VIA vt6410 IDE controller not activating

Gus Wirth gwirth79 at gmail.com
Mon Apr 28 19:24:27 UTC 2008


I have an add-in PCI card for my PC that contains a VIA vt6410 IDE 
controller chip which is  used to provide two additional IDE headers to 
allow connection of up to four IDE devices. The controller is not 
activating with Fedora 8 (32-bit) and kernel 2.6.24.4-64. The system is 
fully updated. Does anyone know what I need to do to get this controller 
card to work?

According to my research, support for the vt6410 was introduced in the 
2.6.15 kernel <http://kernelnewbies.org/Linux_2_6_15> but it seems that 
the driver required a via82cxxx chipset to be present. This is not 
appropriate because the vt6410 can be obtained as a separate plug-in 
card and used with any chipset. My testing results (below) seem to show 
that support broke hard with kernel 2.6.21 and the changeover in libata.

Current system is an ECS 755-A2 motherboard with an SiS 755 chipset and 
Sempron processor. There is an IDE drive configured as master on channel 
1 of the card (known good, tested on another system). I installed 
viaideinfo using yum and get the following results when I run it:

[gus at falcon ~]$ sudo viaideinfo
Password:
----------VIA BusMastering IDE Configuration----------------
viaideinfo Version:                 0.5
South Bridge:                       VIA vt6410 Rev 0x6 (PCI 00:0a.0)
IDE Controller:                     Rev 0x6 (PCI 00:0a.0)
Highest DMA rate:                   UDMA133
BM-DMA base:                        0xe800
PCI clock:                          33.3MHz
Master Read  Cycle IRDY:            0ws
Master Write Cycle IRDY:            0ws
BM IDE Status Register Read Retry:  yes
Max DRDY Pulse Width:               No limit
-----------------------Primary IDE-------Secondary IDE------
Read DMA FIFO flush:          yes                 yes
End Sector FIFO flush:         no                  no
Prefetch Buffer:              yes                 yes
Post Write Buffer:            yes                 yes
Enabled:                       no                  no
Simplex only:                 yes                 yes
Cable Type:                   80w                 80w
-------------------drive0----drive1----drive2----drive3-----
Transfer Mode:        DMA       DMA       DMA       DMA
Address Setup:      120ns     120ns     120ns     120ns
Cmd Active:         360ns     360ns     360ns     360ns
Cmd Recovery:       210ns     210ns     210ns     210ns
Data Active:        330ns     330ns     330ns     330ns
Data Recovery:      270ns     270ns     270ns     270ns
Cycle Time:         600ns     600ns     600ns     600ns
Transfer Rate:    3.3MB/s   3.3MB/s   3.3MB/s   3.3MB/s

The vt6410 card is detected properly at bootup by the BIOS and also 
appears in the output of lspci:

[gus at falcon ~]$ lspci|grep -i via
00:0a.0 RAID bus controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT6410 ATA133 RAID 
controller (rev 06)

dmesg shows the following (heavily edited to show only controller stuff):

SCSI subsystem initialized
Driver 'sd' needs updating - please use bus_type methods
libata version 3.00 loaded.
pata_sis 0000:00:02.5: version 0.5.2
scsi0 : pata_sis
scsi1 : pata_sis
ata1: PATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0x1f0 ctl 0x3f6 bmdma 0x4000 irq 14
ata2: PATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0x170 ctl 0x376 bmdma 0x4008 irq 15
ata1.00: ATA-6: IC35L060AVV207-0, V22OA66A, max UDMA/100
ata1.00: 120103200 sectors, multi 16: LBA48
ata1.00: configured for UDMA/100
ata2.01: ATAPI: Optiarc DVD RW AD-7190A, 1.01, max UDMA/66
ata2.01: configured for UDMA/66
scsi 0:0:0:0: Direct-Access     ATA      IC35L060AVV207-0 V22O PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 120103200 512-byte hardware sectors (61493 MB)
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't 
support DPO or FUA
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 120103200 512-byte hardware sectors (61493 MB)
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't 
support DPO or FUA
  sda: sda1 sda2 < sda5 sda6 sda7 sda8 sda9 >
sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI disk
scsi 1:0:1:0: CD-ROM            Optiarc  DVD RW AD-7190A  1.01 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:0d.0[A] -> GSI 19 (level, low) -> IRQ 21
scsi2 : Adaptec AIC7XXX EISA/VLB/PCI SCSI HBA DRIVER, Rev 7.0
         <Adaptec 2940 SCSI adapter>
         aic7870: Single Channel A, SCSI Id=7, 16/253 SCBs
sd 0:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg0 type 0
scsi 1:0:1:0: Attached scsi generic sg1 type 5
Driver 'sr' needs updating - please use bus_type methods
sr0: scsi3-mmc drive: 48x/12x writer dvd-ram cd/rw xa/form2 cdda tray
Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.20
sr 1:0:1:0: Attached scsi CD-ROM sr0
pata_via 0000:00:0a.0: version 0.3.3
sata_sis 0000:00:05.0: version 1.0
sata_sis 0000:00:05.0: Detected SiS 180/181/964 chipset in SATA mode
scsi3 : sata_sis
scsi4 : sata_sis
ata3: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xe300 ctl 0xe400 bmdma 0xe700 irq 20
ata4: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xe500 ctl 0xe600 bmdma 0xe708 irq 20
ata3: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 300)
ata3.00: ATA-7: ST3500630A, 3.AAE, max UDMA/100
ata3.00: 976773168 sectors, multi 16: LBA48
ata3.00: applying bridge limits
ata3.00: configured for UDMA/100
ata4: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 300)
scsi 3:0:0:0: Direct-Access     ATA      ST3500630A       3.AA PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] 976773168 512-byte hardware sectors (500108 MB)
sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't 
support DPO or FUA
sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] 976773168 512-byte hardware sectors (500108 MB)
sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't 
support DPO or FUA
  sdb: sdb1
sd 3:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI disk
sd 3:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0


It seems that the appropriate modules are loading:

[gus at falcon ~]$ lsmod|grep ata
sata_sis                9797  1
pata_via               12357  0
pata_sis               14405  7 sata_sis
pata_acpi               8641  0
ata_generic             8773  0
libata                128561  5 
sata_sis,pata_via,pata_sis,pata_acpi,ata_generic
scsi_mod              123341  7 
sr_mod,sg,usb_storage,aic7xxx,scsi_transport_spi,libata,sd_mod

I have done some additional experiments with another motherboard and 
additional kernels. The other motherboard is a Jetway 663AS Ultra that 
uses the VIA KT133A chipset (VT8363A, VT82C686B) with an Athlon 1.4Ghz 
processor.

Fedora Core 6 initial install before updates, kernel 2.6.18-1.2798, 
output of dmesg (edited):

Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 7.00alpha2
ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx
VP_IDE: IDE controller at PCI slot 0000:00:07.1
PCI: VIA IRQ fixup for 0000:00:07.1, from 255 to 0
VP_IDE: chipset revision 6
VP_IDE: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later
VP_IDE: VIA vt6410 (rev 06) IDE UDMA133 controller on pci0000:00:07.1
     ide0: BM-DMA at 0x9000-0x9007, BIOS settings: hda:DMA, hdb:pio
     ide1: BM-DMA at 0x9008-0x900f, BIOS settings: hdc:pio, hdd:DMA
Probing IDE interface ide0...
hda: IC35L060AVV207-0, ATA DISK drive
ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14
Probing IDE interface ide1...
hdd: SONY DVD RW DW-Q28A, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15
VP_IDE: IDE controller at PCI slot 0000:00:09.0
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKB] enabled at IRQ 11
PCI: setting IRQ 11 as level-triggered
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:09.0[A] -> Link [LNKB] -> GSI 11 (level, 
low) -> IRQ
  11
VP_IDE: chipset revision 6
VP_IDE: VIA vt6410 (rev 06) IDE UDMA133 controller on pci0000:00:09.0
VP_IDE: 100% native mode on irq 11
     ide2: BM-DMA at 0xbc00-0xbc07, BIOS settings: hde:pio, hdf:pio
     ide3: BM-DMA at 0xbc08-0xbc0f, BIOS settings: hdg:pio, hdh:pio
Probing IDE interface ide2...
Probing IDE interface ide3...
Probing IDE interface ide2...
Probing IDE interface ide3...
hda: max request size: 512KiB
hda: 120103200 sectors (61492 MB) w/1821KiB Cache, CHS=16383/255/63, 
UDMA(100)
hda: cache flushes supported
  hda: hda1 hda2 < hda5 hda6 hda7 >


Fedora Core 5 after updates to kernel 2.6.20-1.2320

ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx
VP_IDE: IDE controller at PCI slot 0000:00:07.1
VP_IDE: chipset revision 6
VP_IDE: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later
VP_IDE: VIA vt6410 (rev 06) IDE UDMA133 controller on pci0000:00:07.1
     ide0: BM-DMA at 0x9000-0x9007, BIOS settings: hda:DMA, hdb:pio
     ide1: BM-DMA at 0x9008-0x900f, BIOS settings: hdc:pio, hdd:DMA
Probing IDE interface ide0...
hda: IC35L060AVV207-0, ATA DISK drive
ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14
Probing IDE interface ide1...
hdd: SONY DVD RW DW-Q28A, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15
VP_IDE: IDE controller at PCI slot 0000:00:09.0
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKB] enabled at IRQ 11
PCI: setting IRQ 11 as level-triggered
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:09.0[A] -> Link [LNKB] -> GSI 11 (level, 
low) -> IRQ 11
VP_IDE: chipset revision 6
VP_IDE: VIA vt6410 (rev 06) IDE UDMA133 controller on pci0000:00:09.0
VP_IDE: 100% native mode on irq 11
     ide2: BM-DMA at 0xbc00-0xbc07, BIOS settings: hde:pio, hdf:pio
     ide3: BM-DMA at 0xbc08-0xbc0f, BIOS settings: hdg:pio, hdh:pio
Probing IDE interface ide2...
Probing IDE interface ide3...
Probing IDE interface ide2...
Probing IDE interface ide3...
hda: max request size: 512KiB
hda: 120103200 sectors (61492 MB) w/1821KiB Cache, 
CHS=16383/255/63<6>hda: hw_config=600b
, UDMA(100)
hda: cache flushes supported
  hda: hda1 hda2 < hda5 hda6 hda7 >

Fedora 7 KDE Live kernel-2.6.21-1.3194.fc7

SCSI subsystem initialized
libata version 2.20 loaded.
pata_via 0000:00:07.1: version 0.2.1
ata1: PATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0x000101f0 ctl 0x000103f6 bmdma 0x00019000 
irq 14
ata2: PATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0x00010170 ctl 0x00010376 bmdma 0x00019008 
irq 15
scsi0 : pata_via
ata1.00: ata_hpa_resize 1: sectors = 120103200, hpa_sectors = 120103200
ata1.00: ATA-6: IC35L060AVV207-0, V22OA63A, max UDMA/100
ata1.00: 120103200 sectors, multi 16: LBA48
ata1.00: ata_hpa_resize 1: sectors = 120103200, hpa_sectors = 120103200
ata1.00: configured for UDMA/100
scsi1 : pata_via
ata2.01: ATAPI, max UDMA/66
input: ImExPS/2 Generic Explorer Mouse as /class/input/input2
ata2.01: configured for UDMA/33
scsi 0:0:0:0: Direct-Access     ATA      IC35L060AVV207-0 V22O PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
scsi 1:0:1:0: CD-ROM            SONY     DVD RW DW-Q28A   KYS3 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
sr0: scsi3-mmc drive: 40x/40x writer cd/rw xa/form2 cdda tray
Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.20
sr 1:0:1:0: Attached scsi CD-ROM sr0
SCSI device sda: 120103200 512-byte hdwr sectors (61493 MB)
sda: Write Protect is off
sda: Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
SCSI device sda: write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't 
support DPO or FUA
SCSI device sda: 120103200 512-byte hdwr sectors (61493 MB)
sda: Write Protect is off
sda: Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
SCSI device sda: write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't 
support DPO or FUA
  sda: sda1 sda2 < sda5 sda6 sda7 >
sd 0:0:0:0: Attached scsi disk sda
ISO 9660 Extensions: Microsoft Joliet Level 3


And for a final comparison, the output of Knoppix 5.1.1, kernel 2.6.19

SCSI subsystem initialized
libata version 2.00 loaded.
Uniform Multi-Platform E-IDE driver Revision: 7.00alpha2
ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx
VP_IDE: IDE controller at PCI slot 0000:00:07.1
VP_IDE: chipset revision 6
VP_IDE: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later
VP_IDE: VIA vt6410 (rev 06) IDE UDMA133 controller on pci0000:00:07.1
     ide0: BM-DMA at 0xc000-0xc007, BIOS settings: hda:pio, hdb:pio
     ide1: BM-DMA at 0xc008-0xc00f, BIOS settings: hdc:pio, hdd:DMA
Probing IDE interface ide0...
Probing IDE interface ide1...
hdd: SONY CD-ROM CDU5232, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive
ide1 at 0x170-0x177,0x376 on irq 15
VP_IDE: IDE controller at PCI slot 0000:00:09.0
ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [LNKB] enabled at IRQ 11
PCI: setting IRQ 11 as level-triggered
ACPI: PCI Interrupt 0000:00:09.0[A] -> Link [LNKB] -> GSI 11 (level, 
low) -> IRQ 11
VP_IDE: chipset revision 6
VP_IDE: VIA vt6410 (rev 06) IDE UDMA133 controller on pci0000:00:09.0
VP_IDE: 100% native mode on irq 11
     ide2: BM-DMA at 0xe800-0xe807, BIOS settings: hde:pio, hdf:pio
     ide3: BM-DMA at 0xe808-0xe80f, BIOS settings: hdg:pio, hdh:pio
Probing IDE interface ide2...
Probing IDE interface ide3...
Probing IDE interface ide0...
Probing IDE interface ide2...
Probing IDE interface ide3...
hdd: ATAPI 40X CD-ROM drive, 96kB Cache
Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.20




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