Re: [PLUG] Hardware/ide timeout problems...(?)

["Mike Leone" <turgon@mike-leone.com>]

----- Original Message -----
From: <lynchman@lynchman.net>
To: <plug@lists.phillylinux.org>
Sent: Wednesday, November 14, 2001 10:22 AM
Subject: [PLUG] Hardware/ide timeout problems...(?)


> Hello,
> I am having a wonderful problem with one of my Debain linux boxes, and of
course it has to be on my gateway/router box, so my internet access is
currently dead.  Anyway, I was updating the system yesterday (installing new
versions of packages and a new kernel) and it was going ungodly slow, but I
really did not think too much of it.  But after I went to reboot the system
it never came back up.
>
> When it is booting now, I keep getting IRQ Timeouts (Waiting for DMA).  It
then says something like DMA disabled and IDE0: reset.  It then usually
locks during fsck.  I tried rebooting using the old kernel, but the same
thing happens, and if I skip fsck, it still keeps giving the IRQ timeout
errors and will lock up during init.
>
> I am assuming that this is a hardware problem, but does anyone know if it
is a problem with the harddrive or with the IDE port on the mainboard?  I
suspect it is a problem with the harddrive.

Try pulling the drive, and putting it into another machine, if possible. See
if you can mount it, and read/write to it. that may indicate that it is the
drive, rather than the IDE port.

> I even tried booting with the read-only kernel/lilo flag, but it still
never makes it all the way through the boot.  So I am expecting to go out
and purchase a new hard disk this evening, but is there any way that I will
be able to recover the data on the harddrive? (I would like to make the new
harddisk boot, and then do a complete copy of the root filesystem of the old
HD to the new disk so I do not have to completely re-install and
re-configure my server).
>
> Does anyone have any suggestions on how the best way to do this would be
and if it may even be possible?

You might be able to put in a cheap IDE controller card; disable the
motherboard IDE ports in the BIOS, and then try booting.

If you're out buying anyway, get both. If the card fixes you up, return the
drive. If your old drive is still fubar when using the new card, return the
card.

Card should be like $20-$30, at most.




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