failed to set xfermode ...

[Jamie Bohr]

I was give a system with a D875PBZ Intel MB in it, it is a 2.8G system.

I am trying to get Fedora on it but either get a kernel panic or
failed to set xfermode (err_mask=0x40).  I have googled and found a
few ides, none have helped.

I've:
 - updated the BIOS
 - set irqpoll
 - tried disabling the Intel SATA raid controller
 - ....

If I take my IDE drive out of the old system and only run IDE on the
new system it boots and seems to work great.  If I try to reinstall -
as a test to see if there is a problem with just SATA -   I get the
same error - failed to set ....

My head hurts from all the banging  and trying different options, this
list is my last hope before I talk my self into purchasing a PCI SATA
RAID controller.

Any pointers would be greatly appreciated.

[Karl Larsen]

Jamie Bohr wrote:
> I was give a system with a D875PBZ Intel MB in it, it is a 2.8G system.
>
> I am trying to get Fedora on it but either get a kernel panic or
> failed to set xfermode (err_mask=0x40).  I have googled and found a
> few ides, none have helped.
>
> I've:
> updated the BIOS
> set irqpoll
> tried disabling the Intel SATA raid controller
> ....
>
> If I take my IDE drive out of the old system and only run IDE on the
> new system it boots and seems to work great.  If I try to reinstall -
> as a test to see if there is a problem with just SATA -   I get the
> same error - failed to set ....
>
> My head hurts from all the banging  and trying different options, this
> list is my last hope before I talk my self into purchasing a PCI SATA
> RAID controller.
>
> Any pointers would be greatly appreciated.

You were given this motherboard by a friend? It sounds to me the ide 
controller is working fine but you have a broken serial controller.

[Alan Cox]

On Sun, 19 Aug 2007 14:49:11 -0600
"Jamie Bohr"  wrote:
> I was give a system with a D875PBZ Intel MB in it, it is a 2.8G system.
>
> I am trying to get Fedora on it but either get a kernel panic or
> failed to set xfermode (err_mask=0x40).  I have googled and found a
> few ides, none have helped.

The shipped FC7 kernel has this problem with a few devices whose firmware
turned out to be very fussy about things or only got polled setxfer
correct. A new controller isn't likely to be different. Without more
details on the actual device it fails to probe it is hard to guess beyond
that

[Jamie Bohr]

My sister in-law gave me the complete system (P4 2.8Gig, 160G PATA,
DVD-writer and a CD-writer, dual-head Nvidia card , she was having
problems with the systems just rebooting while it was being used.  I
moved my Linux HD from my 933Mhz system to this new system.  I changed
some BIOS setting and so far have not had any issues.  I was able to
acquire two SATA drives and wanted to try out the RAID ... that is
when I went down this rat hole.  I would still like to use the SATA
drives .. but how.

Alan:  Are you suggesting a new SATA PCI controller would not fix the
problem even if I disable the one on the MB?

Information about the Mb can be found at
http://www.intel.com/design/motherbd/bz/index.htm.  I'm note sure what
additional information you need but I would be glad to try anything.
If I was to lose my current PATA drive I would have not way to
reinstall Linux - Yuk!

Thank you,
   Jamie

On 8/19/07, Alan Cox  wrote:
> On Sun, 19 Aug 2007 14:49:11 -0600
> "Jamie Bohr"  wrote:
> > I was give a system with a D875PBZ Intel MB in it, it is a 2.8G system.
> >
> > I am trying to get Fedora on it but either get a kernel panic or
> > failed to set xfermode (err_mask=0x40).  I have googled and found a
> > few ides, none have helped.
>
> The shipped FC7 kernel has this problem with a few devices whose firmware
> turned out to be very fussy about things or only got polled setxfer
> correct. A new controller isn't likely to be different. Without more
> details on the actual device it fails to probe it is hard to guess beyond
> that

[Alan Cox]

> Alan:  Are you suggesting a new SATA PCI controller would not fix the
> problem even if I disable the one on the MB?

I am. But particularly if you have a Lite-on drive you may find that
unplugging that specific cd or dvd drive makes the rest work.

[Tim]

On Sun, 2007-08-19 at 19:54 -0600, Jamie Bohr wrote:
> she was having problems with the systems just rebooting while it was
> being used

Spontaneous reboots can be due to poor power supplies, and overheating
components, to name just a couple of common causes.

I received a rather nice graphics card, gratis, for that reason.  The
fan had seized, the owner felt the cost of properly replacing the fan
wasn't worth it.  So he bought a new card, and gave me the old one.  I
just removed the old fan, aimed an ordinary fan at the card's heatsink,
and it works nicely.  Now, the whole card is cool.  Before, just the
graphics processor was cooled (and not much), the RAM, and other things,
would roast.

[Jamie Bohr]

Thank you for your reply.  I think the rebooting issues was caused by
Windows or a BIOS problem.  I've had the system for over a month, it
has been running 24x7 serving bit torrents, constantly (while loop)
doing dd of each mount point to /dev/null all while coping files from
my media server to a local hard drive.  The system never missed a beat
.... that said I still don't know how to install Linux from scratch
w/o getting the failed to set xfer message.

FYI: All Linux distro's (Fedora, Ubunto, Knoppix, ...) I've tried have
the same issue.

Thanks,
   Jamie

On 8/20/07, Tim  wrote:
> On Sun, 2007-08-19 at 19:54 -0600, Jamie Bohr wrote:
> > she was having problems with the systems just rebooting while it was
> > being used
>
> Spontaneous reboots can be due to poor power supplies, and overheating
> components, to name just a couple of common causes.
>
> I received a rather nice graphics card, gratis, for that reason.  The
> fan had seized, the owner felt the cost of properly replacing the fan
> wasn't worth it.  So he bought a new card, and gave me the old one.  I
> just removed the old fan, aimed an ordinary fan at the card's heatsink,
> and it works nicely.  Now, the whole card is cool.  Before, just the
> graphics processor was cooled (and not much), the RAM, and other things,
> would roast.
>
> --
> [tim@bigblack ~]$ uname -ipr
> 2.6.22.1-41.fc7 i686 i386
>
> Using FC 4, 5, 6 & 7, plus CentOS 5.  Today, it's FC7.
>
> Don't send private replies to my address, the mailbox is ignored.
> I read messages from the public lists.
>
> --
> fedora-list mailing list
> [e-mail]
> To unsubscribe: https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list

[Jamie Bohr]

I'm looking at getting a new mother board ... the only one I can find
is a P4I65G, http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=P4i65G, from
ASRock.  It is not as capable as my current MB but my current MB SATA
does not work so ...

I've googled this new MB but most of the sites are in a foreign
language. Can someone advise on this MB, a simple good/bad will do.

Thanks,
   Jamie

On 8/20/07, Jamie Bohr  wrote:
> Thank you for your reply.  I think the rebooting issues was caused by
> Windows or a BIOS problem.  I've had the system for over a month, it
> has been running 24x7 serving bit torrents, constantly (while loop)
> doing dd of each mount point to /dev/null all while coping files from
> my media server to a local hard drive.  The system never missed a beat
> .... that said I still don't know how to install Linux from scratch
> w/o getting the failed to set xfer message.
>
> FYI: All Linux distro's (Fedora, Ubunto, Knoppix, ...) I've tried have
> the same issue.
>
> Thanks,
>    Jamie
>
> On 8/20/07, Tim  wrote:
> > On Sun, 2007-08-19 at 19:54 -0600, Jamie Bohr wrote:
> > > she was having problems with the systems just rebooting while it was
> > > being used
> >
> > Spontaneous reboots can be due to poor power supplies, and overheating
> > components, to name just a couple of common causes.
> >
> > I received a rather nice graphics card, gratis, for that reason.  The
> > fan had seized, the owner felt the cost of properly replacing the fan
> > wasn't worth it.  So he bought a new card, and gave me the old one.  I
> > just removed the old fan, aimed an ordinary fan at the card's heatsink,
> > and it works nicely.  Now, the whole card is cool.  Before, just the
> > graphics processor was cooled (and not much), the RAM, and other things,
> > would roast.
> >
> > --
> > [tim@bigblack ~]$ uname -ipr
> > 2.6.22.1-41.fc7 i686 i386
> >
> > Using FC 4, 5, 6 & 7, plus CentOS 5.  Today, it's FC7.
> >
> > Don't send private replies to my address, the mailbox is ignored.
> > I read messages from the public lists.
> >
> > --
> > fedora-list mailing list
> > [e-mail]
> > To unsubscribe: https://www.redhat.com/mailman/listinfo/fedora-list
>
> --
> Jamie Bohr

[Alan Cox]

On Tue, 28 Aug 2007 18:52:58 -0600
"Jamie Bohr"  wrote:
> I'm looking at getting a new mother board ... the only one I can find
> is a P4I65G, http://www.asrock.com/mb/overview.asp?Model=P4i65G, from
> ASRock.  It is not as capable as my current MB but my current MB SATA
> does not work so ...

Your current mainboard SATA is what ?

[Alan Cox]

Your current board has an utterly generic intel ICH controller. Its
probably the best supported chip of all. You've not provided any kind of
logs to do much more debug though.

The only IRQ routing issue Intel know about for that board was fixed in
the rev 31 BIOS so as you've updated the BIOS that ought to be ok.

Having checked the bug db its also a known working configuration. Do you
have SATA primary on, sata secondary off set in the BIOS and are you
using legacy or advanced mode ?

[Jamie Bohr]

Alan,

I tried many different combinations: legacy, advanced ... they all
ended the same kernel panic or failed to set xfermode (err_mask=0x40).
 I could give more information but that would require a lot of effort,
when the kernel dumps the screen scrolls many times.  I was able to
get the system up once when I had a IDE drive and SATA enabled, I
still got the xfermode error.  If I knew it would work I would keep
trying but I don't trust the MB, the previous owner had issues with
it.

- Jamie

On 8/29/07, Alan Cox  wrote:
> Your current board has an utterly generic intel ICH controller. Its
> probably the best supported chip of all. You've not provided any kind of
> logs to do much more debug though.
>
> The only IRQ routing issue Intel know about for that board was fixed in
> the rev 31 BIOS so as you've updated the BIOS that ought to be ok.
>
> Having checked the bug db its also a known working configuration. Do you
> have SATA primary on, sata secondary off set in the BIOS and are you
> using legacy or advanced mode ?

[Alan Cox]

> I could give more information but that would require a lot of effort,
> when the kernel dumps the screen scrolls many times.  I was able to
> get the system up once when I had a IDE drive and SATA enabled, I
> still got the xfermode error.  If I knew it would work I would keep
> trying but I don't trust the MB, the previous owner had issues with
> it.

Fair enough. Digital camera is oen good way to capture the problems but
if the board is believed iffy its probably not worth it