[BUG] 2.4.17-rc1, IDE : SIS735/SIS5513 unusable ?

Lionel Bouton (Lionel.Bouton@free.fr)
Sat, 22 Dec 2001 01:54:08 +0100


Short :

SIS735 IDE subsystem unreliable -> system unusable.

Long :

I recently purchased an ECS K7S5AL mb built around the SIS735 chipset.
The system built around this mb worked perfectly for one week before
failing to boot with root fs mount errors. Subsequent tries to reinstall
the OS failed : either during the RedHat 7.2 install (fs error) or on
the first boot after install (root fs mount error).

I trust all other components of the system (except the RAM and PSU which
I purchased recently too) as they were heavily used in a previous one
without a glitch.

I saw one other bugreport on lklm from one person with several SIS735
mbs all failing on IDE DMA transfers and hints in the following thread
that the init code for the SIS5513 is not complete for the SIS735 and
might lead to the kind of problem I encountered (stable operation for a
while followed by an unusable IDE subsystem).

I'm now on the way of heavy testing (Clean install on a drive in a
separate system, master of the drive, move in the not-so-cooperative mb
and several iterations of test-screwup-master_recopy-test-... ). I'll
test different BIOS revisions, ide kernel parameters while searching for
the SIS735 technical specs and then attempts at kernel hacking.

I noticed Andre by private mail and posted a bugreport on sis support
web site asking them to supply appropriate init code to him. Is there
something else I can do (specific sis e-mail contacts for technical
papers for example, preliminary patch to test) ?

Lionel

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