I'm using a Dell e1505 (Inspiron 6400), and the 2.6.16-r9 kernel's menuconfig had support for the CONFIG_SCSI_SATA_INTEL_COMBINED flag, which is necessary to the operation of the laptop. DIFF showed, between the 2.6.16-r9 and the 2.6.17 .config files, that the entry for CONFIG_SCSI_SATA_INTEL_COMBINED was entirely missing in the 2.6.17 .config entry, and again, menuconfig appears to lack the option entirely. Given the age of the laptop (brand new), and the lack of any alternatives that worked, I'd imagine that this option was not intentionally removed. (note: All kernels referenced are the standard gentoo-* ebuilds, not vanilla or otherwise)
The option is not removed, only hidden. It is automatically selected when all of the following conditions are met: IDE is built-in BLK_DEV_IDE_SATA (old SATA drivers) are disabled SCSI_SATA_AHCI _or_ SCSI_ATA_PIIX is enabled If you find otherwise, please reopen this bug. After satisfying the above conditions you may have to restart menuconfig before the search feature shows it being set as =y
In my .config file, both SCSI_SATA_ACHI and SCSI_ATA_PIIX were set as =y, and the drive was still unreadable. The addition of CONFIG_SCSI_SATA_INTEL_COMBINED=y was the only change that enabled my system to boot.
(In reply to comment #2) > In my .config file, both SCSI_SATA_ACHI and SCSI_ATA_PIIX were set as =y, and > the drive was still unreadable. How about the other conditions that I mentioned?
Yes, sorry, I misread your post, but looking at a saved copy of my .config, IDE was built in, as were the two SCSI_ options mentioned, and BLK_DEV_IDE_SATA was disabled. Is there any testing I can do to help you figure this out?
When you configured 2.6.17, did you start with a fresh .config or did you copy one from a 2.6.16 kernel?
I used a fresh configuration.
The next step is for you to describe exactly how you can produce a config (starting from a blank config, i.e. run "make defconfig") which doesnt have CONFIG_SCSI_SATA_INTEL_COMBINED=y when the above mentioned conditions are met. I have tried this myself and I cannot reproduce the problem. The default config includes CONFIG_SCSI_SATA_INTEL_COMBINED=y, if I turn off AHCI and PIIX libata drivers it goes to =n, if I turn either one back on it goes to =y again.
Here's what I've come up with so far, I tried replicating once, and it worked (the replication worked; the bug was still there), and the next time I tried the same steps, it came out fine (ie- no bug): 1) Unmerge gentoo-sources-2.6.17 2) Clean up any leftovers you might have, just in case. 3) Re-merge, set up the symbolic link, etc 4) make menuconfig, enable PIIX, INTEL_COMBINED should still be missing (not =n, or commented out, but missing entirely-- search for "COMBINED" comes up empty) 5) make menuconfig, enable AHCI, and INTEL_COMBINED will still prove absent (but as stated above, it's not 100% reproducible, I couldn't tell you what changed between the trials) I hope that helps.
You have to exit menuconfig before the COMBINED option goes to =y (see comment #1) I have tried several times and cannot reproduce this, i.e. the COMBINED option goes to =y after exiting menuconfig. If you can reproduce this reliably, please reopen. Please remember to restart menuconfig before checking if COMBINED has toggled itself.