Jeff,

Could we get this merged ASAP (it was first posted on 26th February)?

This patch fixes data corruption for libata PATA ServerWorks and HPT drivers.

[ IDE users are already leaving happy life since they are not affected
  (modes masking has always worked correctly in the original drivers)...

  Can we make life happy also for libata PATA users? :) ]

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On Wed, 5 Mar 2008 02:34:40 +0100

(edited to undo top-posting damage)

I didn't know any of that.  The changelog might have been kinda fun, but
given that it failed to tell us that the patch fixes data-corruption
errors, the changelog was excrutiatingly bad.

Do we need this fix in 2.6.24.x as well?
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Let me quote Alan's opinion on this:

	"I think that would be wise ;)"

nothing needs to be added here ;)
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I have no reason/evidence to believe it fixes data corruption errors of
any kind. For the specific combinations of device it should simply avoid
a long pause, complaints and a switch to lower speeds.

The ATA disk case with serverworks (which is a potential corruptor) was
always correctly handled.
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http://www.mail-archive.com/linux-ide@vger.kernel.org/msg16599.html

There is strange coincidence with being on the blacklist and FIFO corruption.

https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=433557

Bugzilla Bug 433557: Data corrupion with Fedora8 on HPT370 disk controller (Abit BX133 mobo)

IBM-DTLA-307030 is on the blacklist....


for OSB4 yes but...

/* Seagate Barracuda ATA IV Family drives in UDMA mode 5
 * can overrun their FIFOs when used with the CSB5 */

static const char *csb_bad_ata100[] = {

Thanks,
Bart
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I wish it was more than a co-incidence but the trace shows it dropped

Which gives you a CRC error according to my notes

Alan
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the trace shows only ST380011A (ata1) dropping speed...

I would suggest that you ask Wojciech to test the patch

I have no documentation / errata for ServerWorks chipsets (everything is
NDA-ed) or the hardware in question so I'll trust your opinion on this.

Thanks,
Bart
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Any still in use? Surpised.
-- 
Krzysztof Halasa
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https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=433557

the bug was opened two weeks ago so I assume that the drive is still in use

[ Actually, I'm not surprised as we are getting patches/reports for much
  older/buggier hardware...  After all we are doing Linux not some other
  OS whose every release obsoletes the old hardware. ;-) ]
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It isn't just about old/buggy hardware (personally I'm using much
older items). The DTLA disks had "rather" short MTBF, with something
like 30% returns in the first year after purchase, according to a
friendly distributor. Despite firmware upgrades, they were unfixable.
-- 
Krzysztof Halasa
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Ah, you meant that it was a DeathStar drive... well, a lucky survivor...
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In my experience what they needed was proper cooling.  I have a 3ware
RAID-5 array of 4 120 GB DeskStar drives still working.  In a nice RAID
enclosure with fans, not tucked next to an overclocked video card and
the power supply.
--=20
Zan Lynx <zlynx@acm.org>
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I think the largest "deathstars" (75GXP?) were 75 GB.
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Krzysztof Halasa
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AFAIK there were basically two series of deathstars. The original
DTLA<something> and the more recent IC35<something>. The IC35 series
were bigger (120GB is the most common size I've seen for those).
Proper cooling and firmware upgrade usually fixed the deathstarness on
both series. I still have some of both, not in active use for a year or
two but still working. As a strange coincidence I was just pulling out
some old data from them yesterday.

-- 
Ville Syrjälä
syrjala@sci.fi
http://www.sci.fi/~syrjala/
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..

The original Deathstar ailment had nothing to do with firmware or cooling.
But rather, a bad batch of chips that IBM had the misfortune to use a lot of.

The chips would grow tiny internal whiskers over a period of 2+ years,
and eventually short circuit themselves.

My last one died here just a few weeks ago, after sitting on the shelf
for nearly all of it's life.  Never more than perhaps 40 power-on hours total,
and never enough to get very warm.

Cheers

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...

Oddly enough, the Wikipedia entry doesn't include this information,
but does talk about other failure modes of the 75GXP series.

Cheers
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Said friendly distributor recognizes only one deathstar line.
Personally I lost only two such drives, 45 GB I think. My only IC35
(still) produces some strange noises but it was like this from the
beginning and I guess it's normal. IC25 (?, 2.5") still working, too -

Nope, DTLAs were not field-fixable, I think it was some problem with
drive electronics. Anyway replacements from IBM were dying the same
death, firmware upgrades or not, brand new or repaired, temperature or
not.

Perhaps there were other problems with them (switching while writing
to medium IIRC) - a different story.
-- 
Krzysztof Halasa
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