[mdlug] Serializing ide controllers

[Aaron Kulkis]

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 that trying serializing 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 performace by serializing?
> 

I think that if performance is an issue, then the *reasonable* thing
to do is to use a technology which is designed to handle large
numbers of disks (SCSI...or in it's more recent incarnation SAS
Serial Attached SCSI-- start with one or more SAS controller 
cards...they can control SATA disks...and then migrate to SAS
disks as finances allows).