RE: IDE device timeout when writing

[Carlos Milán Figueredo <cmilanf%hispamsx.org@localhost>]

Hi Karoly,

From: Karoly Balogh <charlie%scenergy.dfmk.hu@localhost>
Sent: miércoles, 13 de octubre de 2021 11:55
> I had this bugreport open for similar issues on my A1200 + some SD2IDE
> adapter a while ago:
> http://gnats.netbsd.org/cgi-bin/query-pr-single.pl?number=52415

That is the very same issue I am facing!

> There seems to be a generic issue with these CF and SD adapters under various
> Amiga Un*xes, for example the current m68k Linux kernel is not even able to
> mount a root volume, when it's on a CF or SD card, and I get these errors
> under NetBSD, while the setup works perfectly under AmigaOS.

Yesterday I was stress-testing all the day the HDD from AmigaOS and I didn't get any issue at all, so I think you hit the spot!

> Note that however for example an actual PATA SSD I had seemed to work well,
> so it's not directly linked to solid state drives either.

I think I have no choice but to go down that path. Sadly, the scandoubler I have on my A1200 -an Indivision AGA mk3- doesn't allow to fit the harddrive caddy, so I am not able to put a SSD drive in. I think my best bet is to use a small mSATA board with a IDE to mSATA converter. The order will take a while but I think it will be well worth the wait. Apart from the issue, it is a kind of HDD setup I wanted to try on the Amiga.

As a CF card interfaces directly with the IDE bus, it is easy there are some kind of difference in the ATA commands, depending on the card. If I recall correctly, there was a product intended for the Amiga called "TrueIDE" that actually performed the translation of ATA commands to the connected CF card; while I think it would be useful for our case, it is not in stock anymore.

Thank you for sharing your experience, you shed light to my problem!

Regards,
Carlos