Date:	Tue, 15 Apr 2008 00:31:47 +0200
From:	devzero@....de
To:	Luis Sousa <ls.luis_sousa@...oo.com.br>
Cc:	jeff@...zik.org, linux-ide@...r.kernel.org,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: sata io freeze, 2.6.18 and also 2.6.24 [the real culprit]

>Yes, I can try that. But please bear with me as I won't be working full time
>in this. I hope we can get to the bottom of this, but it might not be as quick
>as we'd like.
>
>Thank you very much for the help.
>
>I'll write back asap.

no hurry - i don`t want put any pressure on you, i just like help hunting bugs. :)
maybe we could put that in bugzilla, so it won`t get lost....


> -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
> Von: "Luis Sousa" <ls.luis_sousa@...oo.com.br>
> Gesendet: 15.04.08 00:24:17
> An: devzero@....de
> CC: jeff@...zik.org, linux-ide@...r.kernel.org, linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
> Betreff: Re: sata io freeze, 2.6.18 and also 2.6.24 [the real culprit]


> 
> --- devzero@....de escreveu:
> 
> > so - you told, you have your disk attached to this controller:
> > 
> > 00:0f.0 RAID bus controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VIA VT6420 SATA RAID Controller (rev
> > 80)
> > 	Subsystem: Micro-Star International Co., Ltd. Unknown device 0430
> > 	Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 32, IRQ 16
> > 	I/O ports at ec00 [size=8]
> > 	I/O ports at e800 [size=4]
> > 	I/O ports at e400 [size=8]
> > 	I/O ports at e000 [size=4]
> > 	I/O ports at dc00 [size=16]
> > 	I/O ports at d800 [size=256]
> > 	Capabilities: <access denied>
> > 
> > and use sata_via module - and your system works stable with nosmp, but freezes very soon
> > on heavy i/o with smp. disabling dma makes no difference.
> > 
> > correct ?
> 
> Correct. 
> 
> But I'm not sure it's an exclusive i/o thing. I've had the box crash in
> situations where I don't think heavy i/o is involved.. for instance, it
> crashed two times just as I closed the iceape browser.
>  
> > then i assume this could be an smp issue, probably a bug in sata_via and may need further
> > investigation.
> > 
> > there seem no noticeable changes in that driver since 2.6.24 - but maybe it`s worth
> > trying 2.6.25-rc9 to see if it behaves different?
> 
> I'm actually running 2.6.25-rc7-git6 now.
> (so I really don't think that would make much of a difference)
> 
> > absolutely nothing in dmesg on freeze ?
> 
> Absolutely nothing. Never.
>  
> > maybe you could try catching some message with attaching serial console?
> 
> Hmm, I have no serial consoles here, and my spare box is dead. 
> 
> Unless I can attach netconsole to a windows box.
> 
> I can probably crash it in console mode, without Xorg. Then I hope something
> might show up in another vt at least.
> 
> > how reliably can you crash that box with lots of i/o ? just random crashes or after a
> > certain amount of data written/read ?
> 
> There is definitely a random element in it. But I can reliably crash it.
> Just trigger some CPU and i/o bound processes. I've crashed it with operations
> which would only read from the disk, for instance unpacking to /dev/null.
> Sometimes it takes longer, though.
> 
> > could you try if just reading from the raw blockdevice makes a differnce ? (dd
> > if=/dev/sda of=/dev/zero)
> 
> Yes, I can try that. But please bear with me as I won't be working full time
> in this. I hope we can get to the bottom of this, but it might not be as quick
> as we'd like.
> 
> Thank you very much for the help.
> 
> I'll write back asap.
> 
> Best regards,
> --
> Luis Sousa
> 
> > > -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
> > > Von: "Luis Sousa" <ls.luis_sousa@...oo.com.br>
> > > Gesendet: 14.04.08 12:14:26
> > > An: devzero@....de
> > > CC: linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
> > > Betreff: Re: sata io freeze, 2.6.18 and also 2.6.24 [the real culprit]
> > 
> > 
> > > 
> > > Hello,
> > > 
> > > I did as planned, and I dare to say now, with
> > > relative certainty, that the reason I have had all
> > > these instabilities, including application crashes,
> > > sneaky corrupt backups, and the dreaded freezes
> > > every other day was SMP and HyperThreading not working
> > > properly. Booting with nosmp gives me a stable system.
> > > Booting only with the sata-related arguments had
> > > the system freeze overnight.
> > > 
> > > Sincerely,
> > > --
> > > Luis Sousa
> > > 
> > > --- devzero@....de escreveu:
> > > 
> > > > hi luis, 
> > > > 
> > > > glad that it worked - but let us better call this a possible workaround, not a
> > solution.
> > > > 
> > > > mind that you loose lots of performance with this, because all i/o is handled by the
> > cpu
> > > > now.
> > > > 
> > > > > If everything goes well, I'll reduce the command line
> > > > > in order to narrow the problem further down.
> > > > 
> > > > yes, please!
> > > > 
> > > > regards
> > > > roland
> > > > 
> > > > 
> > > > > -----Ursprüngliche Nachricht-----
> > > > > Von: "Luis Sousa" <ls.luis_sousa@...oo.com.br>
> > > > > Gesendet: 12.04.08 17:34:39
> > > > > An: devzero@....de
> > > > > CC: linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
> > > > > Betreff: Re: sata io freeze, 2.6.18 and also 2.6.24 [POSSIBLE SOLUTION]
> > > > 
> > > > 
> > > > > 
> > > > > Hello all,
> > > > > 
> > > > > Thanks to valuable help from roland, I was able to
> > > > > boot with the following options:
> > > > > 
> > > > > ``nosmp ide=nodma libata.dma=0''
> > > > > 
> > > > > after what I ran an agressive stability test for a
> > > > > while, with no problem whatsoever. Maybe it's too
> > > > > soon to say, but I have a good feeling this time. It
> > > > > seems roland figured it out.
> > > > > 
> > > > > If everything goes well, I'll reduce the command line
> > > > > in order to narrow the problem further down.
> > > > > 
> > > > > (and indeed, this is a hyper-threading single core CPU)
> > > > > 
> > > > > Sincerely,
> > > > > --
> > > > > Luis Sousa
> > > > > 
> > > > > --- devzero@....de escreveu:
> > > > > 
> > > > > > did you try UP-kernel or tried booting with "nosmp" and does that make any
> > difference
> > > > ?
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > >This is a 2-processor CPU:
> > > > > > ># cat /proc/cpuinfo 
> > > > > > >processor       : 0
> > > > > > >vendor_id       : GenuineIntel
> > > > > > >cpu family      : 15
> > > > > > >model           : 4
> > > > > > >model name      : Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > most likely this just "appears" as 2-way processor , but iŽm quite sure this is
> > just
> > > > a
> > > > > > single-core CPU, but with HyperThreading enabled.
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > regards
> > > > > > roland
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > List:       linux-kernel
> > > > > > Subject:    sata io freeze, 2.6.18 and also 2.6.24
> > > > > > From:       Luis Sousa <ls.luis_sousa () yahoo ! com ! br>
> > > > > > Date:       2008-03-28 22:24:48
> > > > > > Message-ID: 739784.81690.qm () web46009 ! mail ! sp1 ! yahoo ! com
> > > > > > [Download message RAW]
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > Hello,
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > I've been having consistent hard system freezes for a
> > > > > > long time, every 2 days or so, and finally decided to
> > > > > > move to the most recent stable kernel. Unfortunatelly
> > > > > > that didn't fix it. The freezes seem to be io-related;
> > > > > > they started since I moved my drive to sata. They seem
> > > > > > to happen mostly when there's an io-intensive operation,
> > > > > > like extracting a big archive; a reboot is needed.
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > Nothing ever shows up in the logs.
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > I'm using the following drive:
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > ATA device, with non-removable media
> > > > > >         Model Number:       MAXTOR STM3160215AS                     
> > > > > >         Serial Number:      6RA2TMJ4
> > > > > >         Firmware Revision:  3.AAD   
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > Linux localhost 2.6.24.4 #4 SMP Fri Mar 28 14:51:50 BRT 2008 i686 GNU/Linux
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > This is a 2-processor CPU:
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > # cat /proc/cpuinfo 
> > > > > > processor       : 0
> > > > > > vendor_id       : GenuineIntel
> > > > > > cpu family      : 15
> > > > > > model           : 4
> > > > > > model name      : Intel(R) Pentium(R) 4 CPU 3.00GHz
> > > > > > stepping        : 9
> > > > > > cpu MHz         : 3013.697
> > > > > > cache size      : 1024 KB
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > (same goes for processor : 1)
> > > > > > 
> > > > > > Sincerely,
> > > > > > --
> > > > > > Luis Sousa
> 
> 
>       Abra sua conta no Yahoo! Mail, o único sem limite de espaço para armazenamento!
> http://br.mail.yahoo.com/
> 
> 


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