On Wed, Jan 20, 2016 at 06:07:04PM +1100, Anthony Hogan wrote:
some things to try:
0. stating the obvious, but maybe try a different kernel. you don't mention what version of ubuntu you're running (the latest?) but you could see if there's an updated kernel for it.
Just upgraded to a new one today, but before rebooting into new kernel, everything got chucked into RO again (dmesg barf at the bottom).
Presently:
$ uname -a Linux AH01 4.2.0-25-generic #30-Ubuntu SMP Mon Jan 18 12:31:50 UTC 2016 x86_64 x86_64 x86_64 GNU/Linux $ dpkg --get-selections | grep linux-image
try 'dlocate -k' to list kernel and related packages if you have my dlocate package installed. or '-K' for 'dpkg -l' style output. $ dlocate -k linux-headers-3.16.0-4-amd64 linux-headers-3.16.0-4-common linux-headers-3.19-5.dmz.1-liquorix-amd64 linux-headers-4.3-3.dmz.2-liquorix-amd64 linux-headers-4.3-3.dmz.6-liquorix-amd64 linux-headers-amd64 linux-headers-liquorix-amd64 linux-image-3.16.0-4-amd64 linux-image-3.19-5.dmz.1-liquorix-amd64 linux-image-4.3-3.dmz.2-liquorix-amd64 linux-image-4.3-3.dmz.6-liquorix-amd64 linux-image-amd64 linux-image-liquorix-amd64 nvidia-kernel-dkms spl-dkms zfs-dkms
I also have an nvidia graphics card running the binary driver.
To date, I've found the nvidia + nouveau drivers crack the sads if KMS is enabled, so my grub config adds "nomodeset" to kernel boot parms.
KMS works on my (AMD 1090T and FX-8150 and FX-8320 systems), so i'd guess that's another motherboard bug you have. or maybe the old GTS-260 card.
1. disable AHCI in the BIOS.
Done - dmesg still noisy as all buggery. I'll tackle Windows 10 (the lesser used, dual booted OS on the system) at another time (it will no doubt bitch and moan about the change from AHCI to "IDE" mode).
ok, that's a reason not to disable ahci. makes me wonder, though - does win10 have any problems with the drives? if it works OK on win, microsoft probably worked with gigabyte, or gigabyte provided their own driver to work around bugs in the sata implementation...while the generic linux driver assumes that the sata works as documented.
2. disable AHCI in the BIOS and move both SATA drives onto the Marvell 6Gbps ports and use the sata_mv driver (which is in the mainline kernel, has been for years). The driver has a few parms that might be worth reading about and experimenting with. ... marvell ports should be labelled GSATA3_6 and GSATA3_7
I'll give that a go next!
try moving them to the marvell and re-enable AHCI. assuming the implementation isn't buggy (which may not be / probably isn't the case on your m/b), running in ahci mode is always preferable to using specific vendor drivers.
3. Check all other settings in the BIOS and make sure they're [...]
Perhaps it could be best described as BIOS Engrish?
perhaps. but it's even less useful than that. a menu option labelled "foo" will usually have the descriptive text of "enable or disable foo" with not the slightest trace of anything resembling a definition of what it actually is or does. go ahead and guess, i dare ya.
In terms of performance options, I tend to select the default and not overclock (I figure with only a stock heatsink on the CPU, it'd be bad to fiddle). I might give Google a whirl on my phone when next in the BIOS config.
i don't bother overclocking either, but some options make a difference (like enabling IOMMU on AM3/AM3+ motherboards, or sleep states)
I guess this is my primary desktop machine, so I'm not beyond making it more reliable. I mean, the 3TB "enterprise" drive was probably a bit of overkill in and of itself, but I figured it'd be running a lot of the time, and would hold a lot of my data.
if the motherboard is failing or just a bad model, then adding a SATA or SAS card won't make it any more reliable. IMO upgrading the mb and cpu is a better option than a PCI-e card. OTOH if the m/b is mostly ok and it's just the sata controllers on it that are dodgy then if you can find a good 4-port SATA card for $30-$50 that's a lot cheaper than upgrading. your BIOS may even have an option to disable all the on-board SATA ports.
dunno what CPU you've got in your current board or how it compares to the G1840....but swapping the m/b should not only fix your current
Heh, yeah.. even when I bought the machine it wasn't blinged out - I just wanted something with the CPU and enough RAM to run a couple of VMs if and when required.
Intel(R) Core(TM) i7 CPU 860 @ 2.80GHz NVIDIA Corporation G92 [GeForce GTS 250] (rev a2) Seasonic 750W PSU
that was a pretty good CPU in its day. http://cpuboss.com/cpus/Intel-Core-i7-860-vs-Intel-Celeron-G1840 http://www.cpu-world.com/Compare/237/Intel_Celeron_Dual-Core_G1840_vs_Intel_... Note that the G1840 includes an Intel HD GPU which is more than adequate for basic 2D desktop graphics, so you could get rid of that and save some power (88W vs 150W). also uses open source drivers in the mainline kernel if that's important to you (it is to me, but not important enough for me to give up the nvidia proprietary driver for nouveau. i'd prefer GPL driver, but not as much as i prefer fast, reliable graphics that just works). The G1840 itself uses 43W vs 156W for the i7-860, and I *think* the 88W is for both the CPU+GPU when it's running at full throttle. http://www.game-debate.com/gpu/index.php?gid=1438&gid2=711&compare=intel-hd-... i'm not sure if that's comparing exactly the right model. The specs for the G1840 say "Intel HD Graphics", not "Intel HD Graphics 4600". They're different. but probably not different enough that you'd notice for basic 2D desktop stuff. if you play games on win10 then keep the GTS-260. the windows desktop could probably use the extra GPU grunt too, with all its animations and other pointless bling. if you want to run a few VMs then you probably want something a bit more powerful than the G1840 (which is only single-core CPU with HT, so two threads vs the 4-core HT or 8 threads of the i7-860). Maybe the dual-core (4 thread) i3-4170 for $165 or i5-4460 for $278...either of those would be good enough for running a few lightly used VMs and occasional VMs for testing/experimentation. it really depends on how heavily it gets used or if you do any major number crunching or lots of compiling on it. if it's a lightly used home desktop / server / nas, then a g1840 is probably adequate. if you really want quad-core with 8 execution threads, then maybe a Xeon e3-1241-v3 for $379. it's not as fast as the i7-4790K and it doesn't have a GPU built-in but it's about $150 cheaper. but if you're spending that kind of money, get a 6-core FX-6300 ($155) or n 8-core AMD FX-8320 ($215) and an Asus M5A97-r2 motherboard $(135) instead. much better value for money. add 8 or 16GB of RAM (use DDR3-1866 for the FX CPUs, anything less reduces their performance - $75 for 8GB or $116 for 16GB). put any cheap old video card in it, and you've got a very nice linux server. your current system can be windows only (with putty installed to ssh to linux and a VNC client too if you want/need to run X, with vnc-server running on linux) a second linux-only system is probably a good idea anyway because windows will bitch and moan and invalidate your license if you swap the motherboard. BTW, the specs for the m5a97-r2 say it doesn't support DDR3-1866. it does. the bios detects and auto-configures them, no problem. i have one here, with an FX-8320 in it. # dmigrep.pl base.board Handle 0x0002, DMI type 2, 15 bytes Base Board Information Manufacturer: ASUSTeK COMPUTER INC. Product Name: M5A97 R2.0 Version: Rev 1.xx Type: Motherboard # list_dimms.sh Handle 0x0030, DMI type 17, 34 bytes Size: 8192 MB Bank Locator: BANK1 Type: DDR3 Speed: 1866 MHz Configured Clock Speed: 933 MHz Handle 0x0034, DMI type 17, 34 bytes Size: 8192 MB Bank Locator: BANK3 Type: DDR3 Speed: 1866 MHz Configured Clock Speed: 933 MHz performance of the FX chips on windows is OK (lots of bad reviews and negative comments, but they're not as bad on Win as some make out), but they work really well on linux, especially if you're running lots of multi-threaded stuff or multitasking with lots of VMs and background daemons. Useful tip when comparing CPUs and GPUs and motherboards: google for "product1 vs product2", e.g "i3-4170 vs i7-860". use product codes where possible for best results.
It has been awhile since I got this machine (April '10), though the 3TB drive is a lot newer than the rest of it.
Today's blargh (turns out knowing basic SMTP is handy in these situations :)): [200860.130029] ------------[ cut here ]------------ [200860.130035] WARNING: CPU: 3 PID: 26390 at /build/linux-AFqQDb/linux-4.2.0/fs/buffer.c:1160 mark_buffer_dirty+0xf3/0x100() [200860.130036] Modules linked in: nls_utf8 btrfs xor raid6_pq ufs qnx4 hfsplus hfs minix ntfs msdos jfs [200860.130044] Buffer I/O error on dev sdb1, logical block 0, lost sync page write [200860.130045] xfs libcrc32c cpuid binfmt_misc nfsv3 nfs_acl rpcsec_gss_krb5 auth_rpcgss nfsv4 nfs lockd grace fscache bnep rfcomm bluetooth uas usb_storage pci_stub vboxpci(OE) vboxnetadp(OE) vboxnetflt(OE) vboxdrv(OE) nvidia(POE) coretemp kvm_intel mxm_wmi snd_hda_codec_realtek snd_hda_codec_generic i7core_edac kvm snd_hda_intel snd_hda_codec snd_hda_core gpio_ich snd_hwdep snd_pcm drm edac_core input_leds snd_seq_midi snd_seq_midi_event snd_rawmidi snd_seq serio_raw snd_seq_device snd_timer wmi snd 8250_fintek shpchp soundcore lpc_ich mac_hid sunrpc parport_pc ppdev lp parport autofs4 pata_acpi hid_generic usbhid hid firewire_ohci firewire_core r8169 pata_it8213 crc_itu_t mii ahci libahci [200860.130079] CPU: 3 PID: 26390 Comm: Cache2 I/O Tainted: P OE 4.2.0-23-generic #28-Ubuntu [200860.130081] Hardware name: Gigabyte Technology Co., Ltd. P55A-UD4/P55A-UD4, BIOS F15 09/16/2010 [200860.130082] 0000000000000000 000000007621f8ae ffff8801486a7b48 ffffffff817e94c9 [200860.130084] 0000000000000000 0000000000000000 ffff8801486a7b88 ffffffff8107b3d6 [200860.130086] ffffffff81ac2d38 ffffffff81d2a8a0 ffff880211ff80d0 00000000012e8320 [200860.130087] Call Trace: ...
not good. there's something really messed up with your system, and my best guess is that it's the motherboard....or, at least, the sata controllers on it. have you got another machine to test those disks on? there's always the possibility that your drive or drives are failing - although it's a bit unlikely that both of them and the dvd would be failing all at once, more likely to be your motherboard. craig ps: and here we have a classic case of upgrade inflation. start off with something simple and cheap, and end up with something not so cheap after half a dozen "if i spent just a little bit more, i could...." expansions. even so, i think replacing a 6 year old CPU + m/b is a worthwhile thing to do, especially if it's your primary desktop machine. -- craig sanders <cas@taz.net.au>