Atul Bhouraskar wrote:

Hi,

I am building a linux-2.6.9 system with 4 250G SATA drives (using the
intel GD31244 controller).
I have compiled a monolithic kernel with Vitesse vsc SATA support, ACPI
and APM have been turned off (see config at end of message).
The kernel boots up properly and detects all drives correctly (see dmesg
below).
I can partition and initialize the drives without any problem (using
cfdisk and mke2fs).
I can read and write small files (<100MB) without any problem too.

But when I try to use any of the drives with large files (more than a
couple of GB), the process invariably hangs with the kernel spewing out
ATA timeout and other errors (see log below). It usually needs a write
of more than 5-6GB before it happens, but it usually occurs at around
50-100MB while reading. It is not possible to kill the hung process,
though the rest of the system continues to be responsive. Any further
access (even an 'ls') on *any* of the SATA drives usually instantly
meets with the same fate.

It can be reproduced in the following way:

I got a similar report via my employer as well.  I don't think anybody 
has really tested sata_vsc on the Intel controller, just the one that 
Vitesse put out.

You don't happen to have a spare controller, do you?

	Jeff