SK8N SUSE 9.3 problems

Hello, I am trying to install SUSE 9.3 on Asus SK8N motherboard running Opteron. I use the built-in Promise SATA controller with two disks in IDE mode. I was able to perfectly run SuSE 9.1 on this system for a long, long time. Now, with SuSE 9.3 I am not even able to get through the installation. It seems that the disk access causes the installation to hang sooner or later. When files are being copied the installation just freezes. It seems that this problem is not specific to SUSE. Any other distro with 2.6 kernel that I tried freezes in the same way as SUSE. Does anyone have a success story installing SUSE 9.3 on a similar setup? And also, is there some way that I can save kernel messages during installation? Thanks, Marcin Zalewski

On Wednesday 15 June 2005 10:44, Marcin Zalewski wrote:
Hello,
I am trying to install SUSE 9.3 on Asus SK8N motherboard running Opteron. I use the built-in Promise SATA controller with two disks in IDE mode.
I had a problem with 9.2 on a K8S8X mobo. Just locked up during the initial boot from DVD or CD when it loaded the sata_sis.ko module. 9.3 has no problems on this board neither did 9.1. -- "There are two ways of disliking poetry; one way is to dislike it, the other is to read Pope." -- Oscar Wilde

I was able to get boot.msg of the machine in question (attached). Is there any other useful info I can get somehow during install? -m Marcin Zalewski wrote:
Hello,
I am trying to install SUSE 9.3 on Asus SK8N motherboard running Opteron. I use the built-in Promise SATA controller with two disks in IDE mode.
I was able to perfectly run SuSE 9.1 on this system for a long, long time. Now, with SuSE 9.3 I am not even able to get through the installation. It seems that the disk access causes the installation to hang sooner or later. When files are being copied the installation just freezes.
It seems that this problem is not specific to SUSE. Any other distro with 2.6 kernel that I tried freezes in the same way as SUSE.
Does anyone have a success story installing SUSE 9.3 on a similar setup? And also, is there some way that I can save kernel messages during installation?
Thanks,
Marcin Zalewski
<4>Bootdata ok (command line is BOOT_IMAGE=linux64 initrd=initrd64 ramdisk_size=65536 splash=silent vga=0x31a) <4>Linux version 2.6.11.4-20a-default (geeko@buildhost) (gcc version 3.3.5 20050117 (prerelease) (SUSE Linux)) #1 Wed Mar 23 21:52:37 UTC 2005 <6>BIOS-provided physical RAM map: <4> BIOS-e820: 0000000000000000 - 000000000009fc00 (usable) <4> BIOS-e820: 000000000009fc00 - 00000000000a0000 (reserved) <4> BIOS-e820: 00000000000e7000 - 0000000000100000 (reserved) <4> BIOS-e820: 0000000000100000 - 000000007ffc0000 (usable) <4> BIOS-e820: 000000007ffc0000 - 000000007ffd0000 (ACPI data) <4> BIOS-e820: 000000007ffd0000 - 0000000080000000 (ACPI NVS) <4> BIOS-e820: 00000000fec00000 - 00000000fec01000 (reserved) <4> BIOS-e820: 00000000fee00000 - 00000000fee01000 (reserved) <4> BIOS-e820: 00000000ff7c0000 - 0000000100000000 (reserved) <7>ACPI: RSDP (v000 ACPIAM ) @ 0x00000000000fa500 <7>ACPI: RSDT (v001 A M I OEMRSDT 0x03000429 MSFT 0x00000097) @ 0x000000007ffc0000 <7>ACPI: FADT (v002 A M I OEMFACP 0x03000429 MSFT 0x00000097) @ 0x000000007ffc0200 <7>ACPI: MADT (v001 A M I OEMAPIC 0x03000429 MSFT 0x00000097) @ 0x000000007ffc0390 <7>ACPI: OEMB (v001 A M I OEMBIOS 0x03000429 MSFT 0x00000097) @ 0x000000007ffd0040 <7>ACPI: DSDT (v001 SK8N_ SK8N_701 0x00000701 INTL 0x02002026) @ 0x0000000000000000 <7>On node 0 totalpages: 524224 <7> DMA zone: 4096 pages, LIFO batch:1 <7> Normal zone: 520128 pages, LIFO batch:16 <7> HighMem zone: 0 pages, LIFO batch:1 <6>Nvidia board detected. Ignoring ACPI timer override. <7>ACPI: Local APIC address 0xfee00000 <6>ACPI: LAPIC (acpi_id[0x01] lapic_id[0x00] enabled) <6>Processor #0 15:5 APIC version 16 <6>ACPI: IOAPIC (id[0x01] address[0xfec00000] gsi_base[0]) <6>IOAPIC[0]: apic_id 1, version 17, address 0xfec00000, GSI 0-23 <6>ACPI: INT_SRC_OVR (bus 0 bus_irq 0 global_irq 2 dfl dfl) <4>ACPI: BIOS IRQ0 pin2 override ignored. <6>ACPI: INT_SRC_OVR (bus 0 bus_irq 9 global_irq 9 high level) <6>ACPI: INT_SRC_OVR (bus 0 bus_irq 14 global_irq 14 high edge) <6>ACPI: INT_SRC_OVR (bus 0 bus_irq 15 global_irq 15 high edge) <7>ACPI: IRQ9 used by override. <7>ACPI: IRQ14 used by override. <7>ACPI: IRQ15 used by override. <6>Setting APIC routing to flat <6>Using ACPI (MADT) for SMP configuration information <4>Checking aperture... <4>CPU 0: aperture @ f0000000 size 128 MB <4>Built 1 zonelists <4>Kernel command line: BOOT_IMAGE=linux64 initrd=initrd64 ramdisk_size=65536 splash=silent vga=0x31a console=tty0 <6>bootsplash: silent mode. <4>Initializing CPU#0 <4>PID hash table entries: 4096 (order: 12, 131072 bytes) <6>time.c: Using 1.193182 MHz PIT timer. <6>time.c: Detected 2000.006 MHz processor. <4>Console: colour dummy device 80x25 <4>Dentry cache hash table entries: 524288 (order: 10, 4194304 bytes) <4>Inode-cache hash table entries: 262144 (order: 9, 2097152 bytes) <4>Memory: 2050940k/2096896k available (2167k kernel code, 45160k reserved, 1158k data, 168k init) <7>Calibrating delay loop... 3964.92 BogoMIPS (lpj=1982464) <6>Security Framework v1.0.0 initialized <6>SELinux: Disabled at boot. <4>Mount-cache hash table entries: 256 (order: 0, 4096 bytes) <6>CPU: L1 I Cache: 64K (64 bytes/line), D cache 64K (64 bytes/line) <6>CPU: L2 Cache: 1024K (64 bytes/line) <4>CPU: AMD Opteron(tm) Processor 146 stepping 08 <6>checking if image is initramfs... it is <6>ACPI: Looking for DSDT in initrd... not found! <4> not found! <6>Using local APIC NMI watchdog using perfctr0 <6>Using local APIC timer interrupts. <6>Detected 12.500 MHz APIC timer. <6>NET: Registered protocol family 16 <6>PCI: Using configuration type 1 <6>mtrr: v2.0 (20020519) <6>ACPI: Subsystem revision 20050211 <6>ACPI: Interpreter enabled <6>ACPI: Using IOAPIC for interrupt routing <6>ACPI: PCI Root Bridge [PCI0] (00:00) <4>PCI: Probing PCI hardware (bus 00) <4>EHCI early BIOS handoff failed (BIOS bug ?) <7>ACPI: PCI Interrupt Routing Table [\_SB_.PCI0._PRT] <7>ACPI: PCI Interrupt Routing Table [\_SB_.PCI0.P0P1._PRT] <4>ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKA] (IRQs 17) *0, disabled. <4>ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKB] (IRQs 18) *7 <4>ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKC] (IRQs 19) *11 <4>ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKD] (IRQs 17) *11 <4>ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKE] (IRQs 16) *11 <4>ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LUS0] (IRQs 20) *3 <4>ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LUS1] (IRQs 20) *5 <4>ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LUS2] (IRQs 20) *10 <4>ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LKLN] (IRQs 21) *0, disabled. <4>ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LAUI] (IRQs 21) *0, disabled. <4>ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LKMO] (IRQs 21) *0, disabled. <4>ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LKSM] (IRQs 22) *0, disabled. <4>ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LTID] (IRQs 22) *0, disabled. <4>ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LATA] (IRQs 22) *14 <6>PCI: Using ACPI for IRQ routing <6>PCI: If a device doesn't work, try "pci=routeirq". If it helps, post a report <4>TC classifier action (bugs to netdev@oss.sgi.com cc hadi@cyberus.ca) <6>agpgart: Detected AGP bridge 0 <6>agpgart: Setting up Nforce3 AGP. <6>agpgart: Maximum main memory to use for agp memory: 1919M <6>agpgart: AGP aperture is 128M @ 0xf0000000 <6>PCI-DMA: Disabling IOMMU. <4>IA32 emulation $Id: sys_ia32.c,v 1.32 2002/03/24 13:02:28 ak Exp $ <6>audit: initializing netlink socket (disabled) <3>audit(1118844386.236:0): initialized <4>Total HugeTLB memory allocated, 0 <5>VFS: Disk quotas dquot_6.5.1 <4>Dquot-cache hash table entries: 512 (order 0, 4096 bytes) <6>Initializing Cryptographic API <6>vesafb: framebuffer at 0xe0000000, mapped to 0xffffc20000100000, using 10240k, total 131072k <6>vesafb: mode is 1280x1024x16, linelength=2560, pages=1 <6>vesafb: scrolling: redraw <6>vesafb: Truecolor: size=0:5:6:5, shift=0:11:5:0 <6>bootsplash 3.1.6-2004/03/31: looking for picture...<6> silentjpeg size 81978 bytes,<6>...found (1280x1024, 54169 bytes, v3). <4>Console: switching to colour frame buffer device 158x59 <6>fb0: VESA VGA frame buffer device <6>Real Time Clock Driver v1.12 <6>Non-volatile memory driver v1.2 <6>Linux agpgart interface v0.100 (c) Dave Jones <6>serio: i8042 AUX port at 0x60,0x64 irq 12 <6>serio: i8042 KBD port at 0x60,0x64 irq 1 <6>Serial: 8250/16550 driver $Revision: 1.90 $ 8 ports, IRQ sharing disabled <4>ttyS0 at I/O 0x3f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A <6>io scheduler noop registered <6>io scheduler anticipatory registered <6>io scheduler deadline registered <6>io scheduler cfq registered <4>RAMDISK driver initialized: 16 RAM disks of 65536K size 1024 blocksize <6>loop: loaded (max 8 devices) <6>mice: PS/2 mouse device common for all mice <6>input: PC Speaker <6>md: md driver 0.90.1 MAX_MD_DEVS=256, MD_SB_DISKS=27 <6>NET: Registered protocol family 2 <6>IP: routing cache hash table of 16384 buckets, 128Kbytes <4>TCP established hash table entries: 524288 (order: 10, 4194304 bytes) <4>TCP bind hash table entries: 65536 (order: 7, 524288 bytes) <6>TCP: Hash tables configured (established 524288 bind 65536) <6>NET: Registered protocol family 1 <7>PM: Checking swsusp image. <7>PM: Resume from disk failed. <4>ACPI wakeup devices: <4>PS2K PS2M UAR1 USB0 USB1 USB2 P0P1 MAC PWRB <6>ACPI: (supports S0 S1 S3 S4 S5) <4>Freeing unused kernel memory: 168k freed <6>input: AT Translated Set 2 keyboard on isa0060/serio0 <6>NET: Registered protocol family 17 <5>SCSI subsystem initialized <6>Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 7.00alpha2 <6>ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx <6>Floppy drive(s): fd0 is 1.44M <6>FDC 0 is a post-1991 82077 <4>end_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0 <4>end_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0 <6>usbcore: registered new driver usbfs <6>usbcore: registered new driver hub <4>ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LUS2] enabled at IRQ 20 <6>ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:00:02.2[C] -> GSI 20 (level, high) -> IRQ 177 <6>ehci_hcd 0000:00:02.2: EHCI Host Controller <7>PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:02.2 to 64 <6>ehci_hcd 0000:00:02.2: irq 177, pci mem 0xfebffc00 <6>ehci_hcd 0000:00:02.2: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1 <7>PCI: cache line size of 64 is not supported by device 0000:00:02.2 <6>ehci_hcd 0000:00:02.2: park 0 <6>ehci_hcd 0000:00:02.2: USB 2.0 initialized, EHCI 1.00, driver 10 Dec 2004 <6>hub 1-0:1.0: USB hub found <6>hub 1-0:1.0: 6 ports detected <6>usbcore: registered new driver hiddev <6>usbcore: registered new driver usbhid <6>drivers/usb/input/hid-core.c: v2.01:USB HID core driver <7>ohci_hcd: 2004 Nov 08 USB 1.1 'Open' Host Controller (OHCI) Driver (PCI) <4>ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LUS0] enabled at IRQ 20 <6>ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:00:02.0[A] -> GSI 20 (level, high) -> IRQ 177 <6>ohci_hcd 0000:00:02.0: OHCI Host Controller <7>PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:02.0 to 64 <6>ohci_hcd 0000:00:02.0: irq 177, pci mem 0xfebfd000 <6>ohci_hcd 0000:00:02.0: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 2 <6>hub 2-0:1.0: USB hub found <6>hub 2-0:1.0: 3 ports detected <4>ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LUS1] enabled at IRQ 20 <6>ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:00:02.1[B] -> GSI 20 (level, high) -> IRQ 177 <6>ohci_hcd 0000:00:02.1: OHCI Host Controller <7>PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:02.1 to 64 <6>ohci_hcd 0000:00:02.1: irq 177, pci mem 0xfebfe000 <6>ohci_hcd 0000:00:02.1: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 3 <6>hub 3-0:1.0: USB hub found <6>hub 3-0:1.0: 3 ports detected <6>usb 3-1: new low speed USB device using ohci_hcd and address 2 <6>input: USB HID v1.10 Mouse [Logitech USB-PS/2 Optical Mouse] on usb-0000:00:02.1-1 <6>Initializing USB Mass Storage driver... <6>usbcore: registered new driver usb-storage <6>USB Mass Storage support registered. <7>ieee1394: Initialized config rom entry `ip1394' <6>ohci1394: $Rev: 1250 $ Ben Collins <bcollins@debian.org> <4>ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKD] enabled at IRQ 17 <6>ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:01:09.0[A] -> GSI 17 (level, high) -> IRQ 185 <6>ohci1394: fw-host0: OHCI-1394 1.1 (PCI): IRQ=[185] MMIO=[fc99e800-fc99efff] Max Packet=[2048] <7>ieee1394: Host added: ID:BUS[0-00:1023] GUID[00e01800002b97a3] <6>sbp2: $Rev: 1219 $ Ben Collins <bcollins@debian.org> <4>end_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0 <4>end_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0 <6>NFORCE3-150: IDE controller at PCI slot 0000:00:08.0 <6>NFORCE3-150: chipset revision 165 <6>NFORCE3-150: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later <6>NFORCE3-150: 0000:00:08.0 (rev a5) UDMA133 controller <6> ide0: BM-DMA at 0xffa0-0xffa7, BIOS settings: hda:DMA, hdb:pio <6> ide1: BM-DMA at 0xffa8-0xffaf, BIOS settings: hdc:DMA, hdd:pio <7>Probing IDE interface ide0... <4>hda: HL-DT-ST RW/DVD GCC-4480B, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive <4>ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14 <6>hda: ATAPI 48X DVD-ROM CD-R/RW drive, 2048kB Cache, UDMA(33) <6>Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.20 <7>Probing IDE interface ide1... <4>hdc: LITE-ON DVDRW SOHW-1673S, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive <4>ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15 <6>hdc: ATAPI 47X DVD-ROM DVD-R CD-R/RW drive, 2048kB Cache, UDMA(33) <7>libata version 1.10 loaded. <7>sata_promise version 1.01 <4>ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKC] enabled at IRQ 19 <6>ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:01:08.0[A] -> GSI 19 (level, high) -> IRQ 193 <6>sata_promise PATA port found <6>ata1: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xFFFFC200000FC200 ctl 0xFFFFC200000FC238 bmdma 0x0 irq 193 <6>ata2: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xFFFFC200000FC280 ctl 0xFFFFC200000FC2B8 bmdma 0x0 irq 193 <6>ata3: PATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xFFFFC200000FC300 ctl 0xFFFFC200000FC338 bmdma 0x0 irq 193 <7>ata1: dev 0 cfg 49:2f00 82:346b 83:7d01 84:4003 85:3469 86:3c01 87:4003 88:407f <6>ata1: dev 0 ATA-6, max UDMA/133, 312581808 sectors: LBA48 <6>ata1: dev 0 configured for UDMA/133 <6>scsi0 : sata_promise <7>ata2: dev 0 cfg 49:2f00 82:346b 83:7d01 84:4003 85:3469 86:3c01 87:4003 88:407f <6>ata2: dev 0 ATA-6, max UDMA/133, 312581808 sectors: LBA48 <6>ata2: dev 0 configured for UDMA/133 <6>scsi1 : sata_promise <4>ATA: abnormal status 0x8 on port 0xFFFFC200000FC31C <3>ata3: disabling port <6>scsi2 : sata_promise <5> Vendor: ATA Model: ST3160023AS Rev: 3.18 <5> Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 05 <5>SCSI device sda: 312581808 512-byte hdwr sectors (160042 MB) <5>SCSI device sda: drive cache: write back <5>SCSI device sda: 312581808 512-byte hdwr sectors (160042 MB) <5>SCSI device sda: drive cache: write back <6> sda: sda1 sda2 sda3 sda4 <5>Attached scsi disk sda at scsi0, channel 0, id 0, lun 0 <5>Attached scsi generic sg0 at scsi0, channel 0, id 0, lun 0, type 0 <5> Vendor: ATA Model: ST3160023AS Rev: 3.18 <5> Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 05 <5>SCSI device sdb: 312581808 512-byte hdwr sectors (160042 MB) <5>SCSI device sdb: drive cache: write back <5>SCSI device sdb: 312581808 512-byte hdwr sectors (160042 MB) <5>SCSI device sdb: drive cache: write back <6> sdb: sdb1 sdb2 sdb3 sdb4 <5>Attached scsi disk sdb at scsi1, channel 0, id 0, lun 0 <5>Attached scsi generic sg1 at scsi1, channel 0, id 0, lun 0, type 0 <6>cdrom: open failed. <7>ISO 9660 Extensions: Microsoft Joliet Level 3 <7>ISO 9660 Extensions: RRIP_1991A <4>end_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0 <4>end_request: I/O error, dev fd0, sector 0 <6>cdrom: open failed. <6>cdrom: open failed. <6>Intel(R) PRO/1000 Network Driver - version 5.6.10.1-k2-NAPI <6>Copyright (c) 1999-2004 Intel Corporation. <4>ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKB] enabled at IRQ 18 <6>ACPI: PCI interrupt 0000:01:04.0[A] -> GSI 18 (level, high) -> IRQ 201 <6>e1000: eth0: e1000_probe: Intel(R) PRO/1000 Network Connection

You're not likely to like this: I helped a friend set up a server with a sw RAID5 on four identical new Seagate IDE drives on two promise PCI adapters. Testing it with Bonnie++, the server could crash, freeze, corrupt and everything bad. I refused to accept a sw problem (this is SUSE after all) so we spent 1.5 months trying different motherboards, controllers, etc. After a while we found more and more reports about known issues with Linux and Promise. In the end (after three months of non-stop work) we found SUSE 9.1 to run flawlessly on the same configuartion where 9.0 and 9.2 would crash (I can't remember if we tested 9.3). Needless to say I was embassed having pushed for a SUSE based solution. This was a 32-bit system which is why I didn't mention it before. AFAICT, this problem is known but still hasn't been fixed. No, I couldn't believe it either. See for example http://kerneltrap.org/node/3040 (Too bad I can't relocated some juicy Alan Cox quotes on the matter). Tommy Marcin Zalewski wrote:
Hello,
I am trying to install SUSE 9.3 on Asus SK8N motherboard running Opteron. I use the built-in Promise SATA controller with two disks in IDE mode.
I was able to perfectly run SuSE 9.1 on this system for a long, long time. Now, with SuSE 9.3 I am not even able to get through the installation. It seems that the disk access causes the installation to hang sooner or later. When files are being copied the installation just freezes.
It seems that this problem is not specific to SUSE. Any other distro with 2.6 kernel that I tried freezes in the same way as SUSE.
Does anyone have a success story installing SUSE 9.3 on a similar setup? And also, is there some way that I can save kernel messages during installation?
Thanks,
Marcin Zalewski

Sadly I'm having somewhat the same problem. I'm running SuSE 9.3pro on an Asus K8V Deluxe but my problem comes when I reboot the box. Both drives I have on the via controller seem to freeze upon reboot & require a hard reset "about 4 to 7 times before it'll come back up totally & not crash again" but the one drive on the onboard promise controller seems to be working fine & hasn't required a chkdsk at all since I've reloaded to 9.3. I know it's highly unlikely that it's a hardware problem due to this box running 9.1pro without a problem resets and all. I'm currently running the following on a 3200+ w/ 1gb ram. Linux Zeus 2.6.11.4-21.7-default #1 Thu Jun 2 14:23:14 UTC 2005 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux Any suggestions on how I might go about fixing this other then not rebooting ever? :-) Casair, Inc. Andrew Holdeman andy@casair.net LAN/WAN Technician Website: http://www.casair.net Phone: (989) 831-8800 Ext 107 Fax: (989) 831-5555 -----Original Message----- From: Tommy Thorn [mailto:tommy@numba-tu.com] Sent: Thursday, June 16, 2005 2:10 PM To: Marcin Zalewski Cc: suse-amd64@suse.com Subject: Re: [suse-amd64] SK8N SUSE 9.3 problems You're not likely to like this: I helped a friend set up a server with a sw RAID5 on four identical new Seagate IDE drives on two promise PCI adapters. Testing it with Bonnie++, the server could crash, freeze, corrupt and everything bad. I refused to accept a sw problem (this is SUSE after all) so we spent 1.5 months trying different motherboards, controllers, etc. After a while we found more and more reports about known issues with Linux and Promise. In the end (after three months of non-stop work) we found SUSE 9.1 to run flawlessly on the same configuartion where 9.0 and 9.2 would crash (I can't remember if we tested 9.3). Needless to say I was embassed having pushed for a SUSE based solution. This was a 32-bit system which is why I didn't mention it before. AFAICT, this problem is known but still hasn't been fixed. No, I couldn't believe it either. See for example http://kerneltrap.org/node/3040 (Too bad I can't relocated some juicy Alan Cox quotes on the matter). Tommy Marcin Zalewski wrote:
Hello,
I am trying to install SUSE 9.3 on Asus SK8N motherboard running Opteron. I use the built-in Promise SATA controller with two disks in IDE mode.
I was able to perfectly run SuSE 9.1 on this system for a long, long time. Now, with SuSE 9.3 I am not even able to get through the installation. It seems that the disk access causes the installation to hang sooner or later. When files are being copied the installation just freezes.
It seems that this problem is not specific to SUSE. Any other distro with 2.6 kernel that I tried freezes in the same way as SUSE.
Does anyone have a success story installing SUSE 9.3 on a similar setup? And also, is there some way that I can save kernel messages during installation?
Thanks,
Marcin Zalewski
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I asked the local block driver expert and he suggested this patch as a test. You will need to know how to recompile your kernel module for this. Does it help? The 9.1 driver apparently defaulted to smaller request sizes. -Andi Sounds like trying to limit the request size for sata_promise could perhaps work. This simple patch should limit request size to 100kb for any device type, it could be worth a shot. If that works, I can improve it. --- linux-2.6.11/drivers/scsi/libata-scsi.c~ 2005-06-16 20:51:14.000000000 +0200 +++ linux-2.6.11/drivers/scsi/libata-scsi.c 2005-06-16 20:51:21.000000000 +0200 @@ -601,11 +601,13 @@ * 65534 when Jens Axboe's patch for dynamically * determining max_sectors is merged. */ +#if 0 if ((dev->flags & ATA_DFLAG_LBA48) && ((dev->flags & ATA_DFLAG_LOCK_SECTORS) == 0)) { sdev->host->max_sectors = 2048; blk_queue_max_sectors(sdev->request_queue, 2048); } +#endif } return 0; /* scsi layer doesn't check return value, sigh */

Update: I gave up on my built in controller and purchased Adaptec SATA Connect (ASH-1205SA). This works perfect with Linux software RAID and does not cost a lot of money. -m Marcin Zalewski wrote:
Hello,
I am trying to install SUSE 9.3 on Asus SK8N motherboard running Opteron. I use the built-in Promise SATA controller with two disks in IDE mode.
I was able to perfectly run SuSE 9.1 on this system for a long, long time. Now, with SuSE 9.3 I am not even able to get through the installation. It seems that the disk access causes the installation to hang sooner or later. When files are being copied the installation just freezes.
It seems that this problem is not specific to SUSE. Any other distro with 2.6 kernel that I tried freezes in the same way as SUSE.
Does anyone have a success story installing SUSE 9.3 on a similar setup? And also, is there some way that I can save kernel messages during installation?
Thanks,
Marcin Zalewski
participants (5)
-
Andi Kleen
-
Andrew Holdeman
-
Marcin Zalewski
-
Richard Bragg
-
Tommy Thorn