Can't get SATA drive in AHCI mode, stuck with ata_piix
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Can't get SATA drive in AHCI mode, stuck with ata_piix
Hello Linux gurus, I need your help. I realized after spending some time performance tuning my mini Linux server that the hard drive is stuck in IDE mode, and I can't get the controller to be discovered in AHCI mode.
EDIT: I should add that I'm running Vector Linux 6.0 Lite, which is based on Slackware 13.0. The Kernel version is 2.6.27.12.
The mobo in question is actually a small mini-ITX board from Foxconn. Here is a links to the specs: http://www.foxconnchannel.com/Produc...D=en-us0000404
I use it for a media server, and so far the drive I'm using (Hitachi HDE721010SLA330) is working fine in IDE mode (apparently).
I have a strong suspicion that the crappy Foxconn BIOS supplied with the board is not initializing the Intel 945GC controller in AHCI mode. There is a BIOS entry for setting the controller to "Advanced", but I don't think it's doing the job.
My understanding is that the 945GC chipset supports AHCI mode (I believe it's an ICH7 variant). I saw a posting here which seems to say that any PCI device listed with an ID of 0x0101 is in IDE mode. I take it that an ID of 0x010601 is what I want for AHCI mode. From that post, it seems like this is the job of the BIOS to set that stuff.
When I look at my dmesg logs, I see the driver being loaded is ata_piix. My understanding is that I want the ahci driver loaded. Here is a clip of my dmesg when the storage subsystem is initialized:
Code:
Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver
piix 0000:00:1f.1: IDE controller (0x8086:0x27df rev 0x01)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKC] enabled at IRQ 10
PCI: setting IRQ 10 as level-triggered
pci 0000:00:1f.1: PCI INT A -> Link[LNKC] -> GSI 10 (level, low) -> IRQ 10
piix 0000:00:1f.1: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later
ide0: BM-DMA at 0xffa0-0xffa7
ide1: BM-DMA at 0xffa8-0xffaf
Probing IDE interface ide0...
Probing IDE interface ide1...
ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14
ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15
Loading iSCSI transport class v2.0-870.
Driver 'sd' needs updating - please use bus_type methods
ata_piix 0000:00:1f.2: version 2.12
ata_piix 0000:00:1f.2: PCI INT B -> Link[LNKD] -> GSI 11 (level, low) -> IRQ 11
ata_piix 0000:00:1f.2: MAP [ P0 P2 P1 P3 ]
ata_piix 0000:00:1f.2: setting latency timer to 64
scsi0 : ata_piix
scsi1 : ata_piix
ata1: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xe880 ctl 0xe800 bmdma 0xe080 irq 11
ata2: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xe480 ctl 0xe400 bmdma 0xe088 irq 11
ata2.00: HPA detected: current 1953523055, native 1953525168
ata2.00: ATA-8: Hitachi HDE721010SLA330, ST6OA3AA, max UDMA/133
ata2.00: 1953523055 sectors, multi 16: LBA48 NCQ (depth 0/32)
ata2.00: configured for UDMA/133
scsi 1:0:0:0: Direct-Access ATA Hitachi HDE72101 ST6O PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] 1953523055 512-byte hardware sectors (1000204 MB)
sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] 1953523055 512-byte hardware sectors (1000204 MB)
sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
sda: sda1 sda2 < sda5 >
sd 1:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI disk
sd 1:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg0 type 0
Is there anything I can do to get the drive/controller in ahci mode, or is the BIOS screwing me?
Last edited by Silverpike; 04-07-2010 at 12:05 AM.
I think you should make sure you have the latest version of the BIOS, and see the manual for a way to put the controller in AHCI mode. Do you know where the manual is, I think the link is broken on the foxconn site.
I think you should make sure you have the latest version of the BIOS, and see the manual for a way to put the controller in AHCI mode. Do you know where the manual is, I think the link is broken on the foxconn site.
I checked, and I do indeed have the latest version loaded. I will recheck the manual in case I missed something.
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