Package: linux-image-2.6.18-5-686 Version: 2.6.18.dfsg.1-13etch4 Severity: important
We are experiencing completely reproducible problems accessing S-ATA drives, connected to one or more Promise SX8 S-ATA controllers. The controller is recognized by the default Debian kernel, and the attached drives appear as the devices under /dev/sx8/. When we create a reasonably high load concurrently for more than one drive (such as running two simultaneous "mkfs" processes), the processes lock up indefinitely, and the load average starts climbing to approximately 2xN, where N is the number of disks, accessed simultaneously. After such lock-up, the drives are completely inaccessible. The problem can be reproduced with one or two cards on the same system. We have three SX8 controllers altogether, and two identical motherboards, and the problem can be reproduced with all combinations of these. We don't pass any boot-time kernel options to the SX8 driver, and we have tagged commands disabled in the firmware configuration. The SX8 cards are the only add-on cards on the system. We found a work around for ourselves: we noted that, if we boot with a Knoppix 5.0.1 CD-ROM, the above problem does not appear. So we compiled a custom kernel (2.6.23.1 from kernel.org), using the .config file from the kernel that's on Knoppix 5.0.1 CD. This worked: the problem cannot be reproduced with that kernel on the same system. We would very much prefer to use the stock Debian kernel, though. The Promise SX8 cards we are using have been updated to the latest firmware. The motherboard is the SuperMicro PDSME, also flashed to the latest BIOS. Here are product information pages: http://www.promise.com/product/product_detail_eng.asp?product_id=125 http://www.supermicro.com/products/motherboard/PD/E7230/PDSME.cfm I'll paste the output of lspci and a snippet of `dmesg' in the end of this report. For your information, I found this open CentOS bug report: http://bugs.centos.org/view.php?id=2355 This looks exactly like the problem we are experiencing. p.s. I am not sure whether I can attach the working kernel configuration file to this message: I'm using the reportbug command and so far it has not offered to attach a file. Should I just paste it in? The output of lspci: 00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation E7230 Memory Controller Hub (rev 81) 00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation E7230 PCI Express Root Port (rev 81) 00:1c.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 1 (rev 01) 00:1c.4 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801GR/GH/GHM (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 5 (rev 01) 00:1c.5 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801GR/GH/GHM (ICH7 Family) PCI Express Port 6 (rev 01) 00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI #1 (rev 01) 00:1d.1 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI #2 (rev 01) 00:1d.2 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI #3 (rev 01) 00:1d.3 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB UHCI #4 (rev 01) 00:1d.7 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) USB2 EHCI Controller (rev 01) 00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev e1) 00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801GB/GR (ICH7 Family) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 01) 00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) IDE Controller (rev 01) 00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801GB/GR/GH (ICH7 Family) Serial ATA Storage Controller IDE (rev 01) 00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801G (ICH7 Family) SMBus Controller (rev 01) 01:00.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6700PXH PCI Express-to-PCI Bridge A (rev 09) 01:00.1 PIC: Intel Corporation 6700/6702PXH I/OxAPIC Interrupt Controller A (rev 09) 01:00.2 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 6700PXH PCI Express-to-PCI Bridge B (rev 09) 01:00.3 PIC: Intel Corporation 6700PXH I/OxAPIC Interrupt Controller B (rev 09) 03:01.0 Mass storage controller: Promise Technology, Inc. SATAII150 SX8 (rev 02) 03:03.0 Mass storage controller: Promise Technology, Inc. SATAII150 SX8 (rev 02) 05:00.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82573E Gigabit Ethernet Controller (Copper) (rev 03) 06:00.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82573L Gigabit Ethernet Controller 0a:04.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Rage XL (rev 27) Snippet of `dmesg': x8 version 1.0 ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:03:01.0[A] -> GSI 48 (level, low) -> IRQ 58 sx8(0000:03:01.0): found 5 interesting devices sx8(0000:03:01.0): port 0 device 781422768 sectors sx8(0000:03:01.0): port 0 device "ST3400633AS" sx8(0000:03:01.0): port 1 device 781422768 sectors sx8(0000:03:01.0): port 1 device "ST3400633AS" sx8(0000:03:01.0): port 2 device 781422768 sectors sx8(0000:03:01.0): port 2 device "ST3400633AS" sx8(0000:03:01.0): port 3 device 781422768 sectors sx8(0000:03:01.0): port 3 device "ST3400633AS" sx8(0000:03:01.0): port 4 device 781422768 sectors sx8(0000:03:01.0): port 4 device "ST3400633AS" sx8/0: p1 sx8/1: p1 sx8/2: p1 sx8/3:<6>ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:1f.3[B] -> GSI 19 (level, low) -> IRQ 233 p1 sx8/4: p1 sx8(0000:03:01.0): 5 ports activated sx80: pci 0000:03:01.0, ports 8, io ed300000, irq 58, major 160 ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:03:03.0[A] -> GSI 52 (level, low) -> IRQ 66 sx8(0000:03:03.0): found 0 interesting devices sx8(0000:03:03.0): 0 ports activated sx81: pci 0000:03:03.0, ports 8, io ed400000, irq 66, major 161 Please let me know if you require any more information. -- System Information: Debian Release: 4.0 APT prefers stable APT policy: (500, 'stable') Architecture: i386 (i686) Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash Kernel: Linux 2.6.18-5-686 Locale: LANG=C, LC_CTYPE=C (charmap=ANSI_X3.4-1968) Versions of packages linux-image-2.6.18-5-686 depends on: ii coreutils 5.97-5.3 The GNU core utilities ii debconf [debconf-2.0] 1.5.11 Debian configuration management sy ii initramfs-tools [linux-initra 0.85h tools for generating an initramfs ii module-init-tools 3.3-pre4-2 tools for managing Linux kernel mo Versions of packages linux-image-2.6.18-5-686 recommends: pn libc6-i686 <none> (no description available) -- debconf information: linux-image-2.6.18-5-686/preinst/failed-to-move-modules-2.6.18-5-686: linux-image-2.6.18-5-686/postinst/create-kimage-link-2.6.18-5-686: true linux-image-2.6.18-5-686/preinst/initrd-2.6.18-5-686: shared/kernel-image/really-run-bootloader: true linux-image-2.6.18-5-686/preinst/lilo-has-ramdisk: linux-image-2.6.18-5-686/preinst/abort-install-2.6.18-5-686: linux-image-2.6.18-5-686/postinst/old-system-map-link-2.6.18-5-686: true linux-image-2.6.18-5-686/postinst/kimage-is-a-directory: linux-image-2.6.18-5-686/preinst/elilo-initrd-2.6.18-5-686: true linux-image-2.6.18-5-686/postinst/bootloader-test-error-2.6.18-5-686: linux-image-2.6.18-5-686/preinst/abort-overwrite-2.6.18-5-686: linux-image-2.6.18-5-686/prerm/would-invalidate-boot-loader-2.6.18-5-686: true linux-image-2.6.18-5-686/postinst/depmod-error-initrd-2.6.18-5-686: false linux-image-2.6.18-5-686/prerm/removing-running-kernel-2.6.18-5-686: true linux-image-2.6.18-5-686/postinst/bootloader-error-2.6.18-5-686: linux-image-2.6.18-5-686/postinst/depmod-error-2.6.18-5-686: false linux-image-2.6.18-5-686/preinst/already-running-this-2.6.18-5-686: linux-image-2.6.18-5-686/preinst/lilo-initrd-2.6.18-5-686: true linux-image-2.6.18-5-686/preinst/overwriting-modules-2.6.18-5-686: true linux-image-2.6.18-5-686/preinst/bootloader-initrd-2.6.18-5-686: true linux-image-2.6.18-5-686/postinst/old-dir-initrd-link-2.6.18-5-686: true linux-image-2.6.18-5-686/postinst/old-initrd-link-2.6.18-5-686: true -- To UNSUBSCRIBE, email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with a subject of "unsubscribe". Trouble? Contact [EMAIL PROTECTED]
