[Soekris] net4801: wrong drive geometry with 80GB harddisk

[Andy R]

Poul-Henning Kamp wrote:
> In message <4237E69D.5080503 at 2anc.de>, Andy R writes:
> 
> 
>>Since freebsd seemed to have the right geometry, I thought everything is fine.
>>I used the new system for several hours (kernelbuild and some ports etc.) and
>>it did not show any odd behavior - besides sporadic (but steady) drive resets
>>and/or recalibrations (I don't really know how to _hear_ the difference...)
>>which sound like a loud >>clack<<. However, there were _no_ kernel error
>>messages in the syslog (*.*) file about drive failures or something similar.
> 
> 
> Check your powersupply.  Laptop drives have very trigger-happy power
> sensors and the shut down at milliseconds notice.

Thanks for the tip, but I already checked it. I tried the supply i bought
together with the net4801 (12V/1,5A DC) and used the laptop powersupply
(ibm thinkpad) with the net4801, which delivers 16V/4.5A DC - no change.

The drive does not make any noise if I stay in comBIOS (it is spinning), but
as soon as the kernel is running the drive will start making its >>clack<<
music at random intervals - especially when idle... Maybe the problem is
related to the drives powersaving mode and freebsd's ata driver. In the
meantime I tried a 2GB toshiba drive and another ibm travelstar (40GB,
without the powersaving feature). Both are correctly recognised by comBIOS
and neither made a similar clacking noise. I found another posting in the
list about comBIOS geometry problems:
http://lists.soekris.com/pipermail/soekris-tech/2004-April/020708.html

I also installed freebsd on the laptop (with the 80GB disk) and moved it back
into th soekris, without any more success. Next, I disabled DMA access in bsd
- no progress.
However, the comBIOS geometry detection seems to be buggy - even if its not
related to my noise-problem...

Is there any way to switch on ata debugging in freebsd 5, so I can see which
commands are send to the drive ?

Regards,
Andy