Hi Heinz, Ok I emailed the sil metadata for my 3 older drives to mauelshagen@xxxxxxxxxx per your instructions let me know if you don't receive it. Thanks for looking into this. -James ----- Original Message ----- From: "Heinz Mauelshagen" <mauelshagen@xxxxxxxxxx> To: "ATARAID (eg, Promise Fasttrak, Highpoint 370) related discussions" <ataraid-list@xxxxxxxxxx> Subject: Re: Fw: Re: Fw: medley raid problem Date: Thu, 3 Nov 2005 12:31:37 +0100 > > > James, > > it works but it breaks my design goal to avoid hw ties in dmraid code :( > > Can you send me your metadata dd'ed into files hd[efg].dat, so that I can try > figure another PCI* dependency avoiding approach ? > > Thanks, > Heinz > > On Sun, Oct 30, 2005 at 01:15:58AM -0500, James Olson wrote: > > Hi Molle, > > Thanks for your help. Anyway, the hpa message turned out to be a red herring. The problem > > was actually in the detection of the magic number in the metadata. From sil.c the magic > > number is defined: > > #define SIL_MAGIC 0x2F000000 > > and on my 3 drives I read: > > magic: hdf 0x0F000000 disk_number: 2 > > magic: hdg 0x2F000000 disk_number: 1 > > magic: hde 0x0B000000 disk_number: 0 > > > > so it is finding the metadata but the routine: > > return sil->magic == SIL_MAGIC && sil->disk_number < 8; > > fails for hdf and hde. > > > > I wasn't sure how to fix the magic number detection so I wrote a patch to use the PCI vendor > > and product ID instead, like they do in the working ataraid, medley 2.4 kernel modules, and it > > works! : > > > > --- dmraid.orig/dmraid/1.0.0.rc9/lib/format/ataraid/sil.c 2005-09-22 06:09:02.000000000 -0700 > > +++ dmraid/1.0.0.rc9/lib/format/ataraid/sil.c 2005-10-29 22:50:32.000000000 -0700 > > @@ -128,7 +128,11 @@ > > > > static int is_sil(struct sil *sil) > > { > > - return sil->magic == SIL_MAGIC && sil->disk_number < 8; > > +#define SIL_680_VENDOR_ID 0x1095 > > +#define SIL_680_PRODUCT_ID 0x0680 > > + if ((sil->vendor_id == SIL_680_VENDOR_ID) && (sil->product_id == SIL_680_PRODUCT_ID)) > > + return 1; > > + else return 0; > > } > > > > static int sil_valid(struct lib_context *lc, struct dev_info *di, > > > > ----- Original Message ----- > > From: "Molle Bestefich" <molle.bestefich@xxxxxxxxx> > > To: "ATARAID (eg, Promise Fasttrak, Highpoint 370) related discussions" > > <ataraid-list@xxxxxxxxxx> > > Subject: Re: Fw: Re: Fw: medley raid problem > > Date: Sat, 29 Oct 2005 22:54:28 +0200 > > > > > > James Olson wrote: > > > > 2.4 kernel dmesg log: > > > > hde: 6835952 sectors (3500 MB), CHS=6781/16/63, UDMA(33) > > > > hdf: 6346368 sectors (3249 MB) w/96KiB Cache, CHS=6296/16/63, DMA > > > > hdg: host protected area => 1 > > > > hdg: 6346368 sectors (3249 MB) w/256KiB Cache, CHS=6296/16/63, UDMA(33) > > > > Too bad it doesn't tell you how large the HPA is, otherwise you could > > > subtract that from the total size and look for metadata at the > > > resulting sector... > > > > > Here is the 2.6 log: > > > > hde: FUJITSU MPA3035ATU, ATA DISK drive > > > > hdf: IBM-DAQA-33240, ATA DISK drive > > > > hdg: WDC AC23200L, ATA DISK drive > > > > hde: 6835952 sectors (3500 MB), CHS=6781/16/63, UDMA(33) > > > > hdf: 6346368 sectors (3249 MB) w/96KiB Cache, CHS=6296/16/63, DMA > > > > hdg: 6346368 sectors (3249 MB) w/256KiB Cache, CHS=6296/16/63, UDMA(33) > > > > I've seen 2.6 versions that do tell about HPA areas, I find it suspect > > > that yours doesn't. > > > Perhaps it's a bug (but it really does disable the HPA), perhaps there > > > really is no HPA or perhaps the information has been intentionally > > > removed from newer 2.6 kernels. > > > > Could you compare the number of sectors that Linux tells you above to > > > the number reported by your BIOS? > > > > Just to get you up to speed on HPA: > > > There was some discussion on linux-kernel, and the powers that be > > > (Alan Cox) does not want to change the kernel's current faulty > > > behaviour of automatically disabling the HPA, since that would break > > > things for the few people that has partitions which span the HPA if > > > they upgrade the kernel and do not manually enable the "HPA disable" > > > thing. Most of those people supposedly have BIOSs where they can > > > disable HPA the proper way (the ThinkPad users do, at least), but that > > > argument didn't seem to stick. > > > > The only way forward right now that would pass the Cox barrier is a > > > patch that change all the partition detection code to: > > > * Know about HPA/non-HPA size of physical devices. > > > * Detect partitions that are out-of-bounds of the non-HPA size. > > > * Call IDE code to disable HPA when such partitions are found. > > > > Or patches that: > > > * Change all user code to be aware of HPA versus non-HPA IDE disks. > > > > Both seems overly complex solutions compared to: > > > * Fixing the kernel to behave itself and not disable HPA. > > > * Provide a kernel command line flag or configuration option for > > > those who need to disable HPA manually because they have a horrible > > > BIOS. > > > > But that's how things are right now. > > > > > Also there is some question of the drive geometry between the different kernels. > > > > The hdparm -g outputs differ. > > > > Maybe 2.4 does not disable HPA? > > > 2.6 does (my best guess is that it does so because some IDE developer > > > had a laptop which didn't allow him to disable HPA). > > > > Seems odd though, since the two logs you've given indicate that both > > > kernels see the same number of sectors. What sector count do you get > > > if you run fdisk on the two kernels? > > > > Blah blah. Sorry for the lengthy mail. > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > > > > Ataraid-list@xxxxxxxxxx > > > https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/ataraid-list > > > > > > -- _______________________________________________ > > > > Search for businesses by name, location, or phone number. -Lycos Yellow Pages > > > > http://r.lycos.com/r/yp_emailfooter/http://yellowpages.lycos.com/default.asp?SRC=lycos10 > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > > Ataraid-list@xxxxxxxxxx > > https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/ataraid-list > > =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- > > Heinz Mauelshagen Red Hat GmbH > Consulting Development Engineer Am Sonnenhang 11 > Cluster and Storage Development 56242 Marienrachdorf > Germany > Mauelshagen@xxxxxxxxxx +49 2626 141200 > FAX 924446 > =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- > > _______________________________________________ > > Ataraid-list@xxxxxxxxxx > https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/ataraid-list -- _______________________________________________ Search for businesses by name, location, or phone number. -Lycos Yellow Pages http://r.lycos.com/r/yp_emailfooter/http://yellowpages.lycos.com/default.asp?SRC=lycos10 _______________________________________________ Ataraid-list@xxxxxxxxxx https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/ataraid-list