sata_nv does not function in kernel > 2.6.20.21

Hello Storage Controller Experts,

I am writing this mail to you to request your assistance in resolving a functionality regression in my sata_nv controller driver in recent Linux kernels. I am hoping you can assist me in finding a solution to this because my TV tuner card is dependent on some fixes in the newer kernels but using the newer kernels causes some of my storage volumes to be unreadable, thereby putting me in a catch-22 situation. Please let me know if any other omitted information is required for diagnostics.

Sorry for the delay in contacting you promptly but:

1) I attempted to contact the maintainer listed directly in the driver source code and he never replied.

2) I was holding out the mistaken hope that the problem was transient and would be resolved without my intervention.

Disclaimer: I am sure one of you will notice I am using the nvidia binary video graphics driver on this system... I say this to provide full disclosure that I am aware of the implications and of course I am willing to disable the driver for diagnostic purposes. I have tried running the system without the driver loaded and did not find any change in behavior but if you think it is part of the problem please let me know.

I am using the Supermicro H8DCE motherboard. Some (not all) of the SATA channels quit working due to some kind of resource conflict when I upgrade to any kernel above 2.6.20.xx series, in my case I am running 2.6.20.21 SMP x86_64 presently.

The boot error which appears in dmesg for the missing SATA channels on 2.6.23.12 is pasted below and a compressed copy of my configuration file for 2.6.23.12 is attached.

The dmesg for 2.6.20.21 is attached and note the configuration is the same except for being run through make oldconfig.

Best Regards,
Matthew Hall

ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LT3D] enabled at IRQ 46
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:80:07.0[A] -> Link [LT3D] -> GSI 46 (level, low) -> IRQ 46
sata_nv 0000:80:07.0: Using ADMA mode
PCI: Unable to reserve mem region #6:1000@dfefe000 for device 0000:80:07.0
ACPI: PCI interrupt for device 0000:80:07.0 disabled
sata_nv: probe of 0000:80:07.0 failed with error -16
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LT2E] enabled at IRQ 45
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:80:08.0[A] -> Link [LT2E] -> GSI 45 (level, low) -> IRQ 45
sata_nv 0000:80:08.0: Using ADMA mode
PCI: Unable to reserve mem region #6:1000@dfefd000 for device 0000:80:08.0
ACPI: PCI interrupt for device 0000:80:08.0 disabled
sata_nv: probe of 0000:80:08.0 failed with error -16

Could you provide an 'lspci -v' and a 'cat /proc/iomem' for both kernels please? This doesn't seem to be a scsi problem per se, so I'm adding linux-kernel and linux-ide -- can you drop linux-scsi from any reply please.

Intel are signing my paycheques ... these opinions are still mine
"Bill, look, we understand that you're interested in selling us this
operating system, but compare it to ours.  We can't possibly take such
a retrograde step."

Matthew,

I attached the requested materials to this mail.

Sorry, my mistake... since SATA was located under the SCSI section of the kernel and I have not posted previously I was not sure where to go with this one.

Error -16 is EBUSY, which causes the driver load to fail due to the "Unable to reserve mem region" message.

This means that the sata_nv driver needed to use PCI BAR 6, but was unable to for some reason. Given that sata_nv uses devres like other libata drivers, IMO the likely cause is outside the ATA subsystem (PCI? ACPI?).

One workaround to try is setting sata_nv module option 'adma' to zero (0), in the hopes that it ignores that final region and work anyway.

Jeff

I will follow up on this with the appropriate subsystem lists ASAP. Thanks for getting me redirected appropriately.

I am not quite sure what to do about this part... my boot device for the system is on one of the sata_nv channels which remains functional and does not get disabled by the resource conflict.

How shall I best attempt the suggested workaround without having to delete the sata_nv driver from the kernel thus rendering the kernel unbootable on this machine? Is there some way to pass the appropriate option at boot instead of at module load time or some file I could modify to enable the specified option in the code?

Thanks for the fast reply!
Matthew Hall

If you build the driver into the kernel, then pass "sata_nv.adma=0" on the kernel command line.

Otherwise, look into how your distro sets module options... probably editing /etc/modprobe.conf. You may need to regenerate critical boot files such as initramfs (aka initrd) afterwards, again distro specific (try mkinitrd). Set module option "adma=0" for the sata_nv module.

Jeff

Actually it looks to me like there is something very odd going on here. The sata_nv code checks each of the 6 resources exists (wrongly - it does it before pcim_enable_device so the check is probably not valid). That would report -ENODEV.

EBUSY implies all 6 resources were assigned but one couldn't be mapped.