Kernel config

marquisor · 10-12-2010, 08:50 AM

hello!

i'm very confused by the kernel-options for ATA ./. SATA

there are two main options for my hardware:

Code:

  │ Symbol: PATA_OLDPIIX [=m]                                                                                       │
  │ Prompt: Intel PATA old PIIX support                                                                             │
  │   Defined at drivers/ata/Kconfig:512                                                                            │
  │   Depends on: ATA [=m] && ATA_SFF [=y] && ATA_BMDMA [=y] && PCI [=y]                                            │
  │   Location:                                                                                                     │
  │     -> Device Drivers                                                                                           │
  │       -> Serial ATA and Parallel ATA drivers (ATA [=m])                                                         │
  │         -> ATA SFF support (ATA_SFF [=y])                                                                       │
  │           -> ATA BMDMA support (ATA_BMDMA [=y])

and

Code:

  │ Symbol: BLK_DEV_PIIX [=y]                                                                                       │
  │ Prompt: Intel PIIX/ICH chipsets support                                                                         │
  │   Defined at drivers/ide/Kconfig:496                                                                            │
  │   Depends on: IDE [=y] && PCI [=y]                                                                              │
  │   Location:                                                                                                     │
  │     -> Device Drivers                                                                                           │
  │       -> ATA/ATAPI/MFM/RLL support (DEPRECATED) (IDE [=y])                                                      │
  │   Selects: BLK_DEV_IDEDMA_PCI [=y]

i have also enabled/disabled this option, no change:

Code:

  │ Symbol: BLK_DEV_IDE_SATA [=n]                                                                                   │
  │ Prompt: Support for SATA (deprecated; conflicts with libata SATA driver)                                        │
  │   Defined at drivers/ide/Kconfig:47                                                                             │
  │   Depends on: IDE [=y]                                                                                          │
  │   Location:                                                                                                     │
  │     -> Device Drivers                                                                                           │
  │       -> ATA/ATAPI/MFM/RLL support (DEPRECATED) (IDE [=y])                                                      │

do i have to completely turn off either ATA or SATA support and build?

lspci:

Code:

00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801BA IDE U100 Controller (rev 05) (prog-if 80 [Master])
        Subsystem: Siemens Nixdorf AG Device 0055
        Control: I/O+ Mem- BusMaster+ SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B- DisINTx-
        Status: Cap- 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B+ ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR- INTx-
        Latency: 0
        Region 0: [virtual] Memory at 000001f0 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [disabled] [size=8]
        Region 1: [virtual] Memory at 000003f0 (type 3, non-prefetchable) [disabled] [size=1]
        Region 2: [virtual] Memory at 00000170 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [disabled] [size=8]
        Region 3: [virtual] Memory at 00000370 (type 3, non-prefetchable) [disabled] [size=1]
        Region 4: I/O ports at 2400 [size=16]
        Kernel driver in use: PIIX_IDE
        Kernel modules: piix

the ATA stuff is "deprecated" the SATA stuff is "old"... what to choose?
i want performance. i compiled both as modules, but only the first (ATA) gets loaded and gives this at boot:

dmesg:

Code:

<...snip...>
[    4.885146] libata version 3.00 loaded.
[    5.511634] Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver
[    5.572935] piix 0000:00:1f.1: IDE controller (0x8086:0x244b rev 0x05)
[    5.573133] piix 0000:00:1f.1: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later
[    5.573164]     ide0: BM-DMA at 0x2400-0x2407
[    5.573202]     ide1: BM-DMA at 0x2408-0x240f
[    5.573234] Probing IDE interface ide0...
[    5.850343] hda: ST320011A, ATA DISK drive
<...snip...>

not 100% native mode? so HOW can i tell the kernel to load my SATA modules instead of ATA. maybe they are native then?

lsmod:

Code:

p3wrk:/home/marquisor# lsmod |grep ide
ide_cd_mod             20521  0
ide_gd_mod             11739  5
cdrom                  25835  1 ide_cd_mod
ide_pci_generic         1980  0
ide_core               61484  4 ide_cd_mod,ide_gd_mod,ide_pci_generic,piix

would i need the ide_pci_generic and ide_gd_mod modules at all?

thx in advance!

regards
marquisor

bigrigdriver · 10-12-2010, 09:01 PM

By no means am I a guru on such matters, but I offer this advice.

Somewhere around kernel revision 2.6.22, an essential revision was made. All hard drives, whether IDE, SATA, or SCSI are treated as SCSI devices; either native SCSI or emulated-SCSI.

Therefore, to be on the safe side, I'd suggest that you compile the kernel with all IDE, SATA, and SCSI enabled and let the kernel determine which modules it needs for your system. That would at least get you up and running.

As you learn more about Debian in particular, and GNU/Linux in general, you should be able to reconfigure your kernel to remove unnecessary modules.

That, in a nutshell, is the approach I took when I first entered the Linux world about 10 years ago.

syg00 · 10-12-2010, 11:38 PM

Get rid of all the old/deprecated stuff. Under BMDMA pick "INTEL ESB, ICH ..." (probably the first option) then any other (SCSI) you might need.
See how that goes.