ST340823A disk size issue - Revisited

Hi,

I found the above thread while searching for the reason I was getting lots of errors while trying to build out a new server. Yes, I am using an ST340823A drive. However, I am getting slightly different results for the drive capacity, which I'm not sure if that could cause issues with the patch.

I actually have 2 of these drives. One is in a WinBlows machine, and the other is in my new server. Using an Ubuntu Live CD, I was able to verify that the drive in the WinBlows machine is behaving exactly the same as the original problem report. However, the drive in my server, running Slackware 11.0, reports a different "current capacity", as shown here:

Linux version 2.6.17.13 (root@tree) (gcc version 3.4.6) #1 Sat Sep 9 01:11:49 CDT 2006
...
Probing IDE interface ide0...
hda: ST340823A, ATA DISK drive
hdb: ATAPI CDROM, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14
Probing IDE interface ide1...
Probing IDE interface ide1...
hda: max request size: 128KiB
hda: Host Protected Area detected.

       current capacity is 78165359 sectors (40020 MB)
       native  capacity is 78165361 sectors (40020 MB)

hda: Host Protected Area disabled.
hda: 78165361 sectors (40020 MB) w/512KiB Cache, CHS=65535/16/63, UDMA(100)
hda: cache flushes not supported
hda: hda1 hda2
hdb: ATAPI 44X CD-ROM drive, 128kB Cache, UDMA(33)
Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.20
...
hda: dma_intr: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
hda: dma_intr: error=0x10 { SectorIdNotFound }, LBAsect=78165360, sector=78165360
ide: failed opcode was: unknown
hda: dma_intr: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
hda: dma_intr: error=0x10 { SectorIdNotFound }, LBAsect=78165360, sector=78165360
ide: failed opcode was: unknown
hda: dma_intr: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
hda: dma_intr: error=0x10 { SectorIdNotFound }, LBAsect=78165360, sector=78165360
ide: failed opcode was: unknown
hda: dma_intr: status=0x51 { DriveReady SeekComplete Error }
hda: dma_intr: error=0x10 { SectorIdNotFound }, LBAsect=78165360, sector=78165360
ide: failed opcode was: unknown
hda: DMA disabled
hdb: DMA disabled
ide0: reset: success
hda: task_in_intr: status=0x59 { DriveReady SeekComplete DataRequest Error }
hda: task_in_intr: error=0x10 { SectorIdNotFound }, LBAsect=78230639, sector=78165360
ide: failed opcode was: unknown
hda: task_in_intr: status=0x59 { DriveReady SeekComplete DataRequest Error }
hda: task_in_intr: error=0x10 { SectorIdNotFound }, LBAsect=78230639, sector=78165360
ide: failed opcode was: unknown
hda: task_in_intr: status=0x59 { DriveReady SeekComplete DataRequest Error }
hda: task_in_intr: error=0x10 { SectorIdNotFound }, LBAsect=78230639, sector=78165360
ide: failed opcode was: unknown
hda: task_in_intr: status=0x59 { DriveReady SeekComplete DataRequest Error }
hda: task_in_intr: error=0x10 { SectorIdNotFound }, LBAsect=78230639, sector=78165360
ide: failed opcode was: unknown
ide0: reset: success
hda: task_in_intr: status=0x59 { DriveReady SeekComplete DataRequest Error }
hda: task_in_intr: error=0x10 { SectorIdNotFound }, LBAsect=78230639, sector=78165360
ide: failed opcode was: unknown
end_request: I/O error, dev hda, sector 78165360
Buffer I/O error on device hda, logical block 78165360
etc. etc.

Here is the hdparm information from the server:

/dev/hda:

ATA device, with non-removable media

       Model Number:       ST340823A
       Serial Number:      6EF00RGK
       Firmware Revision:  3.54

Standards:
Supported: 4 3 2
Likely used: 6
Configuration:

       Logical         max     current
       cylinders       16383   16383
       heads           16      16
       sectors/track   63      63
       --
       CHS current addressable sectors:   16514064
       LBA    user addressable sectors:   78165360
       device size with M = 1024*1024:       38166 MBytes
       device size with M = 1000*1000:       40020 MBytes (40 GB)

Capabilities:
LBA, IORDY(can be disabled)
Standby timer values: spec'd by Standard
R/W multiple sector transfer: Max = 16 Current = ? Recommended acoustic management value: 128, current value: 0
DMA: mdma0 mdma1 mdma2 udma0 udma1 udma2 udma3 udma4 *udma5
Cycle time: min=120ns recommended=120ns
PIO: pio0 pio1 pio2 pio3 pio4
Cycle time: no flow control=240ns IORDY flow control=120ns
Commands/features:
Enabled Supported:
* SMART feature set
Security Mode feature set
* Power Management feature set
* Write cache
* Look-ahead
* Host Protected Area feature set
* WRITE_BUFFER command
* READ_BUFFER command
* DOWNLOAD_MICROCODE
* SET_MAX security extension
Automatic Acoustic Management feature set
Security:
Master password revision code = 65534
supported
not enabled
not locked
frozen
not expired: security count
not supported: enhanced erase
HW reset results:
CBLID- below Vih
Device num = 1
Checksum: correct

And a diff between the 2 disks:

6c6
< Serial Number: 6EF00RGK
---

48c48
< frozen
---

52c52
< CBLID- below Vih
---

I also ran the Ubuntu Live CD against the server, and it reported exactly the same values and errors as Slackware, so the difference in kernel level is not an issue.

I'm quite happy to try and build a kernel with the patches, to see if it helps/fails with this different capacity, as long as someone can point me at which level to download, and which patches I need to apply.

Cheers,
Eddie

An update to this. I applied the latest patch set at the time, rc3 + git7, and it all appeared to work. I didn't get the errors any more.

Well, I didn't the first time I checked. :)

Now I've noticed that they are happening again. Sometimes. Here's the interesting part, this is what I saw one time:

Linux version 2.6.23-rc3-git7-smp (root@Brutus) (gcc version 3.4.6) #2 SMP Wed Aug 29 04:12:27 PDT 2007
...
hda: Host Protected Area detected.

       current capacity is 78165357 sectors (40020 MB)
       native  capacity is 78165361 sectors (40020 MB)

hda: Host Protected Area disabled.
hda: 78165361 sectors (40020 MB) w/512KiB Cache, CHS=65535/16/63, UDMA(100)

Notice the current capacity. It's low by 4 sectors, where previously it was only 2. My guess is that my "working" versions were when the sector count was an even number, which is why I questioned the patch initially. Looking back through my /var/log/syslog, I see capacities of, in chronological sequence:

78165359
78165360
78165360
78165359
78165359
78165357
78165357
78165358
78165357
78165359

Weird.

Cheers,
Eddie