Re: [gentoo-user] Weird harddisk problem: AHCI disks sometimes not found

[Alexander Puchmayr]

Hi there,

Thanks for all suggestions and answers so far.

I'm pretty sure it is not a hardware problem, because 
* Exchanging SATA cables does not affect the problem
* Using different SATA slots on the mainboard does not affect the problem
* Using different SATA power connectors does not affect the problem

I continued to experiment with different kernel versions and configs:
* Ubuntu-5.4.0-48-generic works
* sys-kernel/gentoo-sources-5.4.60 [self compiled and configured for a similar 
machine some time ago]: WORKS
* sys-kernel/gentoo-kernel-5.4.97 [default config] FAILS
* sys-kernel/gentoo-kernel-bin-5.4.97 FAILS
* sys-kernel/vanilla-sources-5.4.102 [same config as with 5.4.60] WORKS
* sys-kernel/gentoo-kernel-5.10.20 [default config] FAILS
* sys-kernel/gentoo-sources-5.10.20 [same config as with 5.4.60] WORKS

The common thing seems to be that my self-configured kernels work and the 
default dist-kernels fail. I checked the differences in the configs (/usr/src/
linux/.config) related to SATA or AHCI, and one candidate was 
CONFIG_SATA_MOBILE_LPM_POLICY, which was set to 3 (medium power save) in 
distkernel's config and 0 (keep seetings from firmware) in my self compiled 
kernels.

SOLUTION:
Adding CONFIG_SATA_MOBILE_LPM_POLICY=0 to /etc/kernel/config.d and recompiling 
the gentoo-kernel actually solved the problem. 

I assume the reason is an incompatibility between the link power modes (mode 
3) and the drives making the link to appear to be down.

Alex

Am Donnerstag, 11. März 2021, 20:39:04 CET schrieb Alexander Puchmayr:
> Hi there,
>
> I have a weird harddisk detection problem which rises the questio: what does
> the gentoo-kernel make differently than the ubuntu kernel?
>
> The system in question has 2 identical SSDs (Kingston SV300S3 60GB) and two
> identical HDDs (older Maxtor7V300F0 300GB) , all connected to SATA/AHCI
> ports; the HDDs are combined to a LVM-raid1 volume. SATA controller is a
> onboard SB7x on an Asus M3A78 mainboard in AHCI mode.
>
> Only one of the two SSDs is attached at the same time to the system, the
> other one is disconnected. One contains a gentoo installation (just updated
> yesterday), the other one an Ubuntu LTS 20.04. This allows dual-.boot by
> switching connection cables.
>
> When I connect the gentoo-SSD and boot it, BIOS finds all HDDs and the SSD,
> and starts booting; but gentoo does not recognize at least one of the HDDs
> (/dev/ sdc missing, dmesg shows link down on Sata-Interface
> . Going back to the bios shows that even BIOS does not recognize the disk
> anymore. A full powercycle (pressing reset button is not sufficent) to make
> BIOS to recognize the disks again.
>
> Doing the same with the Ubuntu-Disk works absolutely fine, all HDDs are
> recognized and the raid is working fine, not a single time that one of the
> disks was not recognized.
>
> Without the Ubuntu observation I'd say its a hardware problem and the old
> HDDs are simply beyond their age, but why are they working in ubuntu and
> not in gentoo? And what is it doing with BIOS/Harddisk that even Bios does
> not find it anymore? I need a full powercycle to make bios find it again.
> This  indicates a gentoo kernel problem, and I have no idea where to start
> looking, and AFAIK there's nothing much to configure a SATA/AHCI drive.
>
> Any ideas?
>
> Thanks
> 	Alex
>
> PS:
> Sys-kernel/gentoo-kernel-5.4.97, default configuration
> Hardware:
> 00:00.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] RS780 Host Bridge
> 00:01.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] RS780/RS880 PCI to
> PCI bridge (int gfx)
> 00:06.0 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] RS780 PCI to PCI
> bridge (PCIE port 2)
> 00:11.0 SATA controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] SB7x0/SB8x0/
> SB9x0 SATA Controller [AHCI mode]
> 00:12.0 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] SB7x0/SB8x0/
> SB9x0 USB OHCI0 Controller
> 00:12.1 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] SB7x0 USB
> OHCI1 Controller
> 00:12.2 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] SB7x0/SB8x0/
> SB9x0 USB EHCI Controller
> 00:13.0 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] SB7x0/SB8x0/
> SB9x0 USB OHCI0 Controller
> 00:13.1 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] SB7x0 USB
> OHCI1 Controller
> 00:13.2 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] SB7x0/SB8x0/
> SB9x0 USB EHCI Controller
> 00:14.0 SMBus: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] SBx00 SMBus Controller
> (rev 3a)
> 00:14.1 IDE interface: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] SB7x0/SB8x0/
> SB9x0 IDE Controller
> 00:14.2 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] SBx00 Azalia
> (Intel HDA)
> 00:14.3 ISA bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] SB7x0/SB8x0/SB9x0
> LPC host controller
> 00:14.4 PCI bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] SBx00 PCI to PCI
> Bridge
> 00:14.5 USB controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] SB7x0/SB8x0/
> SB9x0 USB OHCI2 Controller
> 00:18.0 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] K8
> [Athlon64/Opteron] HyperTransport Technology Configuration
> 00:18.1 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] K8
> [Athlon64/Opteron] Address Map
> 00:18.2 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] K8
> [Athlon64/Opteron] DRAM Controller
> 00:18.3 Host bridge: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD] K8
> [Athlon64/Opteron] Miscellaneous Control
> 01:05.0 VGA compatible controller: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI]
> RS780 [Radeon HD 3200]
> 01:05.1 Audio device: Advanced Micro Devices, Inc. [AMD/ATI] RS780 HDMI
> Audio [Radeon 3000/3100 / HD 3200/3300]
> 02:00.0 Ethernet controller: Realtek Semiconductor Co., Ltd.
> RTL8111/8168/8411 PCI Express Gigabit Ethernet Controller (rev 02)