Im using vanilla kernel.org 2.6.11, Ive got a Silicon Image 3112 on my abit mobo, im using it with two seagate sata 160gig drives (that should be pretty good)

However im getting this "applying seagate errata" in my dmesg and the performance is terrible. What is the solution? Do i need a new controller card or are these drives buggy?

Thanks,

David




bash-3.00# hdparm -Tt /dev/sda1

/dev/sda1:
Timing cached reads: 1188 MB in 2.00 seconds = 592.61 MB/sec
HDIO_DRIVE_CMD(null) (wait for flush complete) failed: Inappropriate ioctl for device
Timing buffered disk reads: 38 MB in 3.07 seconds = 12.37 MB/sec
HDIO_DRIVE_CMD(null) (wait for flush complete) failed: Inappropriate ioctl for device
bash-3.00#
bash-3.00# hdparm -Tt /dev/sda2

/dev/sda2:
Timing cached reads: 1196 MB in 2.00 seconds = 597.79 MB/sec
HDIO_DRIVE_CMD(null) (wait for flush complete) failed: Inappropriate ioctl for device
Timing buffered disk reads: 44 MB in 3.08 seconds = 14.27 MB/sec
HDIO_DRIVE_CMD(null) (wait for flush complete) failed: Inappropriate ioctl for device
bash-3.00#


libata version 1.10 loaded.
sata_sil version 0.8
ata1: SATA max UDMA/100 cmd 0xE0826080 ctl 0xE082608A bmdma 0xE0826000 irq 11
ata2: SATA max UDMA/100 cmd 0xE08260C0 ctl 0xE08260CA bmdma 0xE0826008 irq 11
ata1: dev 0 cfg 49:2f00 82:346b 83:7d01 84:4003 85:3469 86:3c01 87:4003 88:207f
ata1: dev 0 ATA, max UDMA/133, 312581808 sectors: lba48
ata1(0): applying Seagate errata fix
ata1: dev 0 configured for UDMA/100
scsi0 : sata_sil
ata2: dev 0 cfg 49:2f00 82:346b 83:7d01 84:4003 85:3469 86:3c01 87:4003 88:207f
ata2: dev 0 ATA, max UDMA/133, 312581808 sectors: lba48
ata2: dev 0 configured for UDMA/100
scsi1 : sata_sil
Vendor: ATA Model: ST3160023AS Rev: 3.18
Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 05
Vendor: ATA Model: ST3160827AS Rev: 3.00
Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 05
SCSI device sda: 312581808 512-byte hdwr sectors (160042 MB)
SCSI device sda: drive cache: write back
SCSI device sda: 312581808 512-byte hdwr sectors (160042 MB)
SCSI device sda: drive cache: write back
sda: sda1 sda2 sda3
Attached scsi disk sda at scsi0, channel 0, id 0, lun 0
SCSI device sdb: 312581808 512-byte hdwr sectors (160042 MB)
SCSI device sdb: drive cache: write back
SCSI device sdb: 312581808 512-byte hdwr sectors (160042 MB)
SCSI device sdb: drive cache: write back
sdb: sdb1
Attached scsi disk sdb at scsi1, channel 0, id 0, lun 0
Attached scsi generic sg0 at scsi0, channel 0, id 0, lun 0, type 0
Attached scsi generic sg1 at scsi1, channel 0, id 0, lun 0, type 0

IT wouldn't surprise me if the drive was buggy - after all, this is seacrate.

That isn't merely a swipe; I have a couple of seacrate SCSI drives with buggy firmware; they work OK but they keep reporting (spuriously) that they are about to fail.

Visit the Seacrate site, and download their "seatools" suite for testing/configuring their hard drives, and see what that tells you about how the things are set.

Hrm thats extremly disconcerting, I was hoping that this was an issue with buggy drivers for the silicon image chip.

If the drives suck, jeez i donno how im gonna deal with that, surly I thought that these 160 gig seagate 7200.7 drives would be good to go.


These errors occurred during execution:
[08:16:15] data corrupted on disk - maybe you have two copies running?
^^^^
Bit torrent does this at times.

-David

*Shrug*. Could be. I don't run SATA so I have no opinion.

Does anyone here have a recomendation for a good ( mature linux support)_ sub $100 sata card with 2-4 ports?

Highpoint SATA controllers works with kernel version 2.4.x and 2.6.x. I do not suggest using Promise controllers because not all their models have open source drivers (assuming only kernel version 2.4.x) and a lack in independent channels for fast read and write speed for multiple drives.

Seagate SATA hard drives has many problems. One is it has trouble enabling DMA and the other is enabling the DMA mode. I suggest Western Digital or IBM/Hitachi drives. Maxtor SATA hard drives have the same problem as with Seagate drives, but not as bad.

IMHO, Silicon Image sucks because they do not support the controllers very well. Its rare that Silicon Image software will be fix because it depends the next kernel release if the kernel developers had any bug reports of the Silicon Image software.