SATA DVD not working - failed to set xfermode (err_mask=0x4)

[Langdon Stevenson]

I have managed to get my SATA DVD drive working by moving it to another 
SATA port on my motherboard.  I have no idea why this worked, but I 
no-longer get the "xfermode" error on boot, and the drive just works.

If you are troubleshooting the same problem, I would strongly recommend 
trying all of your SATA ports before anything else.

Langdon


Langdon Stevenson wrote:
> Langdon Stevenson wrote:
>> I recently bought a SATA Pioneer DVR-212D drive and fitted it to my 
>> (64 bit) Fedora 7 system.  On boot I get the following error (it also 
>> appears when dmesg is run):
>>
>>   ata4.00: failed to set xfermode (err_mask=0x4)
>>
>> The full dmesg output for ata4 is at the bottom of this post.
>>
>> I have Googled the problem and found plenty of references to it, but 
>> nothing that sounds like a solution.  Especially for F7.
>>
>> Can anyone shed any light on this problem for me?  System specs:
>>
>> - CPU: Intel Core 2 Duo e6600
>> - Motherboard: Gigabyte GA-965P-DQ6
>> - Kernel 2.6.22.1.3225.fc7.x86_64
>>
>> dmesg output for ata4:
>>
>> ata4: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 300)
>> ata4.00: ATAPI: PIONEER DVD-RW  DVR-212, 1.21, max UDMA/66
>> ata4.00: qc timeout (cmd 0xef)
>> ata4.00: failed to set xfermode (err_mask=0x4)
>> ata4: failed to recover some devices, retrying in 5 secs
>> ata4: port is slow to respond, please be patient (Status 0x80)
>> ata4: COMRESET failed (errno=-16)
>> ata4: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 300)
>> ata4.00: qc timeout (cmd 0xef)
>> ata4.00: failed to set xfermode (err_mask=0x4)
>> ata4.00: limiting speed to UDMA/66:PIO3
>> ata4: failed to recover some devices, retrying in 5 secs
>> ata4: port is slow to respond, please be patient (Status 0x80)
>> ata4: COMRESET failed (errno=-16)
>> ata4: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 300)
>> ata4.00: qc timeout (cmd 0xef)
>> ata4.00: failed to set xfermode (err_mask=0x4)
>> ata4.00: disabled
> 
> Further info on this problem:
> 
> I came across this post:
> 
>   http://fak3r.com/2007/06/22/failed-to-set-xfermode-solved/
> 
> Regarding the same/similar problem on Ubuntu and a solution for it.  I 
> have tried this solution with no luck.  I added "irqpoll" as instructed 
> in grub.conf:
> 
> 
> title Fedora (2.6.22.1-41.fc7)
>   root (hd0,0)
>   kernel /vmlinuz-2.6.22.1-41.fc7 ro root=LABEL=/ rhgb quiet irqpoll
>   initrd /initrd-2.6.22.1-41.fc7.img
> 
> 
> But no luck.  I still get the same error on boot and the DVD drive is 
> not accessible.
> 
> Regards,
> Langdon
> 
> 
>