[mythtv-users] DMA problems again

[michael brown]

From: "Tony Maro"

> michael brown wrote:
> > Your hard drive is failing, replace it.

> Good guess, Michael, but probably incorrect.
>
> I've been through this.  It's a weird issue between VIA mobos and
> certain drives.  Replacing the drive with a different make/model
_might_
> fix the problem.  I have a maxtor 80 GB that has the problem, but the
> second IBM drive in that system does not.  The drive with the problem
> _never_ has the problem on my nforce mobo.

Hmm......I suppose that's possible.  Typically when I've seen these
particular errors, the drive was on its way out.  Those log messages are
typical of a drive that has developed "bad" sectors and bad sectors are
problem that never gets better on its own.  I would still be tempted to
back the data up and run some kind of thorough surface scan.

> The disable apic support suggestion is likely the correct answer.  You
> have two options, either recompile your kernel removing the "local
APIC
> support" or disable it at boot with your boot manager.

What if you have more than one CPU?  AIUI, disabling APIC support is not
really an option on an SMP system like my dual PII-450 machine.

> I googled this and found many different options suggested for boot
time
> to disable APIC, so I just put them all into my line and these
problems
> went away.

Hmm....  Try this 'dd if=/dev/hda of=/dev/null' and see if you get any
messages in the logs.

> in lilo.conf look for the kernel you are booting and make sure the
> following entries are in your "append" line:
>
> noapic nolapic pci=noacpi acpi=off
>
> Oh, and do as I do - don't buy another mobo with VIA chipsets to run
> Linux on. ;-)

Oh I don't use them either except for my EPIA tinkering.  I've learned
some hard (read as expensive and time-consuming) lessons about using
non-Intel chipsets.  I look at it like buying cheap tools, I simply
can't afford them.
;-)

michael brown