Hi!

quoted text
> > I see strange problems on machine with sata_svw. The machine seems to
> > corrupt data every few days (ext3 error, dir index corrupted), and has
> > some other very strange problems (keyboard misbehaves, pulling out
> > SATA disk cures it, see
> > https://bugzilla.novell.com/show_bug.cgi?id=400772 ).
> > 
> > Then I got to the comment 
> > 
> >         writeb(dmactl | ATA_DMA_START, mmio + ATA_DMA_CMD);
> >         /* There is a race condition in certain SATA controllers
> > that can be seen when the r/w command is given to the controller
> > before the host DMA is started. On a Read command, the controller
...
quoted text
> > ...and that would certainly explain what we are seeing. Are
> > serverworks controllers broken by design?
> 
> The comment looks like a warning to me as the DMA engine is started
> before the command is issued to the drive as explained in the next
> comment.

Ok, what about this?

---

Clarify data corruption comment.

Signed-off-by: Pavel Machek <pavel@suse.cz>

---
commit a362f8903eb0cdbc2ea06e0e249c97f1a64c7e1e
tree 1bfcbf9ad1b55811b71cdeb1868a41cf6b058c5d
parent 91e95912b1b48a279d0231b5c21b82388ade249e
author Pavel <pavel@amd.ucw.cz> Mon, 23 Jun 2008 10:12:47 +0200
committer Pavel <pavel@amd.ucw.cz> Mon, 23 Jun 2008 10:12:47 +0200

 drivers/ata/sata_svw.c |   38 +++++++++++++++++++++++---------------
 1 files changed, 23 insertions(+), 15 deletions(-)

diff --git a/drivers/ata/sata_svw.c b/drivers/ata/sata_svw.c
index 16aa683..fb13b82 100644
--- a/drivers/ata/sata_svw.c
+++ b/drivers/ata/sata_svw.c
@@ -253,21 +253,29 @@ static void k2_bmdma_start_mmio(struct a
 	/* start host DMA transaction */
 	dmactl = readb(mmio + ATA_DMA_CMD);
 	writeb(dmactl | ATA_DMA_START, mmio + ATA_DMA_CMD);
-	/* There is a race condition in certain SATA controllers that can
-	   be seen when the r/w command is given to the controller before the
-	   host DMA is started. On a Read command, the controller would initiate
-	   the command to the drive even before it sees the DMA start. When there
-	   are very fast drives connected to the controller, or when the data request
-	   hits in the drive cache, there is the possibility that the drive returns a part
-	   or all of the requested data to the controller before the DMA start is issued.
-	   In this case, the controller would become confused as to what to do with the data.
-	   In the worst case when all the data is returned back to the controller, the
-	   controller could hang. In other cases it could return partial data returning
-	   in data corruption. This problem has been seen in PPC systems and can also appear
-	   on an system with very fast disks, where the SATA controller is sitting behind a
-	   number of bridges, and hence there is significant latency between the r/w command
-	   and the start command. */
-	/* issue r/w command if the access is to ATA*/
+	/* This works around possible data corruption.
+
+	   On certain SATA controllers that can be seen when the r/w
+	   command is given to the controller before the host DMA is
+	   started.
+
+	   On a Read command, the controller would initiate the
+	   command to the drive even before it sees the DMA
+	   start. When there are very fast drives connected to the
+	   controller, or when the data request hits in the drive
+	   cache, there is the possibility that the drive returns a
+	   part or all of the requested data to the controller before
+	   the DMA start is issued.  In this case, the controller
+	   would become confused as to what to do with the data.  In
+	   the worst case when all the data is returned back to the
+	   controller, the controller could hang. In other cases it
+	   could return partial data returning in data
+	   corruption. This problem has been seen in PPC systems and
+	   can also appear on an system with very fast disks, where
+	   the SATA controller is sitting behind a number of bridges,
+	   and hence there is significant latency between the r/w
+	   command and the start command. */
+	/* issue r/w command if the access is to ATA */
 	if (qc->tf.protocol == ATA_PROT_DMA)
 		ap->ops->sff_exec_command(ap, &qc->tf);
 }


-- 
(english) http://www.livejournal.com/~pavelmachek
(cesky, pictures) http://atrey.karlin.mff.cuni.cz/~pavel/picture/horses/blog.html
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