SATA III recognized as SATA II (chipset intel z68)

Would it be possible for you to test the latest upstream kernel? It will allow additional upstream developers to examine the issue. Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds . If possible, please test the latest v3.2-rcN kernel (Not a kernel in the daily directory). Once you've tested the upstream kernel, please remove the 'needs-upstream-testing' tag(Only that one tag, please leave the others). This can be done by clicking on the yellow pencil icon next to the tag located at the bottom of the bug description and deleting the 'needs-upstream-testing' text.

If this bug is fixed by the mainline kernel, please add the following tag 'kernel-fixed-upstream-KERNEL-VERSION'. For example, if kernel version 3.2-rc1 fixed and issue, the tag would be: 'kernel-fixed-upstream-v3.2-rc1'.

If the mainline kernel does not fix this bug, please add the tag: 'kernel-bug-exists-upstream'.

Thanks in advance.

I have tested the lasted kernel located here : http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.2-rc1-oneiric/
and named : linux-image-3.2.0-030200rc1-generic_3.2.0-030200rc1.201111071935_amd64.deb

The sata is always limited to something about 308Mo/s. palimset indicates me that thing about the controler :
"6 series/C200 series chipset familly 6 port SATA AHCI controler". Noting about the SATA I, II or III.

As you tell me, I have removed 'needs-upstream-testing', and added the tag 'kernel-bug-exists-upstream'.

Thanks to you and your collaborators for working for us !

I have similar problems.

I have a ASUS P8Z68-V PRO motherboard with OCZ Agility 3 AGT3 SSD.

dmesg shows:
[ 2.152809] ata1: SATA link up 6.0 Gbps (SStatus 133 SControl 300)
when connected to a 6.0Gb/s port.

But hdparm -tT /dev/sda shows:
 Timing cached reads: 33220 MB in 2.00 seconds = 16629.95 MB/sec
 Timing buffered disk reads: 810 MB in 3.00 seconds = 269.77 MB/sec

Whether I am connected to the 3Gb/s or the 6Gb/s port (with a 6Gb/s drive there should be SOME difference in speed between being on a 3 and a 6 Gb/s port)

Since Ubuntu 12.04, the hdd speed go from 330Mo/s to 360Mo/so. Its better, but the speed should reach to 450Mo/s minimum.

JazZ, thank you for reporting this and helping make Ubuntu better. If you could also please test the latest upstream kernel available that would be great. It will allow additional upstream developers to examine the issue. Refer to https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds . Once you've tested the upstream kernel, please remove the 'needs-upstream-testing' tag. This can be done by clicking on the yellow pencil icon next to the tag located at the bottom of the bug description and deleting the 'needs-upstream-testing' text.

If this bug is fixed in the mainline kernel, please add the following tag 'kernel-fixed-upstream'.

If the mainline kernel does not fix this bug, please add the tag: 'kernel-bug-exists-upstream'.

If you are unable to test the mainline kernel, for example it will not boot, please add the tag: 'kernel-unable-to-test-upstream'.

Please let us know your results. Thanks in advance.

I have tested the kenerl 3.4 rc6 without any improvement.

JazZ, the issue you are reporting is an upstream one and it would be nice if somebody having it could send the bug to the developers of the software by following the instructions verbatim at https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/Upstream/kernel . If you have done so, please tell us the number of the upstream bug (or the link), so we can add a bugwatch that will inform us about the status. Thanks in advance.

Marking Triaged Medium as this is a performance problem with a non-essential hardware component (removable HDD).

I have created a bug repport here : https://bugzilla.kernel.org/show_bug.cgi?id=43222

JazZ, this bug was reported a while ago and there hasn't been any activity in it recently. We were wondering if this is still an issue? If so, could you please test for this with the latest development release of Ubuntu? ISO CD images are available from http://cdimage.ubuntu.com/daily-live/current/ .

If it remains an issue, could you please run the following command in the development release from a Terminal (Applications->Accessories->Terminal), as it will automatically gather and attach updated debug information to this report:

apport-collect -p linux <replace-with-bug-number>

Also, could you please test the latest upstream kernel available following https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelMainlineBuilds ? It will allow additional upstream developers to examine the issue. Please do not test the kernel in the mainline kernels archive directory daily folder, but the one all the way at the bottom. Once you've tested the upstream kernel, please comment on which kernel version specifically you tested. If this bug is fixed in the mainline kernel, please add the following tags:
kernel-fixed-upstream
kernel-fixed-upstream-VERSION-NUMBER

where VERSION-NUMBER is the version number of the kernel you tested. For example:
kernel-fixed-upstream-v3.7-rc1-quantal

This can be done by clicking on the yellow circle with a black pencil icon next to the word Tags located at the bottom of the bug description. As well, please remove the tag:
needs-upstream-testing

If the mainline kernel does not fix this bug, please add the following tags:
kernel-bug-exists-upstream
kernel-bug-exists-upstream-VERSION-NUMBER

As well, please remove the tag:
needs-upstream-testing

If you are unable to test the mainline kernel, please comment as to why specifically you were unable to test it and add the following tags:
kernel-unable-to-test-upstream
kernel-unable-to-test-upstream-VERSION-NUMBER

Please let us know your results. Thank you for your understanding.

JazZ, thank you for testing the mainline kernel. Did this issue not occur in a Ubuntu release prior to Precise? If so, which one(s)?

Hi Christopher, the problems occurs since ubuntu 11.10. I can't tell if the problem was the same before this release, because I have not got already my SSD before. So I have not observed a regression. Just a little progression : 330Mo/s instead of 300Mo/s since ubuntu 12.04.

dmesg screen me this :
[ 0.640125] ahci 0000:00:1f.2: >AHCI 0001.0300 32 slots 6 ports 6 Gbps 0x7 impl SATA mode
[ 0.656645] ata1: SATA max UDMA/133 abar m2048@0xfa305000 port 0xfa305100 irq 47
[ 0.656647] ata2: SATA max UDMA/133 abar m2048@0xfa305000 port 0xfa305180 irq 47
[ 0.656649] ata3: SATA max UDMA/133 abar m2048@0xfa305000 port 0xfa305200 irq 47
[ 0.975936] ata1: SATA link up 6.0 Gbps (SStatus 133 SControl 300)
[ 0.975961] ata2: SATA link up 6.0 Gbps (SStatus 133 SControl 300)
[ 0.975985] ata3: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 300)

I can see that SATA III is recognized for two of my drivers (one SSD and one standard disk). The other drive is an optical disk. But I am not really sure about the signification of UDMA/133. This protocol is old.

JazZ, thank you for providing the requested information. For regression testing purposes, could you please test Lucid via http://releases.ubuntu.com/lucid/ ?

Sorry, but I had to install two times ubuntu on my computer of work. I have not the time to do this.

I have tried ubuntu 10.04 with the live cd and without installing it. The same limitation occurs. So there is no regression.

JazZ, thank you for testing Lucid. Could you please test http://kernel.ubuntu.com/~kernel-ppa/mainline/v3.7-rc5-raring/ ?

I have read a news in french about the OCZ SSD discs. It appears that the bios flash can be done with several ways, and one of its ways induce the limitation of disc to SATA II (whereas the disc is optimized to SATA III). I remember that before installing the system, I have flashed the BIOS, but I don't remember what I have done exactly. Moreover, I can't flash another time the bios without reseting all my data. So it is possible that the problem comes from the disc. But if it is the case, I can't explain the difference of speed between windows and ubuntu (one with SATA III speeds, and the other with SATA II speeds).

1,5 years later, I want to connect to this bug, rather than adding a new bug, that I see inconsistent behavior on SATA III in my setup with kernel 3.16 and on Trusty 14.04 LTS. I am running 3 256GB SSDs and a couple of old rotating rust SATA II on my desktop. The system runs on a Samsung 840 PRO with roughly 0.45 GB/s throughput on SATA Port 1. Two cheap Crucial MX100 run on SATA Ports 2 and 3. In about 50% of the cases (usually after a complete shutdown of the system WITHOUT disconnecting the board from mains) the MX100s get detected as SATA III. Very often, they don't. I have "raided" them with zfsonlinux, so they hold my 500 GB "fast, but expandable" 2-node pure ssd zpool (to be enlarged, should rotating rust die...). If SATA III has been enabled, the pool runs close to 1 GB/s read and 0.6 GB/s write. The 50%s of boots where SATA III has not been enabled for them, it's down to about half of that value (0.5 GB/s read / 0.4 GB/s write.

My suspicion: some parameters are too restrictive to allow SATA III link to be established reliably and depending on BIOS/EFI and maybe a race condition (?) SATA III is per-default not tried hard enough.

I have yet to research any finetuning in /proc or wherever that might be related.

(I record <dmesg | grep "up 3.0"> and <dmesg | grep "up 6.0" > to file >> satastate.txt and it is mixed all over boots, sometimes with and sometimes without SATA III. The Samsung does just fine and I did interchange and replace a lot of cables already..)

Grizzly, thank you for your comment. So your issue may be dealt with as soon as possible, and so your hardware may be tracked by having necessary debugging information automatically attached, could you please file a new report with Ubuntu by executing the following in a terminal while booted into the default Ubuntu repository kernel via:
ubuntu-bug linux

For more on why this is most helpful, please read the official Ubuntu documentation from the respective Ubuntu developer groups, and triage teams:
Ubuntu Bug Control and Ubuntu Bug Squad: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Bugs/BestPractices
Ubuntu Kernel Team: https://wiki.ubuntu.com/KernelTeam/KernelTeamBugPolicies
https://wiki.ubuntu.com/Kernel/Policies/DuplicateBugs
Ubuntu Community: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/ReportingBugs

When opening up the new report, please feel free to subscribe me to it.

Thank you for your understanding.

On 3.19 now. First boot into that, so it remains yet to be shown if on 3.19 the problem persists. If so, I will do the apt-report.

Grizzly, if your problem is reproducible it will be infinitely more helpful to file a new report via a terminal:
ubuntu-bug linux

Please feel free to subscribe me to it.

On Kernel 4.2 now. Less shaky, but sometimes one of the crucial's is SATA II only.
Also, the ATA-Numbers are changing from time to time. So indeed, I am filing a new bug