I have tried many kernels above 2.6.25.20 and give me the error when trying to recognize my SATA drive:
Feb 15 19:21:39 www kernel: ata1: link is slow to respond, please be patient (ready=0)
Feb 15 19:21:39 www kernel: ata1: COMRESET failed (errno=-16)
Feb 15 19:21:39 www kernel: ata1: link is slow to respond, please be patient (ready=0)
Feb 15 19:21:39 www kernel: ata1: COMRESET failed (errno=-16)
Feb 15 19:21:39 www kernel: ata1: link is slow to respond, please be patient (ready=0)
Feb 15 19:21:39 www kernel: ata1: COMRESET failed (errno=-16)
Feb 15 19:21:39 www kernel: ata1: COMRESET failed (errno=-16)
Feb 15 19:21:39 www kernel: ata1: reset failed, giving up

Hardware:
00:0a.0 RAID bus controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6421 IDE RAID Controller (rev 50)


Model Family: Seagate Barracuda 7200.7 and 7200.7 Plus family
Device Model: ST3160023AS
Serial Number: 3JS33KHF
Firmware Version: 3.05
User Capacity: 160,041,885,696 bytes
Device is: In smartctl database [for details use: -P show]
ATA Version is: 6
ATA Standard is: ATA/ATAPI-6 T13 1410D revision 2
Local Time is: Wed Feb 25 10:29:33 2009 EST
SMART support is: Available - device has SMART capability.
SMART support is: Enabled

The Slackware 12.2 install CD does the exact same thing. Since it is an add on PCI card the BIOS does not have any controls to modify its configuration and the configuration options with cards interface are very limited. 2.6.25.20 and earlier kernels work fine. I have googled this thing to death and none of the suggestions seem to work. Any ideas?

There's usually a jumper on the drive that forces it into 1.5 Gb/s mode, I would recommend using that jumper if it isn't already on there, see the manual.

Unfortunately there are no jumpers on this model. I will check though to see if this is an option that can be passed on via SMART.

From the manual page 22, available here:There are jumpers in the same location as the later drives. You would have to contact Seagate to see if the speed lock down procedure is the same.

Edit: Page 20 actually has a clear view.

I just looked and the jumper is already on there. I took off the jumper just to see how it would react, and it did not help the situation. This hard drive had been reclaimed from a lemon MAC G5, not sure if this makes any difference. Thank you for the suggestions though. I would like to upgrade to Slackware 12.2, but since the kernel is above the 2.6.25.20, its is a no go.

Well, this seems to be the most comprehensive post on the problem:
https://bugs.launchpad.net/ubuntu/+s...ux/+bug/256637

It's too bad this is a PCI card SATA controller, I'm not sure how to change the options for it in the BIOS.

Can you post the output of 'lsmod' ?

I know there's two possible modules pata_via and sata_via, maybe if you try the other one than the one you are using it might solve something.

lsmod
Module Size Used by
cisco_ipsec 595836 0
snd_seq_dummy 2564 0
snd_seq_oss 27840 0
snd_seq_midi_event 5824 1 snd_seq_oss
snd_seq 42640 5 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq_midi_event
snd_pcm_oss 36320 0
snd_mixer_oss 13952 1 snd_pcm_oss
ipv6 221284 24
lp 9252 0
parport_pc 23332 0
parport 29704 2 lp,parport_pc
serio_raw 4804 0
snd_via82xx 21848 2
snd_mpu401 5992 0
gameport 9608 1 snd_via82xx
snd_ac97_codec 94436 1 snd_via82xx
ac97_bus 1408 1 snd_ac97_codec
rtc_cmos 7968 0
rtc_core 13784 1 rtc_cmos
rtc_lib 2304 1 rtc_core
snd_pcm 63624 4 snd_pcm_oss,snd_via82xx,snd_ac97_codec
snd_timer 17796 2 snd_seq,snd_pcm
snd_page_alloc 7432 2 snd_via82xx,snd_pcm
snd_mpu401_uart 5952 2 snd_via82xx,snd_mpu401
snd_rawmidi 18016 1 snd_mpu401_uart
snd_seq_device 6156 4 snd_seq_dummy,snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_rawmidi
pata_acpi 4544 0
nvidia 3922824 8
snd 42276 15 snd_seq_oss,snd_seq,snd_pcm_oss,snd_mixer_oss,snd_via82xx,snd_mpu401,snd_ac97_codec,snd_pcm,snd_time r,snd_mpu401_uart,snd_rawmidi,snd_seq_device
soundcore 5280 1 snd
ata_generic 5124 0
i2c_viapro 7316 0
3c59x 37864 0
mii 4352 1 3c59x
ohci1394 27568 0
ieee1394 75832 1 ohci1394
thermal 14684 0
button 5776 0
via_agp 7808 1
processor 20896 1 thermal
agpgart 26352 2 nvidia,via_agp
joydev 8640 0
evdev 8320 4
sg 25776 0

This is the lsmod of the kernel that is working correctly 2.6.25.20. The SATA_VIA and PATA_VIA drivers are hard coded into the kernel so they do not show up in the module list. I used the same .config file to compile the newer kernels and it helps not.

Ok, then I have an idea, make both of them NOT built-in but as modules, it could be a driver conflict.

I loaded the sata_via driver by itself and got :
scsi0 : sata_via
scsi1 : sata_via
scsi2 : sata_via
ata1: SATA max UDMA/133 port i16@0xc000 bmdma 0xd000 irq 18
ata2: SATA max UDMA/133 port i16@0xc400 bmdma 0xd008 irq 18
ata3: PATA max UDMA/133 port i16@0xc800 bmdma 0xd010 irq 18
ata1: link is slow to respond, please be patient (ready=0)
ata1: COMRESET failed (errno=-16)
ata1: link is slow to respond, please be patient (ready=0)
ata1: COMRESET failed (errno=-16)
ata1: link is slow to respond, please be patient (ready=0)
ata1: COMRESET failed (errno=-16)
ata1: COMRESET failed (errno=-16)
ata1: reset failed, giving up
ata2: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 310)

removed sata_via and loaded pata_via and got nothing. Thanks for giving your thought and effort.

~# lspci
00:00.0 Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8377 [KT400/KT600 AGP] Host Bridge
00:01.0 PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8235 PCI Bridge
00:0a.0 RAID bus controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6421 IDE RAID Controller (rev 50)
00:0c.0 Ethernet controller: 3Com Corporation 3c905C-TX/TX-M [Tornado] (rev 78)
00:0d.0 FireWire (IEEE 1394): Texas Instruments TSB43AB23 IEEE-1394a-2000 Controller (PHY/Link)
00:10.0 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 80)
00:10.1 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 80)
00:10.2 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82xxxxx UHCI USB 1.1 Controller (rev 80)
00:10.3 USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. USB 2.0 (rev 82)
00:11.0 ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8235 ISA Bridge
00:11.1 IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C586A/B/VT82C686/A/B/VT823x/A/C PIPC Bus Master IDE (rev 06)
00:11.5 Multimedia audio controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT8233/A/8235/8237 AC97 Audio Controller (rev 50)
01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: nVidia Corporation NV5M64 [RIVA TNT2 Model 64/Model 64 Pro] (rev 15)

Problem seems to Seagate HD. A Maxtor Sata drive works fine. Tried adding identifier to drivers black list that a bunch of other Seagate drives were listed under and drive was still not recognized, have not tried since 2.6.29 though. Seagate refused to give me the firmware update for my drive.

I dunno, but I don't think I'm gonna buy from seagate anymore, not with all the firmware issues they've had recently.