i've inherited a fedora core linux server (build 2.6.20-1.2944.fc6 #1 SMP) which has two SATA drives that are being detected as /dev/hda and /dev/hdc rather than /dev/sda and /dev/sdc respectively.

I believe this is down to a driver problem. I enclose the relevant dmesg details below. The drivers are functioning but are suffering from what I believe to be severely degraded performance so I want to get them working as I believe they should be.

One final complication is that the drives are part of software raid; although I believe its detecting the drives itself so I might just have to change the UUIDs in /etc/mdadm.conf.

Here are the details...


lspci:

00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) 4 port SATA IDE Controller (rev 02)
00:1f.5 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801H (ICH8 Family) 2 port SATA IDE Controller (rev 02)



mount:

/dev/md1 on / type ext3 (rw)



hdparm:

/dev/hda:
Timing cached reads: 5212 MB in 2.00 seconds = 2607.91 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 12 MB in 3.49 seconds = 3.44 MB/sec

/dev/hdc:
Timing cached reads: 5192 MB in 2.00 seconds = 2596.55 MB/sec
Timing buffered disk reads: 12 MB in 3.36 seconds = 3.57 MB/sec



/proc/mdstat:
Personalities : [raid1] [raid6] [raid5] [raid4]
md0 : active raid1 hdc2[0] hda2[1]
4192896 blocks [2/2] [UU]

md1 : active raid1 hdc1[0] hda1[1]
239994880 blocks [2/2] [UU]

unused devices: <none>



blkid /dev/hda*
/dev/hda1: UUID="c9a03701-eac0-4342-a829-e682595bb144" SEC_TYPE="ext2" TYPE="ext3"
/dev/hda2: TYPE="swap"

blkid /dev/hdc*
/dev/hdc1: UUID="c9a03701-eac0-4342-a829-e682595bb144" SEC_TYPE="ext2" TYPE="ext3"
/dev/hdc2: TYPE="swap"



dmesg:

Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 7.00alpha2
ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx
Probing IDE interface ide0...
hda: WDC WD2500JS-60MHB5, ATA DISK drive
Probing IDE interface ide1...
hdc: WDC WD2500JS-60MHB5, ATA DISK drive
ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14
ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15
hda: max request size: 512KiB
hda: 488397168 sectors (250059 MB) w/8192KiB Cache, CHS=30401/255/63
hda: cache flushes supported
hda: hda1 hda2
hdc: max request size: 512KiB
hdc: 488397168 sectors (250059 MB) w/8192KiB Cache, CHS=30401/255/63
hdc: cache flushes supported
hdc: hdc1 hdc2
ide-floppy driver 0.99.newide
md: raid1 personality registered for level 1
raid5: automatically using best checksumming function: pIII_sse
pIII_sse : 5024.000 MB/sec
raid5: using function: pIII_sse (5024.000 MB/sec)
raid6: int32x1 800 MB/s
raid6: int32x2 828 MB/s
raid6: int32x4 902 MB/s
raid6: int32x8 761 MB/s
raid6: mmxx1 1914 MB/s
raid6: mmxx2 1964 MB/s
raid6: sse1x1 1167 MB/s
raid6: sse1x2 1269 MB/s
raid6: sse2x1 2343 MB/s
raid6: sse2x2 2285 MB/s
raid6: using algorithm sse2x1 (2343 MB/s)
md: raid6 personality registered for level 6
md: raid5 personality registered for level 5
md: raid4 personality registered for level 4
SCSI subsystem initialized
libata version 2.00 loaded.
ata_piix 0000:00:1f.2: version 2.00ac7
ata_piix 0000:00:1f.2: MAP [ P0 P2 P1 P3 ]
ata: 0x1F0 IDE port busy
ata: conflict with ide0
ata: 0x170 IDE port busy
ata: conflict with ide1
ata_piix: probe of 0000:00:1f.2 failed with error -16
ata_piix 0000:00:1f.5: MAP [ P0 P2 P1 P3 ]
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1f.5 to 64
ata1: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0x2118 ctl 0x2132 bmdma 0x20E0 irq 18
ata2: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0x2120 ctl 0x2136 bmdma 0x20E8 irq 18
scsi0 : ata_piix
ATA: abnormal status 0x7F on port 0x211F
scsi1 : ata_piix
ATA: abnormal status 0x7F on port 0x2127
md: Autodetecting RAID arrays.
md: autorun ...
md: considering hdc2 ...
md: adding hdc2 ...
md: hdc1 has different UUID to hdc2
md: adding hda2 ...
md: hda1 has different UUID to hdc2
md: created md0
md: bind<hda2>
md: bind<hdc2>
md: running: <hdc2><hda2>
raid1: raid set md0 active with 2 out of 2 mirrors
md: considering hdc1 ...
md: adding hdc1 ...
md: adding hda1 ...
md: created md1
md: bind<hda1>
md: bind<hdc1>
md: running: <hdc1><hda1>
raid1: raid set md1 active with 2 out of 2 mirrors
md: ... autorun DONE.
md: Autodetecting RAID arrays.
md: autorun ...
md: ... autorun DONE.
kjournald starting. Commit interval 5 seconds
EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with ordered data mode.
md: Autodetecting RAID arrays.
md: autorun ...
md: ... autorun DONE.
device-mapper: ioctl: 4.11.0-ioctl (2006-10-12) initialised: dm-devel@redhat.com
device-mapper: multipath: version 1.0.5 loaded
EXT3 FS on md1, internal journal
Adding 4192888k swap on /dev/md0. Priority:-1 extents:1 across:4192888k

My first thought is to check a few things. I have been lucky I guess as all of my sata devices have come up as scsi devices.

1. Check the BIOS to see if the SATA controller configuration can be changed. I dont recall all the options but seems there is some legacy and different modes you can change that make it appear differently to the OS.

2. You may try to get this working via live/rescue CDas have the devices load as sata by tweaking the BIOS or drivers and then build a new initial ram disk using mkinitrd from the live/rescue CD under chroot.

3. Finally trying loading some sata drivers via the /etc/modprobe.conf file such as 'sata_sil' or 'sata_via'.

Your disk timings seem pretty low if mine are a decent comparison. Seems like we both have 250gb sata.

Timing buffered disk reads: over 50 MB/sec
Timing cached reads: Over 1000 MB/sec

You seem to have a lot of swap space. I thought I read somewhere that swap should be around 50% of ram.

Interesting that sata drives load up as ide.

You can see where the sata driver for your board tries to load. ata_pIIx is found in kernel config for: Intel ESB, ICH, PIIX3, PIIX4 PATA/SATA support (ATA_PIIX), under Device Drivers -> Serial ATA

I agree with previous post that you should check in bios to see if HDs are in ide mode. Look and see if you can change them to sata or ahci mode.

I've never used hardware raid but is it possible that might be a factor also?

ok, i've checked out the bios and confirmed by looking at the hardware. This is the bios information:


Bios name: Hewlett-Packard Setup Utility
Version: 786E2 v01.01

Storage Device Config:

SATA0 250GB
SATA1 250GB


Transfer Mode (one of):

Max UDMA (this is selected)
PIO 0
Max PIO
Advanced DMA
Ultra DMA 0


Sata Controller: IRQ5



This has left me more confused. If i understand correctly, arn't all those transfer modes to do with ide? I didn't know they applied to SATA too and in either case, which is best and what affect will changing it have on the system?

There are no other related settings in the bios at all.


I don't have a live/rescue CD as I inherited this system. Im also reluctant about making any changes just to test since this is a production server and i cannot replicate the issue on another server for testing purposes so I want to be fairly sure about what im doing before I put the machine out of use for a day to make the changes and test.

I have 4GB ram in this machine; actually i think it might be more but only 4 are being used.

Which motherboard do you have?