Stuart Herbert

The external Maxtor drive I backup my photo library to is dying. Fortunately, it’s only a backup, but still - it’s reminded me that I really need to get my fileserver up and running.

Since I last looked at this project, the Marvell SATA chipset driver has been included in the kernel. This is a really good thing - I didn’t want to rely on my own attempts to port the driver to later Linux kernels.

Unfortunately, I’ve had no luck getting the driver to work.

The driver included in gentoo-sources-2.6.16-r7 locks the box up whenever I try to access any of the disks connected via the Marvell chipset. There’s no kernel panic - interrupts seem disabled, and the only recourse seems to be hitting the power switch.

According to kernel.org, there’s been a few bug fixes added to the sata_mv driver since 2.6.16 was released. I’ve tried 2.6.17-rc5-git4, but I honestly couldn’t tell you whether these fixes work or not. Unfortunately, this kernel can’t initialise the VIA SATA chipset that the root filing system disks are connected to, so I can’t get far enough to find out whether or not the Marvell chipset now works.

I wonder if Marvell themselves have released an updated version of their driver, or whether the in-kernel driver superceeds it?

One of the albums I’ve been eagerly wiating for this year has been Witness from Show of Hands. Kristi and I had the great pleasure of seeing them live last year as part of the Roots Unearthed series here in Cardiff (they’re back in October, and we’ve bought our tickets already). They’re worth seeing live just for their performance of Widecombe Fair, where they unplug and wander through the audience.

Quite a few of the songs on album were part of the show we saw last year, so hearing them recorded in the studio for the first time is a bit like meeting an old friend. Some of the songs that we don’t remember from the show seem a bit weak (Ink Devil and Scratch in particular), but that still leaves 10 great songs on the CD.

Many folk / traditional instrument / acoustic albums are often very difficult to listen to in noisy environments, especially in the car or in the iPod on the train. Not so this album. The mix works just as well in the car as it does in the house.

My favourite song? I find it impossible to choose between Roots and Innocent’s Song.