[CentOS] Any experience with eSATA and port multiplier...?

Fri Feb 17 19:03:57 UTC 2012
Gary Greene <ggreene at minervanetworks.com>

On 2/17/12 3:47 AM, "John Doe" <jdmls at yahoo.com> wrote:


>Hey,
>
>just bought an eSATA/USB dual drive docking station and my CentOS 5 can
>only see one drive at a time...
>Any one knows if there are specific parameters to set somewhere?
>Or do I need a more recent kernel (like upgrading to CentOS 6?)
>
>The docking is a Sharkoon Quickport Duo v2 + 2 drives + 1 eSATA cable...
>http://www.sharkoon.com/?q=en/content/sata-quickport-duo-v2
>The eSATA controller is an HighPpoint PciE 2 ports combo eSATA/USB with
>(supposedly) port-multiplier support
>Apparently based on an Silicon image Sil 3132
>Seems like the port multiplier part does not work correctly...
>
>kernel: ata7: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 10)
>kernel: ata7.15: Port Multiplier 1.1, 0x197b:0x2352 r0, 2 ports, feat
>0x0/0x0
>kernel: ata7.15: Asynchronous notification not supported, hotplug won't
>kernel:          work on fan-out ports. Use warm-plug instead.
>kernel: ata7.00: hard resetting link
>
>The logs are full of "hard resetting link", "softreset failed" and other
>"failed to reset PMP, giving up"
>
>
>I did not try to reboot yet...  Would be a pain to have to reboot every
>time I need to plug drives.  :/
>
>
>I am not the only one...
>http://linux.derkeiler.com/Mailing-Lists/SuSE/2011-10/msg00055.html
>He has a kernel 2.6.37.6-0.7 and it still fails so I am wondering if
>upgrading to CentOS 6.x would help at all...
>


To make this work, the module for the chipset for the SATA controller that
the device uses must support Port Multiplier options. Unfortunately, from
my experience, not many SATA drivers in the Linux kernel actually support
PMP properly or reliably. I've a server at home using this for storage of
video data which is using an SiS chipset which works well after going
through two manufacturers which did not.

--
Gary L. Greene, Jr.
Sr. Systems Administrator
IT Operations, Minerva Networks Inc.
Cell: (650) 704-6633