Re: Loseing my patience with libata and sata_nv

[Gene Heskett]

On Friday 14 February 2014, Larry Finger wrote:
>On 02/14/2014 12:42 PM, Randy Dunlap wrote:
>> On 02/14/2014 08:31 AM, Gene Heskett wrote:
>>> Which is required for my $290 ASUS M2n-SLI Deluxe motherboard to boot.
>>> 
>>> Not finding the option in any kernel tree that exists on my system,
>>> except it appears its been replaced or something.
>>> 
>>> This once in a lifetime boot, to 3.12.9, shows from an lsmod:
>>> libata                146855  2 sata_nv,pata_amd
>>> scsi_mod              153579  4 sr_mod,sg,sd_mod,libata
>>> 
>>> I haven't a clue how I got it in this boot, and I built it.  And
>>> apparently a make oldconfig, carefully done by hand (takes about an
>>> hour 30 to do) is not capable of adding it to a .config BECAUSE it
>>> does NOT exist in any of the arch/x86/configs/i386_defconfig's
>>> present on this machine.
>> 
>> It does not have to exist in any defconfig.  Those are just default
>> config files and SATA_NV is not enabled by default, but you can still
>> enable it.
>> 
>>> Here is how I searched:
>>> 
>>> gene@coyote:~/src/linux-3.0.69$ grep SATA_NV
>>> arch/x86/configs/i386_defconfig gene@coyote:~/src/linux-3.0.69$ cd
>>> ../linux-3.2.40
>>> gene@coyote:~/src/linux-3.2.40$ grep SATA_NV
>>> arch/x86/configs/i386_defconfig gene@coyote:~/src/linux-3.2.40$ cd
>>> ../linux-3.4.36
>>> gene@coyote:~/src/linux-3.4.36$ grep SATA_NV
>>> arch/x86/configs/i386_defconfig gene@coyote:~/src/linux-3.4.36$ cd
>>> ../linux-3.8.2
>>> gene@coyote:~/src/linux-3.8.2$ grep SATA_NV
>>> arch/x86/configs/i386_defconfig gene@coyote:~/src/linux-3.8.2$ cd
>>> ../linux-3.8.3
>>> gene@coyote:~/src/linux-3.8.3$ grep SATA_NV
>>> arch/x86/configs/i386_defconfig gene@coyote:~/src/linux-3.8.3$ cd
>>> ../linux-3.12.0
>>> gene@coyote:~/src/linux-3.12.0$ grep SATA_NV
>>> arch/x86/configs/i386_defconfig gene@coyote:~/src/linux-3.12.0$ cd
>>> ../linux-3.12.6
>>> gene@coyote:~/src/linux-3.12.6$ grep SATA_NV
>>> arch/x86/configs/i386_defconfig gene@coyote:~/src/linux-3.12.6$ cd
>>> ../linux-3.12.9
>>> gene@coyote:~/src/linux-3.12.9$ grep SATA_NV
>>> arch/x86/configs/i386_defconfig gene@coyote:~/src/linux-3.12.9$ cd
>>> ../linux-3.13.1
>>> gene@coyote:~/src/linux-3.13.1$ grep SATA_NV
>>> arch/x86/configs/i386_defconfig gene@coyote:~/src/linux-3.13.1$ cd
>>> ../linux-3.13.2
>>> gene@coyote:~/src/linux-3.13.2$ grep SATA_NV
>>> arch/x86/configs/i386_defconfig gene@coyote:~/src/linux-3.13.2$
>>> 
>>> I've been fighting with this, intermittently for about 6 months. 
>>> Except for this 3.12.9 where I must have been holding my mouth right,
>>> all the rest are boot failures because it can't find the boot drive
>>> with so-and-so for a UUID. sata_nv is on the missing list, even in
>>> this WORKing boots defconfig. "Working" however is a miss-statement,
>>> no multimedia stuff was built.
>>> 
>>> There has to be a rule I am violating, but even with Randy's D's help,
>>> it is not becoming obvious.  FWIW libata references also can't be
>>> found, but as can be seen, its in memory right now.
>> 
>> libata is built whenever CONFIG_ATA is enabled.
>> 
>>> So please guys, what is the magic dependency that causes libata and
>>> sata_nv to be included in a .config?
>> 
>> The SATA_NV kconfig symbol depends on (requires) the following other
>> kconfig
>> 
>> symbols to be enabled:
>> 	ATA_SFF and ATA_BMDMA and PCI and ATA
>> 
>> If those are not enabled, then you will need to use 'make <some>config'
>> to enabled them before you can enable SATA_NV.
>
>Gene,
>
>Your CONFIG indicates that you are building both libata and sata_nv.
>Perhaps you are not including them in your initrd, or whatever it is
>called in your distro. That makes them unavailable at boot time due to
>the chicken-and-egg problem. You need those drivers to access the drive,
>but that is where they reside. An easy way might be to make those two
>drivers be built in rather than as modules.
>
>Larry

Almost exactly the same, Larry, I waited for the 2 minute timeout that 
tried to print something on the top line of the screen before I got up to 
walk over and reset it, but this time there was about a 1 minute blast of 
disk activity from the drive it was trying to boot from, and I thought I 
might have been an e2fsck, so I waited till the drive leds went off and 
stayed off before resetting it.  Nothing on the screen changed after that.

So call me clueless & you would be pretty accurate. :(

Is there another dependency yet?

Thanks.

Cheers, Gene
-- 
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
 soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
Genes Web page <http://geneslinuxbox.net:6309/gene>

NOTICE: Will pay 100 USD for an HP-4815A defective but
complete probe assembly.

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