[wplug] Help with Installing 500GB Western Digital Drive

[Bryan J. Smith]

On Mon, 2007-07-30 at 13:01 -0400, Greg Simkins wrote:
> I purchased a 1U server unit with an ASUS K8N-DRE Motherboard outfitted 
> with AMD Opteron Dual Processors.

Yep, basically the original nVidia CK04"Pro" (originally rumored as the
CK8"Pro"), aka nVidia Pro 2200 PCIe HyperTransport, without the added
AMD8131 dual-PCI-X HyperTransport tunnel (or the "sister" nVidia Pro
2050 2nd PCIe HyperTransport tunnle):  
  http://www.samag.com/documents/sam0411b/0411b_f7.htm  

[ The figure is from this 3 year old article written in 2007 July:  
  Dissecting PC Server Performance:  
  http://www.samag.com/documents/sam0411b/  ]

> It came with two 80GB hard drives.  I installed ubuntu 64 bit server
> on one of the 80GB drives and tried to replace the second 80GB drive
> with a Western Digital 500 GB SATA 300 Hard Drive.  I am no expert in
> Linux and can't get the new drive mounted.

You have a device support issue.  It may be caused by the PC BIOS Int13h
Disk Services during POST (Power On Self Test) which is preventing
things from working.

I would recommend _disabling_ the detection of the drive in the
BIOS/CMOS/POST.

> It appears to not be recognized properly by the BIOS.

Even if it is _not_ enabled, it _should_ work.
If it's enabled, then that may cause some setup issues.

I.e., Linux does _not_ require any BIOS detection to support a disk.
It _only_ requires that if the BIOS is going to boot from the disk.

I assume you still want to boot from the 80GB disk(s).  ;)

> My immediate question is - should I get another Brand of SATA drive?  
> Like the Maxtor that seems to work OK at 80GB?

No, brand doesn't mean anything (in most cases -- long story).

Yes, you're using a LBA48 (48-bit) drive instead of a LBA28 (28-bit)
limited drive of 137GB (128GiB) capacity.  But that shouldn't matter --
_unless_ you are booting from it.

> Or is the size the problem

No, unless the BIOS is really old (not likely here) and LBA48 is not
supported.  And even when it's not, typically as long as the "boot"
slice (partition) doesn't cross the 137GB (128GiB) "barrier," it will
still boot.

And even in those old cases, newer GRUB versions will _overcome_ those
limitations.  I.e., GRUB is a _very_advanced_ boot-loader -- and
basically offers the same PC BIOS Int13h Disk Service replacement for
LBA48 like a "disk extender" (long story)

And that's only for boot.  The [16-bit/x86 Real Mode] PC BIOS Int13h
Disk Services are only required for boot.

> - perhaps I should flash the BIOS from Version 1003 to 1005?

_Always_ flash the latest PC BIOS on such mainboards.  Especially from
those "early days" of Opteron with the first PCIe HyperTransport tunnels
(like the nVidia Pro 2200 ;).

> (I need to somehow mount a floppy drive and find a DOS system disk, which I 
> am working on now).

Many times these "workstation/server-class" mainboards can directly read
the BIOS from a FAT12 formatted floppy _directly_.  I.e., pull up the
manual and see if there is a "hot key" to directly update the BIOS from
floppy without having to boot from floppy.

http://support.asus.com/download/download.aspx?SLanguage=en-us&model=K8N-DRE  

> Or - any other suggestions on where to direct troubleshooting efforts?

Boot-time issues can be a PITA.

But since you have a _working_ system with ATA (aka PATA or IDE), many
times I recommend _disabling_ the BIOS detection for SATA and _not_
allowing the PC BIOS Int13h Disk Services to enumerate the disk.  Once
the Linux kernel boots, it _should_ see the full LBA48 size of the
drive.

> I pasted in below, the relevant information which I have gathered so far. 
>  ...  
> Here is a summary of what I copied from the BIOS screen:
> Third IDE Master Maxtor 6L080M0 80.0 GB
> Fourth IDE Master    [no information here]
>                                     Third Master                     
> Fourth Master
> Device:                         Hard Disk                         Hard 
> Disk      [at least it is recognized as  a hard disk!]

Unfortunately, that _may_ be causing your issues.  ;)
Try _disabling_ it.  ;)

> Looking at fstab, I see a connection for a floppy and a CD ROM (neither 
> of which came with the unit) and some sort of recognition of the WD (I 
> believe) as sda5 (During the book cycle I get an error message about the 
> 4th master drive failing, press F1 to continue - the OS comes up fine). 

[/dev/]sda5 would be the 1st slice in the "Extended" disk label -- aka
the 1st "Logical" partition in legacy MS-DOS speak for the legacy PC
BIOS/DOS disk label aka "partition table".

The actual drive should be /dev/sda -- the slices (partitions) are
numbers after it.  Slices 1-4 are the base four (4) PC BIOS/DOS disk
label (standard partition table -- "Primary partitions") entries, with 5
+ being numbered for the "Extended" disk label ("Logical partitions")
that goes inside of one of the base 4.

> Running DMESG to find the boot problems, here is the section where the 
> 80Gb mounts successfully and the WD generates a bunch of errors (I can't 
> find error 62 - maybe it doesn't matter).

That's a _USB_ error -- *IGNORE* it.
It has *0* to do with your ATA issues.  ;)

> [  234.754261] sata_nv 0000:00:07.0: version 3.3
> [  234.754868] ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LTID] enabled at IRQ 20
> [  234.754880] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:07.0[A] -> Link [LTID] -> GSI 
> 20 (level, low) -> IRQ 20
> [  234.754896] sata_nv 0000:00:07.0: Using ADMA mode
> [  234.754916] PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:07.0 to 64
> [  234.755044] ata1: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xffffc2000001a480 ctl 
> 0xffffc2000001a4a0 bmdma 0x000000000001e000 irq 20
> [  234.755120] ata2: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xffffc2000001a580 ctl 
> 0xffffc2000001a5a0 bmdma 0x000000000001e008 irq 20
> I see the first Maxtor come up as ata.
> [  234.755132] scsi0 : sata_nv
> [  235.077514] usb 2-4: new full speed USB device using ohci_hcd and 
> address 2
> [  235.225308] ata1: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 300)
> [  235.234343] ata1.00: ata_hpa_resize 1: sectors = 156250000, 
> hpa_sectors = 156250000
> [  235.234351] ata1.00: ATA-7: Maxtor 6L080M0, BACE1G10, max UDMA/133
> [  235.234355] ata1.00: 156250000 sectors, multi 16: LBA48 NCQ (depth 31/32)
> [  235.246261] ata1.00: ata_hpa_resize 1: sectors = 156250000, 
> hpa_sectors = 156250000
> [  235.246265] ata1.00: configured for UDMA/133

Now the Maxtor drives are SATA as well?
What SATA "port" are you using for each drive?
I'm kinda confused on the ATA/SATA ports in use.

BTW, yes, 1.5GHz/150MBps SATA shows up as UltraDMA mode 6 (aka Ultra133
-- basically legacy ATA speed 133MBps timing, long story), although
3.0GHz/300MBps SATA shows up as UltraDMA mode 7.

> The Western Digital was not recognized in the first line and came up as 
> usb with the error -62.

That's a USB error, *IGNORE* it.  Nothing to do with ATA/storage.  ;)
The kernel is throwing those out in "real-time" as they occur.

> [  235.246278] scsi1 : sata_nv
> [  235.261225] usb 2-4: device descriptor read/64, error -62
> [  235.548776] usb 2-4: device descriptor read/64, error -62
> [  235.716536] ata2: SATA link up 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 SControl 300)
> [  235.724603] ata2.00: failed to IDENTIFY (INIT_DEV_PARAMS failed, 
> err_mask=0x80)
> [  235.828338] usb 2-4: new full speed USB device using ohci_hcd and 
> address 3
> [  236.012050] usb 2-4: device descriptor read/64, error -62
> [  236.299602] usb 2-4: device descriptor read/64, error -62
> [  236.579163] usb 2-4: new full speed USB device using ohci_hcd and 
> address 4
> [  236.858750] ata2: SATA link up 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 SControl 300)
> [  236.866816] ata2.00: failed to IDENTIFY (INIT_DEV_PARAMS failed, 
> err_mask=0x80)
> [  236.866821] ata2.00: limiting speed to UDMA7:PIO5
> [  236.994513] usb 2-4: device not accepting address 4, error -62
> [  237.170241] usb 2-4: new full speed USB device using ohci_hcd and 
> address 5
> [  237.585589] usb 2-4: device not accepting address 5, error -62
> [  238.000965] ata2: SATA link up 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 SControl 300)
> [  238.009031] ata2.00: failed to IDENTIFY (INIT_DEV_PARAMS failed, 
> err_mask=0x80)
> [  239.143177] ata2: SATA link up 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 SControl 300)

What kernel are you using?
What distro is this?

The sata_nv driver may have been updated in newer kernels to handle
newer SATA drives -- such as this clearly "native" SATA-II device.

The [PC/]AT Attachment (ATA) itself is just a bunch of "dumb" wires and
controlling registers implementing the legacy PC/AT 16-bit data bus,
only at increased speed with select features (e.g., CRC checking in
UltraDMA modes).  The Integrated Drive Electronics (IDE) on the ATA
device (including serialized ATA) then talks to the "end system" over
that "dumb" bus -- often direct memory access (DMA) for block transfers.

In other words ... the [S]ATA controller aside ...

  *IF* you're using a very *NEW* SATA drive with *NEW* IDE,
  *BUT* a very *OLD* ATA controller driver ...

Then you're likely to see such issues in any OS -- PC BIOS completely
aside.  ;)

Hence the questions ...
- What kernel are you using?
- What distro is this?

Kernel can be found with "uname -r"
Distro depends, but it's sometimes in "cat /etc/*-release"


-- 
Bryan J. Smith         Professional, Technical Annoyance
mailto:b.j.smith at ieee.org   http://thebs413.blogspot.com
--------------------------------------------------------
        Fission Power:  An Inconvenient Solution