[mdlug] Serializing ide controllers

[Michael Rudas]

--- Stan Green wrote:

> I'm getting these errors like these in my system messages:
> hdl: dma_intr: bad DMA status (dma_stat=75)
> hdl: dma_intr: status=0x50 { DriveReady SeekComplete }
> ide: failed opcode was: unknown

> This is happening on more than one drive
>  (there are 11 drives in the system).

A search of the internet turned up trying to serialize the IDE
controllers in the kernel parameters. The syntax suggested is:
ide0=serialize ide1=serialize ide2=serialize ide3=serialize
ide4=serialize ide5=serialize

Given this, does this seem like a reasonable thing to do? If not, any
other suggestions? Also what is the effect on performance by
serializing?

You may find "smartmontools" useful here (it's in most repositories):
<http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net>

Due to the nature of IDE, if a drive is failing or otherwise balky the
problem is not always direct traceable to the faulty drive in a
multi-drive system.  The SMART tools may give you a better handle on
what's going on.
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/S.M.A.R.T.>

~~ Michael Rudas
   My home page: http://MRudas.2Ya.com
   My blog: http://FaveSoft.blogspot.com