FC3 x86-64 freezes on SATA?!?!

[Angelo Machils]

Hello there!

Sometimes my box just 'freezes' on me, especially when I try some 
disk-intensive task (like rebuilding the database for slocate).  It's 
probably a kernel panic (afterwards there are no entries in any log) and 
this also happens sometimes even at startup (most times at the 'checking 
for hardware' point). I get a message then about a kernel panic, not 
being able to sync and there is a mention about two SCSI modules who 
lock up (sorry, don't have the exact message, and here also there is 
nothing in the log, since it's a kernel panic). From searches on the 
internet I gather there must be some bad blocks on the disk, and 
smartctl could help, but since my SATA uses libata (the disk shows up as 
being a SCSI disk -- a /dev/sda) and this has no support in smartctl. 
What other util or solution could I try, because my box is even more 
unstable now then a win box at the moment.
The entries in the websites show a little different error message, but 
the result is very similar. Very strange is that the only mention I find 
about such problems are always in a RAID environment, and I don't use 
RAID.....

Hope this is enough information:
[angelo at solaris]# lspci|grep IDE
00:02.5 IDE interface: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] 5513 [IDE] (rev 01)
00:05.0 IDE interface: Silicon Integrated Systems [SiS] RAID bus 
controller 180 SATA/PATA  [SiS] (rev 01)
[angelo at solaris]# smartctl -i /dev/sda
smartctl version 5.33 [x86_64-redhat-linux-gnu] Copyright (C) 2002-4 
Bruce AllenHome page is http://smartmontools.sourceforge.net/

Device: ATA      Maxtor 6Y160M0   Version: YAR5

SATA disks accessed via libata are not currently supported by
smartmontools. When libata is given an ATA pass-thru ioctl() then an
additional '-d libata' device type will be added to smartmontools.

Besides that, there is also a 'real' SCSI card in the system, 00:0c.0 
SCSI storage controller: Adaptec AHA-7850 (rev 01) which uses the 
aic7xxx module. Could this be a problem, since most other 64 bits 
Linux's wouldn't even boot with this card in the system. This card has 
however, been in several other (AMD 32 bits) systems without problem (I 
put it in a AMD Athlon XP 2600+ system, with FC3, and no problems 
what-so-ever). My /var/log/messages says:

Feb  8 13:26:48 localhost kernel: scsi: unknown opcode 0xbd
Feb  8 18:32:37 localhost kernel: scsi0 : Adaptec AIC7XXX EISA/VLB/PCI 
SCSI HBA DRIVER, Rev 6.2.36
Feb  8 18:32:37 localhost kernel: (scsi0:A:3): 10.000MB/s transfers 
(10.000MHz, offset 15)
Feb  8 18:32:37 localhost kernel: (scsi0:A:4): 10.000MB/s transfers 
(10.000MHz, offset 15)
Feb  8 18:32:37 localhost kernel: scsi1 : sata_sis
Feb  8 18:32:37 localhost kernel: scsi2 : sata_sis
Feb  8 18:32:37 localhost kernel: Attached scsi disk sda at scsi1, 
channel 0, id 0, lun 0
Feb  8 18:32:38 localhost kernel: Attached scsi tape st0 at scsi0, 
channel 0, id 3, lun 0
Feb  8 18:32:38 localhost kernel: Attached scsi tape st1 at scsi0, 
channel 0, id 4, lun 0

Feb  8 18:32:30 localhost kernel: Bootdata ok (command line is ro 
root=LABEL=/)
Feb  8 18:32:30 localhost kernel:  BIOS-e820: 000000003fff3000 - 
0000000040000000 (ACPI data)
Feb  8 18:32:31 localhost kernel: Memory: 1024740k/1048512k available 
(2362k kernel code, 23008k reserved, 1268k data, 176k init)
Feb  8 18:32:32 localhost smartd[5375]: Device /dev/sda, SATA disks 
accessed via libata are not currently supported by smartmontools. When 
libata is given an ATA pass-thru ioctl() then an additional '-d libata' 
device type will be added to smartmontools.
Feb  8 18:32:33 localhost kernel: ksign: Installing public key data
Feb  8 18:32:37 localhost kernel: ata1: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xE200 ctl 
0xE302 bmdma 0xE600 irq 177
Feb  8 18:32:37 localhost kernel: ata2: SATA max UDMA/133 cmd 0xE400 ctl 
0xE502 bmdma 0xE608 irq 177
Feb  8 18:32:37 localhost kernel: ata1: dev 0 ATA, max UDMA/133, 
320173056 sectors: lba48
Feb  8 18:32:37 localhost kernel: ata1: dev 0 configured for UDMA/133
Feb  8 18:32:37 localhost kernel: scsi1 : sata_sis
Feb  8 18:32:37 localhost kernel: ata2: no device found (phy stat 00000000)
Feb  8 18:32:37 localhost kernel: scsi2 : sata_sis
Feb  8 18:32:38 localhost kernel: EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with 
ordered data mode.
Feb  8 18:32:38 localhost kernel: EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with 
ordered data mode.
Feb  8 18:32:38 localhost kernel: EXT3-fs: mounted filesystem with 
ordered data mode.

There is a DVD player on the IDE bus

Thanks for any help/assistance/help, because it is getting to be a real 
pain.....

Angelo