Marvell Controller on Intel D975XBX2 Motherboards

Has anybody had any luck getting the blue Marvell SATA ports working in Unraid 4.7 or higher?  I read through some old posts and it appears they stopped working around 4.5.1.

My server is currently using a different board, but I'd love to use the D975XBX2 that I have gathering dust instead, since it could theoretically have 8 onboard SATA, plus has 3 PCI-E slots!

Edit To Add:

Could this thread hold the key? http://old.nabble.com/How-to-get-a-Marvell-88SE6145-%28and-probably-6121%29-sata-controller%09working-on-new-kernels-td20079927.html

It's an amusing thread, but the result is that there's a patch

present in 2.6.27.

 

I added this to /etc/modprobe.d/options:

 

options ahci marvell_enable=1

 

... and ran update-initramfs -u

 

I'm not sure if that last step is really necessary, but it can't hurt.

 

I think you may be able to set that on the boot line as well,

ahci.marvell_enable=1, but I'm not sure.

 

Setting that option has the AHCI module take over the drives instead

of the (awful) pata_marvell driver. Downsides are that you'll lose the

IDE controllers, but at least in my case that's no contest.

 

Not sure how common the chipsets are, I've got the 6145 on my

motherboard, which is an Intel D975XBX2.

I'm not seeing an options file in /etc/modprobe.d/ though:

root@Tower:/etc/modprobe.d# ls
blacklist.conf  isapnp.conf  modprobe.conf@  psmouse.conf  usb-controller.conf

I found this thread, which gives some advise with some commands to try: http://lime-technology.com/forum/index.php?topic=6536.10

Before running those commands, preclear_disk.sh -l produces this:

root@Tower:/boot# preclear_disk.sh -l
====================================1.13
Disks not assigned to the unRAID array 
  (potential candidates for clearing) 
========================================
No un-assigned disks detected

But after running those commands, you get this:

root@Tower:/boot# rmmod pata_marvell
root@Tower:/boot# rmmod ahci
root@Tower:/boot# modprobe ahci marvell_enable=1 
root@Tower:/boot# preclear_disk.sh -l
====================================1.13
Disks not assigned to the unRAID array 
  (potential candidates for clearing) 
========================================
     /dev/sdb = ata-ST2000DL003-9VT166_5YD13T6M

That seems like progress, but the device assignment page in the web console still doesn't list the drives attached to the Marvell ports.

Also, changing syslinux.cfg to include the following does nothing:

append initrd=bzroot ahci.marvell_enable=1

UnRAID needs to be rebooted in order to detect new drives.

UnRAID needs to be rebooted in order to detect new drives.

Yup, but the drives on the Marvell controller still never appear.  Oh well, like others on the forum, I've given up on trying to get all 8 SATA ports on this mobo recognized.  I'll use the 4 Intel SATA ports, and add additional via the 3 PCI-E ports.

root@Tower:/boot# rmmod pata_marvell
root@Tower:/boot# rmmod ahci
root@Tower:/boot# modprobe ahci marvell_enable=1  

I don't know if these lines will work in the go file.

root@Tower:/boot# rmmod pata_marvell
root@Tower:/boot# rmmod ahci
root@Tower:/boot# modprobe ahci marvell_enable=1  

 

I don't know if these lines will work in the go file.

You sir are a GENIUS!  Thank you SO MUCH!  All 8 SATA ports are alive and well now!

Going to do some testing, but, this is VERY encouraging.

EDIT:

For future reference, this is the working go script:

#!/bin/bash

# Trying to load the Marvell controller...
rmmod pata_marvell
rmmod ahci
modprobe ahci marvell_enable=1

# Start the Management Utility
/usr/local/sbin/emhttp &

# Load UnMENU
/boot/unmenu/uu

# Auto-Install any packages that are set to install upon reboot...
cd /boot/packages && find . -name '*.auto_install' -type f -print | sort | xargs -n1 sh -c

Clever!  Glad you got them working.