ATI sb600 : hard drives seen only from liveCD

serafean · 11-17-2006, 01:06 PM

Hi all,

For a couple of weeks now I have been trying to install Gentoo (AMD64) on a new PC: AMD Athlon X2 4600+
ASUS m2r32-mvp
1 GB RAM
250 GB SATA-2 Disk
ATI X1950 XTX

I was pleasantly surprised when the LiveCD booted just fine, and everything seemed to work. I followed the handbook, compiled kernel (genkernel twice and a couple of manual tries) and everything seems fine, until I reboot.

There I get an error saying that the root device doesn't exist, although I checked many times I didn't get the root option wrong (using GRUB).

From what I've found with Google, I figured out that the sb600 (my sata controller) uses the AHCI module. I made sure to compile it into the kernel, and it gave me this error at boot :

Code:

<6>ahci  0000:00:12.0; AHCI 0001.0100 32 slots 4ports 3Gbps 0xf impl IDE mode
<6>ahci 0000:00:12.0: flags 64bit ncq ilck pm led clo pmp pio slum part
<6>ata1:SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xFFFFFC2000008cd00 ctl 0x0 bmdma 0x0 irq 50
<6>ata2:SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xFFFFFC2000008cd00 ctl 0x0 bmdma 0x0 irq 50
<6>ata3:SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xFFFFFC2000008cd00 ctl 0x0 bmdma 0x0 irq 50
<6>ata4:SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xFFFFFC2000008cd00 ctl 0x0 bmdma 0x0 irq 50
<6>scsi0:ahci
<6>ata1.SATA link up 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 Scontrol 300)
<4>IRQ 16, desc ffffffff80622300, depth 1, count 0, unhandled 0
<4>->handle_irq : 000000000000, stext 0x7fdff0e8/0xe8
<4>->Chip() : ffffffff8055c360
<4>IRQ_DISABLED set
<4>IRQ_WAITING set
<4>unexpected IRq tap at vector 10
<4>ata1.00:qc timeout (cmd0xec)
<4>ata1.00 failed to IDENTIFY(I/O error, err_mask=0x104
<6>ata1:SATA Link up 3.0 Gbps(SStatus 123 Scontrol 300)
<4>ata1.00:qc timeout (cmd0xec)
<4>ata1.00 failed to IDENTIFY(I/O error, err_mask=0x104)
<6>ata1:SATA Link up 3.0 Gbps(SStatus 123 Scontrol 300)
<4>ata1.00:qc timeout (cmd0xec)
<4>ata1.00 failed to IDENTIFY(I/O error, err_mask=0x104)
<6>ata1:SATA Link up 3.0 Gbps(SStatus 123 Scontrol 300)
<4>ata1.00:qc timeout (cmd0xec)
<4>ata1.00 failed to IDENTIFY(I/O error, err_mask=0x104)
<6>SCSI1:ahci
<6>sATA1 : SATA link down 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 Scontrol 300)
<6>sATA2 : SATA link down 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 Scontrol 300)
<6>sATA3 : SATA link down 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 Scontrol 300)
<6>sATA4 : SATA link down 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 Scontrol 300)

Is there any other modules that must be compiled into the Kernel in order for it to work? Or is it the Murphy laws again?

Thanks in advance

serafean · 11-24-2006, 09:29 AM

OK, I tried Ubuntu and Fedora Core 6; no success with any of them: Fedora installation doesn't see disks, and Ubuntu just produces the splash screen with funny colors and nothing happens. Gentoo is the winner so far, even though it doesn't work...

serafean · 11-26-2006, 05:41 AM

Another update : Gparted livecd (x86) works, Gentoo x86 Livecd works (but destroys partition table); Gentoo amd64 Livecd doesn't see the disks, Gentoo minimal amd64 and x86 work fine.
BTW : FC 6 is the amd64 version, and with Ubuntu I tried both x86 and amd64.
All in all, I start to feel the CDs that work are quite randomly chosen : all have 2.6.17 kernel.

serafean · 12-01-2006, 07:42 AM

back again : with the 2.6.19 kernel, I get a kernel panic :

Code:

<0>Kernel panic - not syncing: Aiee, killing interrupt handler!

the last thing I see before this is

Quote:

NET registered protocol family 2

Then the screen scrolls very quick and stops at the paanic, with many "00000000000x***" type codes.

please anyone...

serafean · 12-02-2006, 06:39 AM

Still no luck with the Ubuntu 6.10 i386 version... It works perfectly, as a LiveCD without seeing the disks :-(

serafean · 12-03-2006, 10:03 AM

WORKS, after some time I found out that the panic was caused by the pci bridge, I fiddled around with the PCI configuration in the kernel, I think its after deactivating MSI that I overcame the panic.

planoru · 10-10-2007, 01:33 PM

I'm really interested on what U make. I tried to install slackware on a gigabyte ma69gm-s3h(RS600 southbridge). Tried both "Native IDE" and "AHCI" options for my two sata drives. Both cfdisk and fdisk only see a single /dev/hda @ 4GB.
oops, now I see how old this is.