Re: IRQ Conflict problems Promise TX2000 RAID, Asus A7M266-D

From: G Miller (lgraym_at_nonet.net)
Date: 07/13/03 

Date: Sun, 13 Jul 2003 06:50:20 -0400

Hi Phil,

These "little rascals" are most difficult. I have a PDC20276 Promise
device and have been through all kinds of fun getting it working.

To investigate the device assignments try the following:

-1- Start the installation as you've been doing by entering "linux
ide0=... ide1= ..." and so on

-2- When you get to the "installation gui" go to an installation shell
by entering:

CTRL-ALT-F2 [ENTER]

(now, this is a "very basic" shell with limited commands and no
directory listed in the prompt so be careful)

-3- When in the shell you can get a listing of the "ide devices", their
interrupt and I/O assignments by entering:

cd /
cat /proc/pci

(You should see the Promise device listed.)

The Promise device is usually assigned ide2 and ide3. Once you have the
proper device addresses you can try entering them when you start the
installation. Incidentally, the address assignment are not obvious. Here
is a portion of a write-up I did recently on interpreting the information:

--------------------- insert write-up -----------------------------

Skip to the section about the Promise device. Here is a copy of the
pertinent information from mine:

Bus 0, device 6, function 0:
     RAID bus controller: Promise Technology, Inc. PDC20276 IDE (rev 1).
       IRQ 9.
       Master Capable. Latency=32. Min Gnt=4.Max Lat=18.
       I/O at 0xd400 [0xd407].
       I/O at 0xd000 [0xd003].
       I/O at 0xb800 [0xb807].
       I/O at 0xb400 [0xb403].
       I/O at 0xb000 [0xb00f].
       Non-prefetchable 32 bit memory at 0xed800000 [0xed803fff].

--------------------------------------------------------------------

The methodology for deriving the "Append Parameters" is on pages 16 and
17 of "Linux RAID HOWTO" by Murty Rompalli. You use the first four
parameters only and none of the values in "[]". If you label them
p1,p2,p3 and p4 then for mine:

p1=0xd400
p2=0xd000
p3=0xb800
p4=0xb400

Notice that the PDC20276 has only one IRQ from the line "RAID bus
controller: .......". So, both channels use IRQ=9 for my
configuration.OK, the Append parameters are:

ide2=p1,(p2 + 0x0002),IRQ
ide3=p3, (p4 +0x0002),IRQ

So, my Append Parameters are:

"linux ide0=0x1f0,0x3f6,14 ide1=0x170,0x376,15 ide2=0xd400,0xd002,9
ide3=0xb800,0xb402,9 ide4=0 ........"

----------------------- end insert ------------------------------

You can exit the installation shell and return to the "installation gui"
by entering CTRL-ALT-F7 or you can reboot from the shell with
CTRL-ALT-DELETE.

One further note, the disk architecture MUST be recognized properly
before attempting to repartition. If you don't see all your disks
properly (RAID and non-RAID) "bail out" of the installation before
attempting to repartition.

Hope that helps.

Gray

news.eclipse.co.uk wrote:
> Hi folks,
>
> Having real problems trying to get a Promise TX2000 RAID controller card
> operating reliably.
>
> I have found the following article which appears to descibe a similar
> problem ...
>
> https://listman.redhat.com/archives/ataraid-list/2003-February/msg00013.html
>
> Recently I have not even been able to successfully install Redhat 9 but when
> previous attempts have succeeded I have received identical timeout messages
> as indicated in the above article.
>
> The problem appears to be interrupt related and there are error messages
> displayed during linux bootup related to this which I cannot now display as
> I can't even get linux to install in the first place.
>
> Last attempt was as follows :-
>
> ASUS A7M266-D (with updated 1010 BIOS).
>
> ATI Rage AGP 4Mb - AGP Slot 1
> PCI Slot 2 (64Bit) - Promise TX2000 (BIOS 2.00.0.28)
> PCI Slot 3 (64Bit) - Empty
> PCI Slot 4 - Empty
> PCI Slot 5 - Basic RTL Chipset 10/100 NIC
> PCI Slot 6 - Empty
>
> Created RAID Array (Level 1 - Mirror), Twin 120Gb IBM 8Mb Cache drives)
>
> Booted Redhat 9 from CD using Beta RedHat 9 Driver Disk (1. 02.0.29) and
> using linux startup parameters as shown in the section below. I am not
> entirely sure what these commands due and whether or not they are totally
> applicable to my case ..
>
> When the install get to the formatting disk operation the system completely
> hangs ...
> Following reboot the RAID controller BIOS shows a critical error and the
> "Assign" menu claims one of the drive is disconnected or not functioning.
> During the same session the Array can be re-created appears to be fine.
>
> I have tried combination of disabling on of the onboard IDE controllers,
> disabling onboard USB changing BIOS settings ALL to no avail).
>
> I really have no clue how to progress any further ...
>
> Thanks in advance for your assistance / advice
>
> Regards,
>
> Phil,
>
> Sheffield,
> UK.
>
>
> ** BEGIN LINUX DRIVER INSTALL NOTE **
> [NOTE]
>
> Linux Kernels 2.4.x misidentiy Promise ATA-RAID controllers as simple
> IDE controllers. This results in the built-in Linux IDE driver trying to
> handle the controller and can prevent the proper FastTrak ATA RAID driver
> from loading.
> Follow the installation instructions AND the parameter commands referred
> to below section. This status we called "IDE issue".
>
> 1.) "linux ide0=0x1f0,0x3f6,14 ide1=0x170,0x376,15 ide2=0 ide3=0 ide4=0
> ide5=0 ide6=0 ide7=0 ide8=0 ide9=0 expert"
>
> 2.) "ide0=0x1f0,0x3f6,14 ide1=0x170,0x376,15 ide2=0 ide3=0 ide4=0 ide5=0
> ide6=0 ide7=0 ide8=0 ide9=0"
>
> 3.) Occasionally, during bootup, you may see Unresolved Symbols, followed
> by an OK or a FAILED. In either case, this is a cosmetic error and
> does not affect RedHat Linux 7.3 or the FastTrak RAID Controller
> card.
>
> 4.) Rarely, during bootup, you may see a HUSH (humble shell) message.
> This
> is also a cosmetic error and does not affect RedHat Linux 7.3 or the
> FastTrak RAID Controller card.
>
> 5.) To see information on your array(s) and the Driver version number:
>
> a. Launch your terminal emulation program.
>
> b. Type "cat /proc/scsi/FastTrak/(x)" then press Enter, x is a SCSI
> register number in your system.
>
> ** END LINUX DRIVER INSTALL NOTE **
>
> 

-- 
****   my return address is bogus, replace "nonet" with "comcast"

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