oddities with OS2AHCI version 2.04

[Lars]

I recently installed version 2.04 which indeed fixes the problem with the system freezing on invoking smartahci.exe which happened with version 2.03.

But now I have this oddity: if I invoke smartahci.exe more than once in a row, the first invocation will work fine but the second invocation will again freeze the system.
I tried this commandline: smartahci.exe -i hd0

Before I open a problem report at AN: Does anyone experience the same problem ? Or is it just me ?

[Rene Hvidsoe]

Hi Lars,

No issues here with the new version 2.04

[David McKenna]

 Lars,

  Can run it over and over here with no issue....

[Lars]

1) I have 16 GB of system memory. How much do you have ?
2) I have an AMD 8-core system ("8350 Eight-Core Processor", I think that is Bulldozer architecture). What do you have ?

I have tried to limit memory via VIRTUALADDRESSLIMIT. That works as described and I can also use memory in excess of the 4 GB boundary as memory for the QSINIT ram disk.

But I have the suspicion that there is a bug in the kernel if more than 4 GB physical memory is installed in that the memory management will go bad. I have many odd effects, from sudden reboots to some Theseus working set script (getws.exe) leading to a kernel trap as soon as I execute it.

I have no special SW installed whatsoever.

[David McKenna]

 8GB installed memory, the upper part of which is setup as a RAM disk used for the swapper and temp files. Running with an Intel i3-6100 (2 cores) H110 chipset. VIRTUALADDRESSLIMIT=2816. Maybe you should run a memory check?

[Dave Yeo]

You also might want to review your BIOS settings. Here, IIRC, I had to turn on the NX bit to get stable high memory usage (upper part of my 4GB). At least on my C2D, PAE seems to be tied to the NX bit.

[Lars]

"memory check": I am using also Windows 10 64-bit on this very same HW. I have no apparent issues with it. At least not unexplicable crashes.

"setting NX" bit: I have no such option in my BIOS. I am not sure if my instability is limited to use of high memory. I had set VIRTUALADDRESSLIMIT to 512 MB and I still have these strange reboots etc.
I have the strong feeling that the amount of system memory matters. Unfortunately it is not all that easy to reduce it. And I bought it to be usable with a 64-bit OS like Windows 10 ...

Maybe there is an issue with AMD based systems ? You all seem to have Intel based systems.

What I also realised:
1) when I dump OS2AHCI$ to the console I have a lot of these entries:
port #0 interrupt error status: 0x40000001; restarting port

2) when I run "smartahci.exe -i hd1" and then dump OS2AHCI$ I get:
timeout for IORB da811ea (etc.)

I am beginning to believe that I cannot use OS2AHCI.ADD on this AMD based system.

[ivan]

Lars,  while I don't have this latest OS2AHCI I have noticed that there is quite a number of things that are only just working on AMD processor systems.

It is almost as if testing on AMD systems is an afterthought or what units they use for testing are old ones (I would like to get ArcaOS working on my Ryzen 8 core system or even the A12 APU system but...) since it apparently works on Intel's latest and greatest.

[David McKenna]

Lars,

  I have those port interrupt errors in OS2AHCI$ too, on all of my systems I've tried it on. At least here, it is always on the port where I have a DVD drive attached. I tried smartahci, then dumping OS2AHCI$ like you suggest, but I just see the interrupt errors along with the list of attached devices. You might try messing around with the switches on the driver. Here, I must use /!R or I can't boot. Maybe one of those will help. Also, I was able to eek out a little more physical memory (as seen at the top of a 'testlog generic') by lowering the video memory in BIOS. Maybe tweak on that (up or down) and see if there are any changes.

[Neil Waldhauer]

Lars,  while I don't have this latest OS2AHCI I have noticed that there is quite a number of things that are only just working on AMD processor systems.

It is almost as if testing on AMD systems is an afterthought or what units they use for testing are old ones (I would like to get ArcaOS working on my Ryzen 8 core system or even the A12 APU system but...) since it apparently works on Intel's latest and greatest.

I'm one of ArcaOS tean of volunteer testers. I don't have any AMD systems. ArcaOS does not work at all on Intel's latest and greatest. I did provide Arca Noae with an Intel system that didn't work at all, and they made improvements to some of the IBM components that extended support. I don't have the resources to cover all systems, and neither does Arca Noae.

[Matt Walsh]

AHCI 2.04 works fine here on AMD A6 7470K CPU on MSI A88XM-E45 V2 motherboard with 4 gig of RAM.  Flash disk 256 Gig formated JFS and all is well except some odd crashes with Firefox 45.
Matt W.

[roberto]

Here's no problem, with intel i7.
The only suggestion I can think of, compares the config.sys with previous files, every time I see more application failures when modifying the config.sys.
saludos

[mike]

It is almost as if testing on AMD systems is an afterthought or what units they use for testing are old ones (I would like to get ArcaOS working on my Ryzen 8 core system or even the A12 APU system but...) since it apparently works on Intel's latest and greatest.

It should not matter if the system is amd or intel based, as the SATA AHCI interface is a standard and the os2ahci driver should support the hardware. The Bulldozer and not latest Core I7 CPU have a chipset that contains the controller, and not the CPU itself.
Not sure how, but some people got a "OS/2" to work on a Ryzen based system.

[ak120]

It should not matter if the system is amd or intel based, as the SATA AHCI interface is a standard

I cannot find any proof for this claims. In fact the Advanced Host Controller Interface is a specification by Intel.

and the os2ahci driver should support the hardware. The Bulldozer and not latest Core I7 CPU have a chipset that contains the controller, and not the CPU itself.
Not sure how, but some people got a "OS/2" to work on a Ryzen based system.

The OS2AHCI adapter device driver is based on older code from Linux or BSD. There has never been a certification process (that would fail) at all.

[ivan]

Not sure how, but some people got a "OS/2" to work on a Ryzen based system.

That is interesting, could you please ask them to give us some information.  I have not been able to do that on boards with the X370 chipset, the B350 chipset and the A320 chipset using both a Ryzen 7 and Ryzen 5 CPU.  Even an A12 APU with those chipsets is problematic.

Also, any board with as ASMedia chipset for AHCI is a no go.  From that the only conclusion that can be drawn is that there is NO standard unless it is an Intel or Intel supported chipset with our OS2AHCI driver.