Ubuntu
linux-source-2.6.22 package

it takes an awful long time to boot 2.6.22-14-generic - probably related to some ATA/IDE problem in the kernel

Bug #164302 reported by Pierre Bauduin on 2007-11-21

Affects		Status	Importance	Assigned to	Milestone
	linux-source-2.6.22 (Ubuntu)	Invalid	Undecided	Unassigned

Bug Description

Binary package hint: linux-image-2.6.22-14-generic

Hi there,

I just did a fresh install of Ubuntu 7.10 on some machine. It takes an awful long time to boot, and it is probably related to some ATA/IDE problem in the kernel.

Instead of booting in perhaps 40 seconds, it takes 2 minutes and 40 seconds to boot Ubuntu 7.10. Here is a snippet from dmesg:

Nov 20 10:05:07 xenon kernel: [ 62.082608] ata1: soft resetting port
Nov 20 10:05:07 xenon kernel: [ 62.254824] ata1.00: configured for UDMA/100
Nov 20 10:05:07 xenon kernel: [ 62.254902] ata1: EH complete
Nov 20 10:05:07 xenon kernel: [ 92.239736] res 40/00:00:00:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/00 Emask 0x4 (timeout)
Nov 20 10:05:07 xenon kernel: [ 92.295588] ata1: soft resetting port
Nov 20 10:05:07 xenon kernel: [ 92.467805] ata1.00: configured for UDMA/100
Nov 20 10:05:07 xenon kernel: [ 92.467891] ata1: EH complete
Nov 20 10:05:07 xenon kernel: [ 122.452721] res 40/00:00:00:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/00 Emask 0x4 (timeout)
Nov 20 10:05:07 xenon kernel: [ 122.508568] ata1: soft resetting port
Nov 20 10:05:07 xenon kernel: [ 122.680786] ata1.00: configured for UDMA/100
Nov 20 10:05:07 xenon kernel: [ 122.680874] ata1: EH complete
Nov 20 10:05:07 xenon kernel: [ 152.665637] ata1.00: limiting speed to UDMA/66:PIO4
Nov 20 10:05:07 xenon kernel: [ 152.665743] res 40/00:00:00:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/00 Emask 0x4 (timeout)
Nov 20 10:05:07 xenon kernel: [ 152.721548] ata1: soft resetting port
Nov 20 10:05:07 xenon kernel: [ 152.893687] ata1.00: configured for UDMA/66
Nov 20 10:05:07 xenon kernel: [ 152.893775] ata1: EH complete
Nov 20 10:05:07 xenon kernel: [ 152.899046] sda1 sda2 <<5>sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 39179952 512-byte hardware sectors (20060 MB)
Nov 20 10:05:07 xenon kernel: [ 152.903439] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
Nov 20 10:05:07 xenon kernel: [ 152.903489] sda5<5>sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
Nov 20 10:05:07 xenon kernel: [ 152.908861] sda6<5>sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 39179952 512-byte hardware sectors (20060 MB)
Nov 20 10:05:07 xenon kernel: [ 152.917359] sda7<5>sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
Nov 20 10:05:07 xenon kernel: [ 152.928304] sda8 >
Nov 20 10:05:07 xenon kernel: [ 152.929516] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: enabled, read cache: enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
Nov 20 10:05:07 xenon kernel: [ 152.930605] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI disk

In other words, after 30 seconds the kernel is talking to the ATA controller, "soft resetting port" on ata1. Then it waits for about 30 seconds (most likely a timeout). Then it attemps again to talk to the ATA controller, waits for about 30 seconds. It's only at the fourth attempt that the machine finally boots completely. So the kernel times out four times: at 30s, 1m00, 1m30s, 2m.

I'm using the default kernel for Ubuntu 6.10, which is package linux-image-2.6.22-14-generic.

Now a few words about the hardware of this machine.

It is an ASUSTeK motherboard based on a Intel Celeron at 1,2 GHz. It has 384 MB of PC100 memory.
The hard disk and CD-ROM drive are IDE (P-ATA), they use 40-pin IDE connectors.

Here is what mount says:
[root@xenon] 10:15 /root>mount
/dev/sda7 on / type ext3 (rw,errors=remount-ro)
proc on /proc type proc (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
/sys on /sys type sysfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev)
varrun on /var/run type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,mode=0755)
varlock on /var/lock type tmpfs (rw,noexec,nosuid,nodev,mode=1777)
udev on /dev type tmpfs (rw,mode=0755)
devshm on /dev/shm type tmpfs (rw)
devpts on /dev/pts type devpts (rw,gid=5,mode=620)
lrm on /lib/modules/2.6.22-14-generic/volatile type tmpfs (rw)
/dev/sda6 on /var type ext3 (rw)
/dev/sda8 on /home type ext3 (rw)
securityfs on /sys/kernel/security type securityfs (rw)
/dev/fd0 on /media/floppy0 type vfat (rw,nosuid,nodev)

... yes, the hard disks are seen as /dev/sdx and not /dev/hdx, but they are IDE disks. They are P-ATA disks, not S-ATA disks. It is very strange these disks show up as /dev/sdx and not as /dev/hdx.

Here's what you can find in /proc about SCSI devices:
[root@xenon] 10:15 /root>cat /proc/scsi/scsi
Attached devices:
Host: scsi0 Channel: 00 Id: 00 Lun: 00
  Vendor: ATA Model: SAMSUNG SP2001H Rev: QT10
  Type: Direct-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 05
Host: scsi1 Channel: 00 Id: 00 Lun: 00
  Vendor: LITEON Model: CD-ROM LTN526 Rev: YH0X
  Type: CD-ROM ANSI SCSI revision: 05

... again, this is very strange: these are IDE disks, but they show up as SCSI.

You're gonna say... what about IDE devices ? Let's take a look:
[root@xenon] 10:20 /root>ls -l /proc/ide
ls: /proc/ide: No such file or directory

... no IDE devices ? But it's an IDE (P-ATA) controller and disk !

Here's what lshw says about the IDE controller and disks:
        *-ide
             description: IDE interface
             product: 5513 [IDE]
             vendor: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS]
             physical id: 0.1
             bus info: pci@0000:00:00.1
             logical name: scsi0
             logical name: scsi1
             version: d0
             width: 32 bits
             clock: 33MHz
             capabilities: ide bus_master emulated
             configuration: driver=pata_sis latency=128 module=pata_sis
           *-disk
                description: SCSI Disk
                product: SAMSUNG SP2001H
                vendor: ATA
                physical id: 0
                bus info: scsi@0:0.0.0
                logical name: /dev/sda
                version: QT10
                serial: 0461J1FT218363
                size: 18GB
                capabilities: partitioned partitioned:dos
                configuration: ansiversion=5
    (partition information removed since we don't need it)
           *-cdrom
                description: SCSI CD-ROM
                product: CD-ROM LTN526
                vendor: LITEON
                physical id: 1
                bus info: scsi@1:0.0.0
                logical name: /dev/cdrom
                logical name: /dev/scd0
                logical name: /dev/sr0
                version: YH0X
                capabilities: removable audio
                configuration: ansiversion=5 status=open

... again, this is very strange, IDE devices show up as SCSI devices.

However, when I boot from SystemRescueCD 0.4.0, there is no delay in the boot process, and the partitions are seen as /dev/hdax.

Conclusion:
- it takes 2m30s to boot where it should take 30s to boot
- IDE (P-ATA) devices are seen as SCSI devices
- it is most likely related to the kernel

... it would be nice if someone could look into this

Thank you,
Pierre