Commit 51e9f2ff authored Jan 27, 2006 by Jeff Garzik

[libata sata_sil] implement 'slow_down' module parameter

On occasion, a user will submit a patch that enables the "mod15write"
quirk for their device.  Enabling this quirk has the effect of clamping
all ATA commands to no more than 15 sectors.  The intended use of this
quirk is to stop the controller from generating FIS's of unusual size
("but Wesley, what about the FOUS's?"), which in turn works around
problems in a <list> of hard drives.

One side effect of this quirk is greatly decreased performance.  Users
often enable the mod15write quirk to fix various system, power, chip,
and/or driver problems.  For a few rare problematic cases, enabling this
has cured lockups or data corruption.

Rather than add bogus listings to the mod15write quirk list (I get a
patch every month doing such), we add a 'slow_down' module parameter.
This allows users to employ a performance sledgehammer in the hopes
of curing a problem.  It defaults to off (0), of course.

parent 3ee68c4a

drivers/scsi/sata_sil.c

+8 −2

Original line number	Diff line number	Diff line
		@@ -231,6 +231,10 @@ MODULE_LICENSE("GPL");
		MODULE_DEVICE_TABLE(pci, sil_pci_tbl);
		MODULE_VERSION(DRV_VERSION);

		static int slow_down = 0;
		module_param(slow_down, int, 0444);
		MODULE_PARM_DESC(slow_down, "Sledgehammer used to work around random problems, by limiting commands to 15 sectors (0=off, 1=on)");


		static unsigned char sil_get_device_cache_line(struct pci_dev *pdev)
		{
		@@ -354,8 +358,10 @@ static void sil_dev_config(struct ata_port ap, struct ata_device dev)
		}

		/* limit requests to 15 sectors */
		if ((ap->flags & SIL_FLAG_MOD15WRITE) && (quirks & SIL_QUIRK_MOD15WRITE)) {
		printk(KERN_INFO "ata%u(%u): applying Seagate errata fix\n",
		if (slow_down \|\|
		((ap->flags & SIL_FLAG_MOD15WRITE) &&
		(quirks & SIL_QUIRK_MOD15WRITE))) {
		printk(KERN_INFO "ata%u(%u): applying Seagate errata fix (mod15write workaround)\n",
		ap->id, dev->devno);
		ap->host->max_sectors = 15;
		ap->host->hostt->max_sectors = 15;

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