Fresh install of FC6. When machine boots it drags its feet while issuing messages similar to below.
ata1: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xFE00 ctl 0xFE12 bmdma 0xFEA0 irq 169 ata2: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xFE20 ctl 0xFE32 bmdma 0xFEA8 irq 169 scsi0 : ata_piix ata1: port is slow to respond, please be patient ata1: port failed to respond (30 secs) ata1: SRST failed (status 0xFF) ata1: SRST failed (err_mask=0x100) ata1: softreset failed, retrying in 5 secs ata1: SRST failed (status 0xFF) ata1: SRST failed (err_mask=0x100) ata1: softreset failed, retrying in 5 secs ata1: SRST failed (status 0xFF) ata1: SRST failed (err_mask=0x100) ata1: reset failed, giving up
this repeats for ata2 ...
It eventually boots up and appears to run fine after that .. ?
Kernel: 2.6.18-1.2798.fc6
I saw the same thing under FC5 with kernel 2.6.18-1.2200.fc5smp
-------------------- # lspci 00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corporation 82875P/E7210 Memory Controller Hub (rev 02) 00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82875P Processor to AGP Controller (rev 02) 00:1d.0 USB Controller: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) USB UHCI Controller #1 (rev 02) ... 00:1e.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corporation 82801 PCI Bridge (rev c2) 00:1f.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) LPC Interface Bridge (rev 02) 00:1f.1 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) IDE Controller (rev 02) 00:1f.2 IDE interface: Intel Corporation 82801EB (ICH5) SATA Controller (rev 02) 00:1f.3 SMBus: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) SMBus Controller (rev 02) 00:1f.5 Multimedia audio controller: Intel Corporation 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) AC'97 Audio Controller (rev 02) 01:00.0 VGA compatible controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon RV250 If [Radeon 9000] (rev 01) 01:00.1 Display controller: ATI Technologies Inc Radeon RV250 [Radeon 9000] (Secondary) (rev 01) 02:00.0 Mass storage controller: Promise Technology, Inc. 20269 (rev 02) 02:01.0 Communication controller: Conexant Unknown device 2702 (rev 01) 02:08.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corporation 82562EZ 10/100 Ethernet Controller (rev 02)
On 10/28/06, Mail List lists@sapience.com wrote:
ata1: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xFE00 ctl 0xFE12 bmdma 0xFEA0 irq 169 ata2: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xFE20 ctl 0xFE32 bmdma 0xFEA8 irq 169 scsi0 : ata_piix ata1: port is slow to respond, please be patient ata1: port failed to respond (30 secs) ata1: SRST failed (status 0xFF) ata1: SRST failed (err_mask=0x100) ata1: softreset failed, retrying in 5 secs ata1: SRST failed (status 0xFF) ata1: SRST failed (err_mask=0x100) ata1: softreset failed, retrying in 5 secs ata1: SRST failed (status 0xFF) ata1: SRST failed (err_mask=0x100) ata1: reset failed, giving up
There have been many many threads about this, actually since the most recent kernel update in FC5 (kernel-2.6.18-1.2200.fc5), but certainly since FC6 too. This could be an upstream kernel issue (?).
I don't think I've seen any definitive explanation or if it, or is being working on. But it seems that the newest kernels (specifically the ata_piix module) are now thinking that certain ATA chipsets (mostly from Dell, such as GX270's) also support SATA drives, when in fact your system doesn't. This may be in part because there was a unification of the SATA and ATA drivers (in the ata_piix module).
Anyway, since it thinks your system supports SATA it then attempts to probe for all SATA drives, and since there are no drives and in fact no SATA bus, it has to wait for the SATA bus reset commands (SRST) to time out.
Supposedly harmless, except for the insanely long boot times.
That's my understanding of it anyway.
Regarding the excessively long boot times and timeout errors from the ata_piix module...
In case enybody reading this didn't catch it in a different thread on this mailing list, Bob Chiodini provided a possible solution or workaround. It disables the SATA drive probing, which is particularly useful on systems that don't support SATA but that the kernel thinks does (of which the Dell Optiplex GX270 is known to exhibit this annoying behavior). Here's what Bob said:
... did some tweaking to /etc/modprobe.conf and this might avoid the ata_piix timeouts during boot and/or udev init.
Add or modify as follows:
alias scsi_hostadapter ata_piix options ata_piix noprobe
As long as you do not have SATA drives.
This was tested on a Dell GX270
Of course this only applies once you have FC6 installed (or after upgrading to the latest FC5 kernel). If you're in the process of doing the FC6 install, just be patient--the timeouts will take a couple minutes, but they will pass and it will cause no harm.
Thanks Bob.