[gentoo-kernel] Kernels (>2.6.13) dont recognize my sata disk on K8N4-E

[puNk!d]

I posted this on forums, but no one give me a clue, so i ask for here,
hoping someone can help me out.

For saving your time, let me first illustrate my prob briefly. I have an
ASUS K8N4-4 nForce4 mainboard, and a 160G Maxtor SATA harddisk (6V160E0).
But all of the kernels (>2.6.13) couldnt recognize my harddisk, it showed
the VFS: Cannot open root device "sda9" or unknown-block(0,0)  error when
booting. I tried gentoo-sources, genkernel, vanilla-kernel,mm-sources and
even sabayon-sources, they all failed. However, the kernels <=2.6.13 work
well. I know you might tell me to have a look at my kernel config, check
twice that had i enabled the SATA device support, I really did it, you can
take a look at my kernel config in this thread.

I tried the K8N4-E keywords in this forums, i found there were many guys who
use that mainboard suffering the same prob. Such as:


   1. SATA drives not recognized on kernel >
2.6.11<http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-522268-highlight-k8n4e.html>
   2. Problem finding my
SATA-drives<http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-525163-highlight-k8n4e.html>
   3. What does "VFS: Cannot open root device..." mean,
exactly?<http://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic-t-510265-highlight-kernel+panic.html>
 (my
   former reply following a Tips & Tricks thread)

in the 2nd one, someone named addeman also confirmed this weird prob, and no
one really gave a solution.

Recently I had a chance to try Kubuntu 7.04 feisty LiveCD, i found it could
recognize my SATA harddisk with kernel-2.6.20, it makes me wondering is it a
prob of the kernel itself or the gentoo system. So i downloaded Fedora 7
LiveCD (kernel-2.6.21), it can also recognize my sata device! Then i decided
to have a test on Fedora 7 LiveCD's kernel by a dirty way, i copyed the
vmlinuz image,the modules and the modprobe.conf setting into my gentoo
system, try to boot from Fedora's kernel, it failed with the same VFS:
Cannot open root device "sda9" or unknown-block(0,0) error.

Okay, now let me tell you my gentoo setting. Here's my partition list.

Filesystem    Type     Size  Used  Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/sda8     ext2    38M   8.4M   28M  24% /boot
/dev/sda9  reiserfs     18G   5.3G   13G  30% /
/dev/sda10 reiserfs    8.1G   4.9G  3.2G  61% /home

my grub.conf

title=Gentoo Linux 2.6.13
root (hd0,7)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.13-gentoo-r5 root=/dev/sda9
video=vesafb:mtrr,ywrap,1440x900-32

title=Gentoo Linux 2.6.22
root (hd0,7)
kernel /boot/vmlinuz-2.6.22-gentoo-r6 root=/dev/sda9
video=vesafb:mtrr,ywrap,1440x900-32

the dmesg output (running on my gentoo system with kernel 2.6.13)

Console: colour VGA+ 80x25
Dentry cache hash table entries: 131072 (order: 7, 524288 bytes)
Inode-cache hash table entries: 65536 (order: 6, 262144 bytes)
Memory: 514308k/524224k available (2893k kernel code, 9364k reserved, 1174k
data, 180k init, 0k highmem)
Checking if this processor honours the WP bit even in supervisor mode... Ok.

Calibrating delay using timer specific routine.. 3620.94 BogoMIPS
(lpj=1810472)
Mount-cache hash table entries: 512
CPU: After generic identify, caps: 078bfbff e3d3fbff 00000000 00000000
00000001 00000000 00000001
CPU: After vendor identify, caps: 078bfbff e3d3fbff 00000000 00000000
00000001 00000000 00000001
CPU: L1 I Cache: 64K (64 bytes/line), D cache 64K (64 bytes/line)
CPU: L2 Cache: 128K (64 bytes/line)
CPU: After all inits, caps: 078bfbff e3d3fbff 00000000 00000010 00000001
00000000 00000001
Intel machine check architecture supported.
Intel machine check reporting enabled on CPU#0.
mtrr: v2.0 (20020519)
CPU: AMD Sempron(tm) Processor 3000+ stepping 02
Enabling fast FPU save and restore... done.
Enabling unmasked SIMD FPU exception support... done.
Checking 'hlt' instruction... OK.
ACPI: setting ELCR to 0200 (from 0828)
NET: Registered protocol family 16
ACPI: bus type pci registered
PCI: PCI BIOS revision 3.00 entry at 0xf1f20, last bus=5
PCI: Using configuration type 1
ACPI: Subsystem revision 20050408
ACPI: Interpreter enabled
ACPI: Using PIC for interrupt routing
ACPI: PCI Root Bridge [PCI0] (0000:00)
PCI: Probing PCI hardware (bus 00)
ACPI: Assume root bridge [\_SB_.PCI0] segment is 0
PCI: Transparent bridge - 0000:00:09.0
Boot video device is 0000:01:00.0
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Routing Table [\_SB_.PCI0._PRT]
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Routing Table [\_SB_.PCI0.HUB0._PRT]
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNK1] (IRQs 3 4 5 7 9 10 11 12 14 15) *0,
disabled.
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNK2] (IRQs 3 4 5 7 9 10 11 12 14 15) *0,
disabled.
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNK3] (IRQs *3 4 5 7 9 10 11 12 14 15)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNK4] (IRQs 3 4 5 7 9 10 11 12 14 15) *0,
disabled.
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNK5] (IRQs 3 4 5 7 9 10 11 12 14 15) *0,
disabled.
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LUBA] (IRQs 3 4 *5 7 9 10 11 12 14 15)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LUBB] (IRQs 3 4 5 7 9 10 11 12 14 15) *0,
disabled.
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LMAC] (IRQs 3 4 5 7 9 10 11 12 14 15) *0,
disabled.
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LACI] (IRQs 3 4 5 7 9 10 *11 12 14 15)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LMCI] (IRQs 3 4 5 7 9 10 11 12 14 15) *0,
disabled.
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LSMB] (IRQs 3 4 5 7 9 10 *11 12 14 15)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LUB2] (IRQs *3 4 5 7 9 10 11 12 14 15)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LIDE] (IRQs 3 4 5 7 9 10 11 12 14 15) *0,
disabled.
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LSID] (IRQs 3 4 *5 7 9 10 11 12 14 15)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LFID] (IRQs 3 4 5 7 9 10 *11 12 14 15)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LPCA] (IRQs 3 4 5 7 9 10 11 12 14 15) *0,
disabled.
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [APC1] (IRQs 16) *0, disabled.
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [APC2] (IRQs 17) *0, disabled.
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [APC3] (IRQs 18) *0, disabled.
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [APC4] (IRQs 19) *0, disabled.
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [APC5] (IRQs *16), disabled.
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [APCF] (IRQs 20 21 22 23) *0, disabled.
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [APCG] (IRQs 20 21 22 23) *0, disabled.
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [APCH] (IRQs 20 21 22 23) *0, disabled.
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [APCJ] (IRQs 20 21 22 23) *0, disabled.
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [APCK] (IRQs 20 21 22 23) *0, disabled.
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [APCS] (IRQs 20 21 22 23) *0, disabled.
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [APCL] (IRQs 20 21 22 23) *0, disabled.
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [APCZ] (IRQs 20 21 22 23) *0, disabled.
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [APSI] (IRQs 20 21 22 23) *0, disabled.
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [APSJ] (IRQs 20 21 22 23) *0, disabled.
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [APCP] (IRQs 20 21 22 23) *0, disabled.
Linux Plug and Play Support v0.97 (c) Adam Belay
pnp: PnP ACPI init
pnp: PnP ACPI: found 14 devices
SCSI subsystem initialized
usbcore: registered new driver usbfs
usbcore: registered new driver hub
PCI: Using ACPI for IRQ routing
PCI: If a device doesn't work, try "pci=routeirq".  If it helps, post a
report
pnp: 00:00: ioport range 0x4000-0x407f could not be reserved
pnp: 00:00: ioport range 0x4080-0x40ff has been reserved
pnp: 00:00: ioport range 0x4400-0x447f has been reserved
pnp: 00:00: ioport range 0x4480-0x44ff could not be reserved
pnp: 00:00: ioport range 0x4800-0x487f has been reserved
pnp: 00:00: ioport range 0x4880-0x48ff has been reserved
PCI: Bridge: 0000:00:09.0
   IO window: a000-afff
   MEM window: d0000000-d1ffffff
   PREFETCH window: 20000000-200fffff
PCI: Bridge: 0000:00:0b.0
   IO window: disabled.
   MEM window: disabled.
   PREFETCH window: disabled.
PCI: Bridge: 0000:00:0c.0
   IO window: disabled.
   MEM window: disabled.
   PREFETCH window: disabled.
PCI: Bridge: 0000:00:0d.0
   IO window: disabled.
   MEM window: disabled.
   PREFETCH window: disabled.
PCI: Bridge: 0000:00:0e.0
   IO window: disabled.
   MEM window: c8000000-cfffffff
   PREFETCH window: c0000000-c7ffffff
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:09.0 to 64
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:0b.0 to 64
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:0c.0 to 64
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:0d.0 to 64
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:0e.0 to 64
Machine check exception polling timer started.
audit: initializing netlink socket (disabled)
audit(1189637059.259:1): initialized
NTFS driver 2.1.23 [Flags: R/O].
Initializing Cryptographic API
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:0b.0 to 64
pcie_portdrv_probe->Dev[005d:10de] has invalid IRQ. Check vendor BIOS
assign_interrupt_mode Found MSI capability
Allocate Port Service[pcie00]
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:0c.0 to 64
pcie_portdrv_probe->Dev[005d:10de] has invalid IRQ. Check vendor BIOS
assign_interrupt_mode Found MSI capability
Allocate Port Service[pcie00]
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:0d.0 to 64
pcie_portdrv_probe->Dev[005d:10de] has invalid IRQ. Check vendor BIOS
assign_interrupt_mode Found MSI capability
Allocate Port Service[pcie00]
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:0e.0 to 64
pcie_portdrv_probe->Dev[005d:10de] has invalid IRQ. Check vendor BIOS
assign_interrupt_mode Found MSI capability
Allocate Port Service[pcie00]
lp: driver loaded but no devices found
[drm] Initialized drm 1.0.0 20040925
vesafb: NVIDIA Corporation, nv43 Board - p216h0  , Chip Rev    (OEM: NVIDIA)

vesafb: VBE version: 3.0
vesafb: protected mode interface info at c000:d600
vesafb: pmi: set display start = c00cd636, set palette = c00cd6a0
vesafb: pmi: ports = 3b4 3b5 3ba 3c0 3c1 3c4 3c5 3c6 3c7 3c8 3c9 3cc 3ce 3cf
3d0 3d1 3d2 3d3 3d4 3d5 3da
vesafb: hardware supports DDC2 transfers
vesafb: monitor limits: vf = 76 Hz, hf = 82 kHz, clk = 140 MHz
vesafb: scrolling: ywrap using protected mode interface, yres_virtual=8987
Console: switching to colour frame buffer device 175x65
vesafb: framebuffer at 0xc0000000, mapped to 0xe0880000, using 24576k, total
131072k
fb0: VESA VGA frame buffer device
ACPI: Power Button (FF) [PWRF]
ACPI: Power Button (CM) [PWRB]
ACPI: Fan [FAN] (on)
ACPI: CPU0 (power states: C1[C1])
ACPI: Processor [CPU0] (supports 8 throttling states)
ACPI: Thermal Zone [THRM] (40 C)
PNP: PS/2 controller doesn't have AUX irq; using default 0xc
PNP: PS/2 Controller [PNP0303:PS2K] at 0x60,0x64 irq 112
serio: i8042 AUX port at 0x60,0x64 irq 12
serio: i8042 KBD port at 0x60,0x64 irq 1
Serial: 8250/16550 driver $Revision: 1.90 $ 4 ports, IRQ sharing disabled
ttyS0 at I/O 0x3f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A
ttyS0 at I/O 0x3f8 (irq = 4) is a 16550A
parport: PnPBIOS parport detected.
parport0: PC-style at 0x378 (0x778), irq 7 [PCSPP(,...)]
lp0: using parport0 (interrupt-driven).
mice: PS/2 mouse device common for all mice
io scheduler noop registered
io scheduler anticipatory registered
io scheduler deadline registered
io scheduler cfq registered
input: AT Translated Set 2 keyboard on isa0060/serio0
input: PS/2 Generic Mouse on isa0060/serio1
floppy0: no floppy controllers found
RAMDISK driver initialized: 16 RAM disks of 4096K size 1024 blocksize
loop: loaded (max 8 devices)
forcedeth.c: Reverse Engineered nForce ethernet driver. Version 0.35.
PPP generic driver version 2.4.2
PPP Deflate Compression module registered
PPP BSD Compression module registered
NET: Registered protocol family 24
8139too Fast Ethernet driver 0.9.27
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNK3] enabled at IRQ 3
PCI: setting IRQ 3 as level-triggered
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:05:08.0[A] -> Link [LNK3] -> GSI 3 (level, low) ->
IRQ 3
eth0: RealTek RTL8139 at 0xe0802000, 00:0a:eb:4b:36:48, IRQ 3
eth0:  Identified 8139 chip type 'RTL-8100B/8139D'
Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 7.00alpha2
ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx
NFORCE-CK804: IDE controller at PCI slot 0000:00:06.0
NFORCE-CK804: chipset revision 242
NFORCE-CK804: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later
NFORCE-CK804: 0000:00:06.0 (rev f2) UDMA133 controller
     ide0: BM-DMA at 0xf000-0xf007, BIOS settings: hda:DMA, hdb:DMA
     ide1: BM-DMA at 0xf008-0xf00f, BIOS settings: hdc:DMA, hdd:DMA
Probing IDE interface ide0...
hda: PIONEER DVD-RW DVR-110, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14
Probing IDE interface ide1...
Probing IDE interface ide1...
hda: ATAPI 40X DVD-ROM DVD-R-RAM CD-R/RW drive, 2000kB Cache, UDMA(66)
Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.20
libata version 1.12 loaded.
sata_nv version 0.8
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LSID] enabled at IRQ 5
PCI: setting IRQ 5 as level-triggered
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:07.0[A] -> Link [LSID] -> GSI 5 (level, low) ->
IRQ 5
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:07.0 to 64
ata1: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0x9F0 ctl 0xBF2 bmdma 0xD400 irq 5
ata2: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0x970 ctl 0xB72 bmdma 0xD408 irq 5
ata1: no device found (phy stat 00000000)
scsi0 : sata_nv
ata2: no device found (phy stat 00000000)
scsi1 : sata_nv
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LFID] enabled at IRQ 11
PCI: setting IRQ 11 as level-triggered
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:08.0[A] -> Link [LFID] -> GSI 11 (level, low) ->
IRQ 11
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:08.0 to 64
ata3: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0x9E0 ctl 0xBE2 bmdma 0xC000 irq 11
ata4: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0x960 ctl 0xB62 bmdma 0xC008 irq 11
ata3: dev 0 cfg 49:2f00 82:7c6b 83:7f09 84:4773 85:7c68 86:3e01 87:4763
88:407f
ata3: dev 0 ATA, max UDMA/133, 312581808 sectors: lba48
nv_sata: Primary device added
nv_sata: Primary device removed
nv_sata: Secondary device added
nv_sata: Secondary device removed
ata3: dev 0 configured for UDMA/133
scsi2 : sata_nv
ata4: no device found (phy stat 00000000)
scsi3 : sata_nv
   Vendor: ATA       Model: Maxtor 6V160E0    Rev: VA11
   Type:   Direct-Access                      ANSI SCSI revision: 05
SCSI device sda: 312581808 512-byte hdwr sectors (160042 MB)
SCSI device sda: drive cache: write back
SCSI device sda: 312581808 512-byte hdwr sectors (160042 MB)
SCSI device sda: drive cache: write back
  sda: sda1 sda2 < sda5 sda6 sda7 sda8 sda9 sda10 sda11 >
Attached scsi disk sda at scsi2, channel 0, id 0, lun 0
Attached scsi generic sg0 at scsi2, channel 0, id 0, lun 0,  type 0
ieee1394: raw1394: /dev/raw1394 device initialized
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LUB2] enabled at IRQ 3
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:02.1[B] -> Link [LUB2] -> GSI 3 (level, low) ->
IRQ 3
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:02.1 to 64
ehci_hcd 0000:00:02.1: nVidia Corporation CK804 USB Controller
ehci_hcd 0000:00:02.1: debug port 1
ehci_hcd 0000:00:02.1: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 1
ehci_hcd 0000:00:02.1: irq 3, io mem 0xd2004000
PCI: cache line size of 64 is not supported by device 0000:00:02.1
ehci_hcd 0000:00:02.1: park 0
ehci_hcd 0000:00:02.1: USB 2.0 initialized, EHCI 1.00, driver 10 Dec 2004
hub 1-0:1.0: USB hub found
hub 1-0:1.0: 10 ports detected
ohci_hcd: 2005 April 22 USB 1.1 'Open' Host Controller (OHCI) Driver (PCI)
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LUBA] enabled at IRQ 5
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:02.0[A] -> Link [LUBA] -> GSI 5 (level, low) ->
IRQ 5
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:02.0 to 64
ohci_hcd 0000:00:02.0: nVidia Corporation CK804 USB Controller
ohci_hcd 0000:00:02.0: new USB bus registered, assigned bus number 2
ohci_hcd 0000:00:02.0: irq 5, io mem 0xd2003000
hub 2-0:1.0: USB hub found
hub 2-0:1.0: 10 ports detected
Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
usbcore: registered new driver usb-storage
USB Mass Storage support registered.
usb 2-1: new low speed USB device using ohci_hcd and address 2
usbcore: registered new driver hiddev
input: USB HID v1.10 Mouse [Microsoft Microsoft 3-Button Mouse with
IntelliEye(TM)] on usb-0000:00:02.0-1
usbcore: registered new driver usbhid
drivers/usb/input/hid-core.c: v2.01:USB HID core driver
NET: Registered protocol family 2
IP route cache hash table entries: 8192 (order: 3, 32768 bytes)
TCP established hash table entries: 32768 (order: 6, 262144 bytes)
TCP bind hash table entries: 32768 (order: 5, 131072 bytes)
TCP: Hash tables configured (established 32768 bind 32768)
TCP reno registered
ip_conntrack version 2.1 (4095 buckets, 32760 max) - 212 bytes per conntrack

ip_tables: (C) 2000-2002 Netfilter core team
ipt_recent v0.3.1: Stephen Frost <sfrost@×××××××.net>.
http://snowman.net/projects/ipt_recent/
arp_tables: (C) 2002 David S. Miller
TCP bic registered
NET: Registered protocol family 1
NET: Registered protocol family 17
powernow-k8: Found 1 AMD Athlon 64 / Opteron processors (version 1.50.3)
powernow-k8: BIOS error - no PSB or ACPI _PSS objects
Using IPI Shortcut mode
ACPI wakeup devices:
HUB0 XVR0 XVR1 XVR2 XVR3 USB0 USB2 MMAC MMCI UAR1
ACPI: (supports S0 S1 S3 S4 S5)
ReiserFS: sda9: found reiserfs format "3.6" with standard journal
ReiserFS: sda9: using ordered data mode
ReiserFS: sda9: journal params: device sda9, size 8192, journal first block
18, max trans len 1024, max batch 900, max commit age 30, max trans age 30
ReiserFS: sda9: checking transaction log (sda9)
ReiserFS: sda9: Using r5 hash to sort names
VFS: Mounted root (reiserfs filesystem) readonly.
Freeing unused kernel memory: 180k freed
nvidia: module license 'NVIDIA' taints kernel.
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:01:00.0[A] -> Link [LNK3] -> GSI 3 (level, low) ->
IRQ 3
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:01:00.0 to 64
NVRM: loading NVIDIA Linux x86 Kernel Module  1.0-9639  Mon Apr 16 20:20:06
PDT 2007
ReiserFS: sda10: found reiserfs format "3.6" with standard journal
ReiserFS: sda10: using ordered data mode
ReiserFS: sda10: journal params: device sda10, size 8192, journal first
block 18, max trans len 1024, max batch 900, max commit age 30, max trans
age 30
ReiserFS: sda10: checking transaction log (sda10)
ReiserFS: sda10: Using r5 hash to sort names
NTFS volume version 3.1.
NTFS volume version 3.1.
fuse init (API version 7.8)
fuse distribution version: 2.7.0
Adding 1052216k swap on /dev/sda11.  Priority:-1 extents:1
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LACI] enabled at IRQ 11
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:04.0[A] -> Link [LACI] -> GSI 11 (level, low) ->
IRQ 11
PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:04.0 to 64
intel8x0_measure_ac97_clock: measured 50582 usecs
intel8x0: clocking to 46841
eth0: link up, 100Mbps, full-duplex, lpa 0x45E1
eth0: link up, 100Mbps, full-duplex, lpa 0x45E1
eth0: link up, 100Mbps, full-duplex, lpa 0x45E1
eth0: link up, 100Mbps, full-duplex, lpa 0x45E1

I tried dmesg also in Gentoo LiveCD 2006.0 and Gentoo LiveCD 2007.0, couldnt
find any trace of scsi device. But in Kubuntu 7.04 i got it (let me cut this
down a little of bit this time, it's too long, you can get the full output
from here <http://punkid.cn/glade/kubuntu-info.txt> which features the
dmesg,lspci and lsmod output)

[    0.000000] Linux version 2.6.20-15-generic (root@palmer) (gcc version
4.1.2 (Ubuntu 4.1.2-0ubuntu4)) #2 SMP Sun Apr 15 07:36:31 UTC 2007 (Ubuntu
2.6.20-15.27-generic)
...
[   33.281791] SCSI subsystem initialized
[   33.286398] libata version 2.20 loaded.
[   33.289865] sata_nv 0000:00:07.0: version 3.3
[   33.290394] ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [APSI] enabled at IRQ 21
[   33.290402] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:07.0[A] -> Link [APSI] -> GSI 21
(level, low) -> IRQ 18
[   33.290411] sata_nv 0000:00:07.0: Using ADMA mode
[   33.290423] PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:07.0 to 64
[   33.290501] ata1: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xe0856480 ctl 0xe08564a0 bmdma
0x0001d400 irq 18
[   33.290543] ata2: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xe0856580 ctl 0xe08565a0 bmdma
0x0001d408 irq 18
[   33.290554] scsi0 : sata_nv
[   33.607099] ata1: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 300)
[   33.607116] scsi1 : sata_nv
[   33.846693] usb 1-1: new low speed USB device using ohci_hcd and address
2
[   33.922566] ata2: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 300)
[   33.923770] ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [APSJ] enabled at IRQ 20
[   33.923777] ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:08.0[A] -> Link [APSJ] -> GSI 20
(level, low) -> IRQ 19
[   33.923787] sata_nv 0000:00:08.0: Using ADMA mode
[   33.923800] PCI: Setting latency timer of device 0000:00:08.0 to 64
[   33.923870] ata3: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xe0862480 ctl 0xe08624a0 bmdma
0x0001c000 irq 19
[   33.923913] ata4: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xe0862580 ctl 0xe08625a0 bmdma
0x0001c008 irq 19
[   33.923925] scsi2 : sata_nv
[   34.052254] usb 1-1: configuration #1 chosen from 1 choice
[   34.066871] usbcore: registered new interface driver hiddev
[   34.072392] input: Microsoft Microsoft 3-Button Mouse with IntelliEye(TM)
as /class/input/input2
[   34.072498] input: USB HID v1.10 Mouse [Microsoft Microsoft 3-Button
Mouse with IntelliEye(TM)] on usb-0000:00:02.0-1
[   34.072513] usbcore: registered new interface driver usbhid
[   34.072516] drivers/usb/input/hid-core.c: v2.6:USB HID core driver
[   34.397786] ata3: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 300)
[   34.410822] ata3.00: ata_hpa_resize 1: sectors = 312581808, hpa_sectors =
312581808
[   34.410827] ata3.00: ATA-7: Maxtor 6V160E0, VA111630, max UDMA/133
[   34.410830] ata3.00: 312581808 sectors, multi 1: LBA48 NCQ (depth 31/32)
[   34.422784] ata3.00: ata_hpa_resize 1: sectors = 312581808, hpa_sectors =
312581808
[   34.422788] ata3.00: configured for UDMA/133
[   34.422797] scsi3 : sata_nv
[   34.737207] ata4: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 300)
[   34.737983] scsi 2:0:0:0: Direct-Access     ATA      Maxtor 6V160E0
VA11 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
[   34.737992] ata3: bounce limit 0xFFFFFFFFFFFFFFFF, segment boundary
0xFFFFFFFF, hw segs 61
[   34.739951] NFORCE-CK804: IDE controller at PCI slot 0000:00:06.0
[   34.739971] NFORCE-CK804: chipset revision 242
[   34.739973] NFORCE-CK804: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later
[   34.739979] NFORCE-CK804: 0000:00:06.0 (rev f2) UDMA133 controller
[   34.739988]     ide0: BM-DMA at 0xf000-0xf007, BIOS settings: hda:DMA,
hdb:DMA
[   34.739996]     ide1: BM-DMA at 0xf008-0xf00f, BIOS settings: hdc:DMA,
hdd:DMA
[   34.740003] Probing IDE interface ide0...
[   34.758729] SCSI device sda: 312581808 512-byte hdwr sectors (160042 MB)
[   34.758742] sda: Write Protect is off
[   34.758745] sda: Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
[   34.758758] SCSI device sda: write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled,
doesn't support DPO or FUA
[   34.758807] SCSI device sda: 312581808 512-byte hdwr sectors (160042 MB)
[   34.758815] sda: Write Protect is off
[   34.758817] sda: Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
[   34.758830] SCSI device sda: write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled,
doesn't support DPO or FUA
[   34.758833]  sda: sda1 sda2 < sda5 sda6 sda7 sda8 sda9 sda10 sda11 >
[   34.862086] sd 2:0:0:0: Attached scsi disk sda
[   34.865814] sd 2:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg0 type 0

[  115.268000] ReiserFS: sda9: found reiserfs format "3.6" with standard
journal
[  115.268000] ReiserFS: sda9: using ordered data mode
[  115.276000] ReiserFS: sda9: journal params: device sda9, size 8192,
journal first block 18, max trans len 1024, max batch 900, max commit age
30, max trans age 30
[  115.276000] ReiserFS: sda9: checking transaction log (sda9)
[  115.352000] ReiserFS: sda9: Using r5 hash to sort names
...

and i confirmed it with fdisk -l /dev/sda under Kubuntu

Disk /dev/sda: 160.0 GB, 160041885696 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 19457 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes

    Device Boot      Start         End      Blocks   Id  System
/dev/sda1   *           1        2611    20972826    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda2            2612       19456   135307462+   f  W95 Ext'd (LBA)
/dev/sda5            2612        5222    20972826    7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda6            5223        9138    31455238+   7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda7            9139       15976    54926203+   7  HPFS/NTFS
/dev/sda8           15977       15981       40131   83  Linux
/dev/sda9           15982       18276    18434556   83  Linux
/dev/sda10          18277       19325     8426061   83  Linux
/dev/sda11          19326       19456     1052226   82  Linux swap / Solaris


And definitely let me show you my kernel config in
gentoo-sources-2.6.22-r6(which fails with a VFS error), here's the
necessary setting i enabled with
built-in support for sata device, you can also check the whole kernel config
here <http://punkid.cn/glade/config-2.6.22-gentoo-r6.txt>

# SCSI device support
#
# CONFIG_RAID_ATTRS is not set
CONFIG_SCSI=y
# CONFIG_SCSI_TGT is not set
# CONFIG_SCSI_NETLINK is not set
CONFIG_SCSI_PROC_FS=y

#
# SCSI support type (disk, tape, CD-ROM)
#
CONFIG_BLK_DEV_SD=y
# CONFIG_CHR_DEV_ST is not set
# CONFIG_CHR_DEV_OSST is not set
# CONFIG_BLK_DEV_SR is not set
CONFIG_CHR_DEV_SG=y
# CONFIG_CHR_DEV_SCH is not set

...

CONFIG_ATA=y
# CONFIG_ATA_NONSTANDARD is not set
CONFIG_ATA_ACPI=y
# CONFIG_SATA_AHCI is not set
# CONFIG_SATA_SVW is not set
# CONFIG_ATA_PIIX is not set
# CONFIG_SATA_MV is not set
CONFIG_SATA_NV=y

...

# File systems
#
CONFIG_EXT2_FS=y
CONFIG_EXT2_FS_XATTR=y
CONFIG_EXT2_FS_POSIX_ACL=y
# CONFIG_EXT2_FS_SECURITY is not set
# CONFIG_EXT2_FS_XIP is not set
CONFIG_EXT3_FS=y
CONFIG_EXT3_FS_XATTR=y
# CONFIG_EXT3_FS_POSIX_ACL is not set
# CONFIG_EXT3_FS_SECURITY is not set
# CONFIG_EXT4DEV_FS is not set
CONFIG_JBD=y
# CONFIG_JBD_DEBUG is not set
CONFIG_FS_MBCACHE=y
CONFIG_REISERFS_FS=y
# CONFIG_REISERFS_CHECK is not set
# CONFIG_REISERFS_PROC_INFO is not set
# CONFIG_REISERFS_FS_XATTR is not set
...

To confirm it's not the prob of kernel itself, i diffed the ata section
between vanilla-kernel and ubuntu kernel, there's no special patches for
ubuntu kernel, and actually Fedora 7 LiveCD's kernel is quite the same as
vanilla-kernel. So its not the prob of kernel itself, in i say.

IMHO, maybe its the compatibility prob between the ASUS K8N4-E mainboard and
Gentoo system, forget my silly words if i were wrong, cuz at least kernels<=
2.6.13 work well in my Gentoo system  please share your ideas with me and
help me out of this looooooooooooong time prob. Thx for your patience and
enthusiastic help.