Bug 21072

Summary:	Unable to install. Can't write disklabel to ad0 (ata disk0, udma33)
Product:	Base System	Reporter:	edmarw <edmarw>
Component:	i386	Assignee:	Søren Schmidt <sos>
Status:	Closed FIXED
Severity:	Affects Only Me
Priority:	Normal
Version:	Unspecified
Hardware:	Any
OS:	Any

Description edmarw 2000-09-06 05:30:01 UTC

After booting from Installation CD-ROM, going through everything (editing slices and partitions on the disk, selecting a distribution, etc.), the system hangs while writing the partition/slice table to the disk. After a while it gives up, giving error messages (couldn't activate swap, etc.) On virtual console 1 (alt-f2), I see messages like
ad0: WRITE command timeout - resetting
ata0: resetting devices - done
ad0: WRITE command timeout - resetting
ata0: resetting devices - done
... and so on
The disk is OK, Win98 installs hassle-free.

How-To-Repeat: Just try installing it in a similar machine...

Comment 1 Sheldon Hearn freebsd_committer

2000-09-06 12:21:42 UTC

State Changed
From-To: open->feedback

Actually, lots of people _have_ installed successfully using 
several "similar machine" configurations. 

However, your description of your hardware is very vague. 

Can you list exactly which chipset you have for your IDE 
controller on the motherboard?  Also of interest is 
the exact model of your hard drive and of your CDROM device. 

It would probably also be interesting to hear which IDE 
channel you have your hard drive on, and which channel 
you have your CDROM on, and whether these devices are 
jumpered as masters, slaves, or cable-select.

Comment 2 edmarw 2000-09-12 05:16:22 UTC

I found a workaround.

The problem was that the ata driver dma mode was
corrupting disk write/read on my computer. My IDE
controller is a VIA VT82C693A or VT82C596B (not sure
which one, both codes are listed), onboard a Asus
P3V133 motherboard.

After I figured that out: I booted from the
installation CD-ROM, started a emergency shell and
issued the command "sysctl -w
hw.atamodes=pio,---,---,pio" (hard-drive primary
master,cd-rom secondary slave).

Then it installed ok. But on every boot from the hard
drive I need to boot_single and do the sysctl again
before starting to write on the drive.

Then I compiled a new kernel using the wd driver.
Works fast and is reliable.

Thanks for your attention.

--- sheldonh@FreeBSD.org wrote:
> Synopsis: Unable to install. Can't write disklabel
> to ad0 (ata disk0, udma33)
> 
> State-Changed-From-To: open->feedback
> State-Changed-By: sheldonh
> State-Changed-When: Wed Sep 6 04:21:42 PDT 2000
> State-Changed-Why: 
> Actually, lots of people _have_ installed
> successfully using
> several "similar machine" configurations.
> 
> However, your description of your hardware is very
> vague.
> 
> Can you list exactly which chipset you have for your
> IDE
> controller on the motherboard?  Also of interest is
> the exact model of your hard drive and of your CDROM
> device.
> 
> It would probably also be interesting to hear which
> IDE
> channel you have your hard drive on, and which
> channel
> you have your CDROM on, and whether these devices
> are
> jumpered as masters, slaves, or cable-select.
> 
> http://www.freebsd.org/cgi/query-pr.cgi?pr=21072

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Comment 3 Sheldon Hearn freebsd_committer

2000-09-12 09:33:11 UTC

State Changed
From-To: feedback->open

Soren, here's another case that makes it sound like it'd 
be better to start the system off in PIO mode, although 
I seem to remember you saying that this came with its own 
set of problems. 

Perhaps there's some way to pass PIO/DMA mode configs to 
the kernel via the boot loader? 

Anyway, it's an interesting PR. :-)

Comment 4 Sheldon Hearn freebsd_committer

2000-09-12 09:33:11 UTC

Responsible Changed
From-To: freebsd-bugs->sos

Over to maintainer.

Comment 5 Søren Schmidt freebsd_committer

2000-11-14 08:32:04 UTC

State Changed
From-To: open->closed

Please try 4.2 and contact me if the problem persists.