linux-kernel - Re: [2.6.30.5] Diagnosing an IDE lockup with SMART long tests

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Date:	Wed, 2 Sep 2009 08:07:43 +0200
From:	Raphael Manfredi <Raphael_Manfredi@...ox.com>
To:	Robert Hancock <hancockrwd@...il.com>
Cc:	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: [2.6.30.5] Diagnosing an IDE lockup with SMART long tests

Quoting Robert Hancock:
> It's most likely a bug in the IDE code somewhere, but realistically the 
> most effective course of action would likely be to switch from the old IDE 
> drivers and use libata instead. The IDE code doesn't receive that much 
> testing these days, and it's really hard to debug (as you've seen, the 
> debugging output is rather atrocious).

Sure, but we're talking a production machine here.  Moving to libata to
handle the IDE drives would involve many changes everywhere in the system
and cause instability.  For instance, /etc/fstab would need to refer to
/dev/sd*, /etc/mdadm.conf needs rewriting as well...  This is a complex move,
and there's no assurance that libata won't have bugs in its PATA handling.

Since the machine is otherwise stable, I'm rather aiming at a workaround.
Today, the workaround I have is to not run SMART long tests but it proved
dangerous.  Therefore, I'm looking for a kernel workaround to avoid the
lockups.

Why would the reading of the status register of the IDE interface cause a
lockup?  If I can prevent the lockup and resume work, I would not mind having
a few lost interrupts events now and then.

Raphael
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