the 2nd
plug from beginning which is a longer way... Now i have attached it
to the first (middle) plug which is a bit shorter and since that i get only
one message at startup:

hda: CHECK for good STATUS

Well, i think i wil investigate a bit further

And thanks again for your suggestion...

---

want a modular and tweaked KDE for arch? try kdemod

funkyou

Member

From: Berlin, DE

Registered: 2006-03-19

Posts: 848

Website

Re: [solved] Problem with hdd (DMA, hdparm)

Finally found the error

After uninstalling hdparm everything is ok now... Hm, strange, but
i noticed that i do not even need hdparm, the kernel recognizes my
hdd settings correctly...

---

want a modular and tweaked KDE for arch? try kdemod

iphitus

Forum Fellow

From: Melbourne, Australia

Registered: 2004-10-09

Posts: 4,927

Re: [solved] Problem with hdd (DMA, hdparm)

Sometimes you get funny errors like that when hdparm tries to set a setting that your drive doesnt like.

For example when I accidentally run my hdd's hdparm setup on my DVD drive, I get
[code]
hda: drive_cmd: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
hda: drive_cmd: error=0x04 { AbortedCommand }
ide: failed opcode was: 0xef
hda: drive_cmd: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
hda: drive_cmd: error=0x04 { AbortedCommand }
ide: failed opcode was: 0xef
[/code
similar errors in dmesg. As long is it's hdparm causing these, there shouldnt be anything to be concerned about.