Native, RAID and AHCI

Xi0N · 2011-09-01 16:12:50

Hi!
My computer has 3 SATA HDD and a SATA DVD ROM and I just realized in the bios, i dont have the AHCI mode enabled.
I have been reading and the people says AHCI has slightly better performance than the native (which i think just emulates IDE)
My question is:
1) Is it worth changing the mode in performance terms?
2) If i change the mode, will i lose any data?

One thing to count with: One of my hdd has a windows 7 installation, i dont want to lose this one neither

alphaniner · 2011-09-01 16:30:04

Performance gain will be minimal, you will get NCQ and hot-swapping.

You won't lose any data. You will probably have problems with the Windows installation (BSOD), and maybe with Arch depending on your initrd.

Xi0N · 2011-09-01 16:56:55

How can I know that they are actually working in AHCI mode?
I changed the mode in the bios, but when the drives are detected it states:

AHCI Port 1: IDE Hard disk.... ??????

ARCH Boots, WIndows gives a pretty BSOD (I will reinstall the system, no problem)

Is there a command for linux so i can confirm im operating on which mode?

Thanks!!!

.:B:. · 2011-09-01 18:25:19

If it boots on Linux, it's generally OK. It might be considered saner to start out with AHCI enabled from the beginning instead of switching afterwards, but I don't think there's any harm in it. Linux can handle both IDE and AHCI natively, so I don't see what the problem should be.

alphaniner · 2011-09-01 18:40:41

You could grep dmesg for ahci:

$ dmesg|grep -i ahci
[    1.178988] ahci 0000:00:09.0: version 3.0
[    1.179184] ahci 0000:00:09.0: PCI INT A -> Link[LSA0] -> GSI 23 (level, low) -> IRQ 23
[    1.179206] ahci 0000:00:09.0: controller can't do PMP, turning off CAP_PMP
[    1.179279] ahci 0000:00:09.0: AHCI 0001.0100 32 slots 4 ports 3 Gbps 0xf impl SATA mode
[    1.179282] ahci 0000:00:09.0: flags: 64bit ncq sntf led clo pio 
[    1.179286] ahci 0000:00:09.0: setting latency timer to 64
[    1.180153] scsi0 : ahci
[    1.180264] scsi1 : ahci
[    1.180337] scsi2 : ahci
[    1.180407] scsi3 : ahci

toofishes · 2011-09-01 18:51:42

You don't need to reinstall Windows to get AHCI support, it is pretty straightforward:
http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/61 … vista.html

Xi0N · 2011-09-01 22:07:35

alphaniner wrote:

You could grep dmesg for ahci:

$ dmesg|grep -i ahci
[    1.178988] ahci 0000:00:09.0: version 3.0
[    1.179184] ahci 0000:00:09.0: PCI INT A -> Link[LSA0] -> GSI 23 (level, low) -> IRQ 23
[    1.179206] ahci 0000:00:09.0: controller can't do PMP, turning off CAP_PMP
[    1.179279] ahci 0000:00:09.0: AHCI 0001.0100 32 slots 4 ports 3 Gbps 0xf impl SATA mode
[    1.179282] ahci 0000:00:09.0: flags: 64bit ncq sntf led clo pio 
[    1.179286] ahci 0000:00:09.0: setting latency timer to 64
[    1.180153] scsi0 : ahci
[    1.180264] scsi1 : ahci
[    1.180337] scsi2 : ahci
[    1.180407] scsi3 : ahci

Strange: After de-activating ahci, I get the very same message, as well as if i enable ahci............

The windows fix stated in the previous post works, though......

Im still not sure wether if i enabled ahci or not...

cybertorture · 2011-09-01 23:51:09

lspci | grep 00:09.0

other than

ls -l /dev/disk/by-path/pci-0000*

and look for 00:09.0, if it links to /dev/sdxX, then you are ready to roll

Xi0N · 2011-09-02 04:04:54

lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  9 Sep  2 01:06 /dev/disk/by-path/pci-0000:00:02.1-usb-0:6:1.1-scsi-0:0:0:0 -> ../../sdd
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  9 Sep  2 01:06 /dev/disk/by-path/pci-0000:00:02.1-usb-0:6:1.1-scsi-0:0:0:1 -> ../../sde
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  9 Sep  2 01:06 /dev/disk/by-path/pci-0000:00:02.1-usb-0:6:1.1-scsi-0:0:0:2 -> ../../sdf
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  9 Sep  2 01:06 /dev/disk/by-path/pci-0000:00:02.1-usb-0:6:1.1-scsi-0:0:0:3 -> ../../sdg
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  9 Sep  2 01:06 /dev/disk/by-path/pci-0000:00:09.0-scsi-0:0:0:0 -> ../../sda
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Sep  2 01:06 /dev/disk/by-path/pci-0000:00:09.0-scsi-0:0:0:0-part1 -> ../../sda1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Sep  2 01:06 /dev/disk/by-path/pci-0000:00:09.0-scsi-0:0:0:0-part2 -> ../../sda2
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Sep  2 01:06 /dev/disk/by-path/pci-0000:00:09.0-scsi-0:0:0:0-part3 -> ../../sda3
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Sep  2 01:06 /dev/disk/by-path/pci-0000:00:09.0-scsi-0:0:0:0-part4 -> ../../sda4
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Sep  2 01:06 /dev/disk/by-path/pci-0000:00:09.0-scsi-0:0:0:0-part5 -> ../../sda5
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Sep  2 01:06 /dev/disk/by-path/pci-0000:00:09.0-scsi-0:0:0:0-part6 -> ../../sda6
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  9 Sep  2 01:06 /dev/disk/by-path/pci-0000:00:09.0-scsi-1:0:0:0 -> ../../sdb
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Sep  2 01:06 /dev/disk/by-path/pci-0000:00:09.0-scsi-1:0:0:0-part1 -> ../../sdb1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  9 Sep  2 01:06 /dev/disk/by-path/pci-0000:00:09.0-scsi-2:0:0:0 -> ../../sdc
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root 10 Sep  2 01:06 /dev/disk/by-path/pci-0000:00:09.0-scsi-2:0:0:0-part1 -> ../../sdc1
lrwxrwxrwx 1 root root  9 Sep  2 01:06 /dev/disk/by-path/pci-0000:00:09.0-scsi-3:0:0:0 -> ../../sr0

I suppose im good to go

BTW: I followed this: https://wiki.archlinux.org/index.php/AHCI

Specially the part:

Edit /etc/mkinitcpio.conf and add ahci to the MODULES variable:
MODULES="ahci"
Rebuild the kernel image so that it includes the newly added module:
# mkinitcpio -p kernel26

Last edited by Xi0N (2011-09-02 04:10:55)

cybertorture · 2011-09-02 17:58:50

# mkinitcpio -p kernel26
only if you use lts kernel, for 3.0 + it is "-p linux"

Xi0N · 2011-09-02 20:09:18

Yup.... Thanks!

Arch Linux

#1 2011-09-01 16:12:50

Native, RAID and AHCI

#2 2011-09-01 16:30:04

Re: Native, RAID and AHCI

#3 2011-09-01 16:56:55

Re: Native, RAID and AHCI

#4 2011-09-01 18:25:19

Re: Native, RAID and AHCI

#5 2011-09-01 18:40:41

Re: Native, RAID and AHCI

#6 2011-09-01 18:51:42

Re: Native, RAID and AHCI

#7 2011-09-01 22:07:35

Re: Native, RAID and AHCI

#8 2011-09-01 23:51:09

Re: Native, RAID and AHCI

#9 2011-09-02 04:04:54

Re: Native, RAID and AHCI

#10 2011-09-02 17:58:50

Re: Native, RAID and AHCI

#11 2011-09-02 20:09:18

Re: Native, RAID and AHCI

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