I tried to convert a machine with an Intel 815EP chipset from IDE to libata. There's a single master disk on the first channel, and a single master CDROM on the second. With kernel 2.6.21-rc3 and the IDE PIIX driver things work fine: Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 7.00alpha2 ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx ICH2: IDE controller at PCI slot 0000:00:1f.1 ICH2: chipset revision 5 ICH2: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later ide0: BM-DMA at 0xf000-0xf007, BIOS settings: hda:DMA, hdb:pio ide1: BM-DMA at 0xf008-0xf00f, BIOS settings: hdc:DMA, hdd:pio Probing IDE interface ide0... hda: IC35L080AVVA07-0, ATA DISK drive ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14 Probing IDE interface ide1... hdc: CRD-8320B, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15 hda: max request size: 128KiB hda: 160836480 sectors (82348 MB) w/1863KiB Cache, CHS=65535/16/63, UDMA(100) hda: cache flushes supported hda: hda1 hda2 hda3 hda4 < hda5 hda6 > ... hdc: ATAPI 32X CD-ROM drive, 128kB Cache, DMA Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.20 But with 2.6.21-rc3 and ata_piix only the disk is detected, and there is a lot of EH activity on the second channel: libata version 2.20 loaded. ... ata_piix 0000:00:1f.1: version 2.10 PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:1f.1 to 64 ata1: PATA max UDMA/100 cmd 0x000101f0 ctl 0x000103f6 bmdma 0x0001f000 irq 14 ata2: PATA max UDMA/100 cmd 0x00010170 ctl 0x00010376 bmdma 0x0001f008 irq 15 scsi0 : ata_piix ata1.00: ATA-5: IC35L080AVVA07-0, VA4OA52A, max UDMA/100 ata1.00: 160836480 sectors, multi 16: LBA ata1.00: configured for UDMA/100 scsi1 : ata_piix ATA: abnormal status 0x7F on port 0x00010177 ATA: abnormal status 0x7F on port 0x00010177 ata2.00: ATAPI, max MWDMA2 ata2.00: configured for MWDMA2 scsi 0:0:0:0: Direct-Access ATA IC35L080AVVA07-0 VA4O PQ: 0 ANSI: 5 SCSI device sda: 160836480 512-byte hdwr sectors (82348 MB) sda: Write Protect is off sda: Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00 SCSI device sda: write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA SCSI device sda: 160836480 512-byte hdwr sectors (82348 MB) sda: Write Protect is off sda: Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00 SCSI device sda: write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA sda: sda1 sda2 sda3 sda4 < sda5 sda6 > sd 0:0:0:0: Attached scsi disk sda ata2.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x2 frozen ata2.00: cmd a0/01:00:00:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/a0 tag 0 cdb 0x12 data 36 in res 40/00:00:00:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/00 Emask 0x4 (timeout) ata2: port is slow to respond, please be patient (Status 0xd0) ata2: soft resetting port ATA: abnormal status 0x7F on port 0x00010177 ATA: abnormal status 0x7F on port 0x00010177 ata2.00: configured for MWDMA2 ata2: EH complete ata2.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x2 frozen ata2.00: cmd a0/01:00:00:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/a0 tag 0 cdb 0x12 data 36 in res 40/00:00:00:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/00 Emask 0x4 (timeout) ata2: port is slow to respond, please be patient (Status 0xd0) ata2: soft resetting port ATA: abnormal status 0x7F on port 0x00010177 ATA: abnormal status 0x7F on port 0x00010177 ata2.00: configured for MWDMA2 ata2: EH complete ata2.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x2 frozen ata2.00: cmd a0/01:00:00:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/a0 tag 0 cdb 0x12 data 36 in res 40/00:00:00:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/00 Emask 0x4 (timeout) ata2: port is slow to respond, please be patient (Status 0xd0) ata2: soft resetting port ATA: abnormal status 0x7F on port 0x00010177 ATA: abnormal status 0x7F on port 0x00010177 ata2.00: configured for MWDMA2 ata2: EH complete ata2.00: limiting speed to MWDMA1:PIO4 ata2.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x2 frozen ata2.00: cmd a0/01:00:00:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/a0 tag 0 cdb 0x12 data 36 in res 40/00:00:00:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/00 Emask 0x4 (timeout) ata2: port is slow to respond, please be patient (Status 0xd0) ata2: soft resetting port ATA: abnormal status 0x7F on port 0x00010177 ATA: abnormal status 0x7F on port 0x00010177 ata2.00: configured for MWDMA1 ata2: EH complete At this point libata gave up on the second channel. With the CDROM connected to the PATA port on a Promise TX2plus, things go a little better: sata_promise 0000:02:02.0: version 2.00 sata_promise PATA port found ata3: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xe081e200 ctl 0xe081e238 bmdma 0x00000000 irq 22 ata4: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xe081e280 ctl 0xe081e2b8 bmdma 0x00000000 irq 22 ata5: PATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xe081e300 ctl 0xe081e338 bmdma 0x00000000 irq 22 scsi2 : sata_promise ata3: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 300) scsi3 : sata_promise ata4: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 300) scsi4 : sata_promise ATA: abnormal status 0x58 on port 0xe081e31c ATA: abnormal status 0x58 on port 0xe081e31c ATA: abnormal status 0x58 on port 0xe081e31c ATA: abnormal status 0x58 on port 0xe081e31c ATA: abnormal status 0x58 on port 0xe081e31c ata5.00: failed to IDENTIFY (I/O error, err_mask=0x101) ata5.00: ATAPI, max MWDMA2 ata5.00: Drive reports diagnostics failure. This may indicate a drive ata5.00: fault or invalid emulation. Contact drive vendor for information. ata5.00: configured for MWDMA2 scsi 4:0:0:0: CD-ROM GoldStar CD-ROM CRD-8320B 1.12 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5 but shortly thereafter EH triggers: pdc_error_intr: port_status 0x20200000 serror 0x00000000 ata5.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x2 frozen ata5.00: (port_status 0x20200000) ata5.00: cmd a0/00:00:00:00:20/00:00:00:00:00/a0 tag 0 cdb 0x0 data 0 res ff/ff:ff:ff:ff:ff/00:00:00:00:00/ff Emask 0x3 (HSM violation) ata5: soft resetting port ata5.00: qc timeout (cmd 0xa1) ata5.00: failed to IDENTIFY (I/O error, err_mask=0x104) ata5.00: revalidation failed (errno=-5) ata5: failed to recover some devices, retrying in 5 secs ata5: soft resetting port ata5.00: configured for MWDMA2 ata5: EH complete pdc_error_intr: port_status 0x20200000 serror 0x00000000 ata5.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x2 frozen ata5.00: (port_status 0x20200000) ata5.00: cmd a0/00:00:00:00:20/00:00:00:00:00/a0 tag 0 cdb 0x0 data 0 res ff/ff:ff:ff:ff:ff/00:00:00:00:00/ff Emask 0x3 (HSM violation) ata5: soft resetting port ata5.00: qc timeout (cmd 0xa1) ata5.00: failed to IDENTIFY (I/O error, err_mask=0x104) ata5.00: revalidation failed (errno=-5) ata5: failed to recover some devices, retrying in 5 secs ata5: soft resetting port ata5.00: configured for MWDMA2 ata5: EH complete pdc_error_intr: port_status 0x20200000 serror 0x00000000 ata5.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x2 frozen ata5.00: (port_status 0x20200000) ata5.00: cmd a0/00:00:00:00:20/00:00:00:00:00/a0 tag 0 cdb 0x0 data 0 res ff/ff:ff:ff:ff:ff/00:00:00:00:00/ff Emask 0x3 (HSM violation) ata5: soft resetting port ata5.00: qc timeout (cmd 0xa1) ata5.00: failed to IDENTIFY (I/O error, err_mask=0x104) ata5.00: revalidation failed (errno=-5) ata5: failed to recover some devices, retrying in 5 secs ata5: soft resetting port ata5.00: configured for MWDMA2 ata5: EH complete pdc_error_intr: port_status 0x20200000 serror 0x00000000 ata5.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x2 frozen ata5.00: (port_status 0x20200000) ata5.00: cmd a0/00:00:00:00:20/00:00:00:00:00/a0 tag 0 cdb 0x0 data 0 res ff/ff:ff:ff:ff:ff/00:00:00:00:00/ff Emask 0x3 (HSM violation) ata5: soft resetting port ata5.00: qc timeout (cmd 0xa1) ata5.00: failed to IDENTIFY (I/O error, err_mask=0x104) ata5.00: revalidation failed (errno=-5) ata5: failed to recover some devices, retrying in 5 secs ata5: soft resetting port ata5.00: configured for MWDMA2 ata5: EH complete pdc_error_intr: port_status 0x20200000 serror 0x00000000 ata5.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x2 frozen ata5.00: (port_status 0x20200000) ata5.00: cmd a0/00:00:00:00:20/00:00:00:00:00/a0 tag 0 cdb 0x0 data 0 res ff/ff:ff:ff:ff:ff/00:00:00:00:00/ff Emask 0x3 (HSM violation) ata5: soft resetting port ata5.00: qc timeout (cmd 0xa1) ata5.00: failed to IDENTIFY (I/O error, err_mask=0x104) ata5.00: revalidation failed (errno=-5) ata5: failed to recover some devices, retrying in 5 secs ata5: soft resetting port ata5.00: configured for MWDMA2 ata5: EH complete pdc_error_intr: port_status 0x20200000 serror 0x00000000 ata5.00: exception Emask 0x0 SAct 0x0 SErr 0x0 action 0x2 frozen ata5.00: (port_status 0x20200000) ata5.00: cmd a0/00:00:00:00:20/00:00:00:00:00/a0 tag 0 cdb 0x0 data 0 res ff/ff:ff:ff:ff:ff/00:00:00:00:00/ff Emask 0x3 (HSM violation) ata5: soft resetting port /Mikael - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-ide" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html