Possible 3ware 8506-12 SATA Controller issues...

[Francois Tigeot]

On Tue, Jun 22, 2004 at 12:57:23AM -0700, Peter Losher wrote:
> So I am tracking down a possible controller issue with a dual-Opteron 
> system (running the amd64 port - 5.2.1-REL branch) which has a 3ware 
> 8506-12 SATA controller controlling 1.2TB of disk space. 
> 
> While the system iself is nice, under sustained high disk I/O, the system 
> randomly locks up hard. (requires a hard reset)
> 
> In trying to diagnose the problem I noticed the kernel recognises it as a 
> 12 channel controller (albiet from the 7000 series):
> 
> -=-
> % grep twe /var/run/dmesg.boot
> twe0: <3ware 7000 series Storage Controller. Driver version 1.50.00.000> 
> port 0x8c00-0x8c0f mem 0xfb800000-0xfbffffff,0xfc7ffc00-0xfc7ffc0f irq 
> 29 at device 1.0 on pci1
> twe0: 12 ports, Firmware FE7S 1.05.00.063, BIOS BE7X 1.08.00.048
> -=-
> 
> (Of course the problem may be elsewhere, the MB, CPU(s), memory...  The 
> joys of HW debugging)  Side note I have noticed that I can install 5.2.1 
> on the box and update to the latest patch level, but subequent 'make 
> buildworld's usually dies randomly on a signal 4 error.

3Ware 850x cards have PCI interaction issues with some Opteron mainboard

Check if your mainboard is not in this list:

https://www.3ware.com/kbadmin/attachments/TM900-0045-00%20Rev%20A_P.pdf

Alternatively you may try to plug the controller in a 32bit PCI slot.

-- 
Francois Tigeot