[SOLVED] Olimex BAY-SSD-512GB: SATA link down (both stable & weekly images)

  • FreedomBox plugged into home router
  • Date of purchase: October 2021, FB Pioneer incl. 512GB SSD SATA Bay
  • Debian GNU/Linux 11 (bullseye) and FreedomBox version 21.12

Received my FreedomBox, and set it up with the included SD Card (Debian 10) and the Olimex SATA BAY. The SSD drive was found as /dev/sda and I could access it.

Then I needed to reset / re-flash the SD card, so I used the official Pioneer images over at:
https://ftp.freedombox.org/pub/freedombox/pioneer/

I’ve tried both the stable (Debian 10) as well as the weekly builds with Debian 11, they both work - system boots and all seems well & good, BUT it won’t enable the SATA / Olimex BAY SSD.

In both the stable (Debian 10) and the weekly (Debian 11) images dmesg tells me this:

$ dmesg | grep -i sata
[ 5.648775] ahci-sunxi 1c18000.sata: supply ahci not found, using dummy regulator
[ 5.649173] ahci-sunxi 1c18000.sata: supply phy not found, using dummy regulator
[ 5.707691] ahci-sunxi 1c18000.sata: controller can’t do PMP, turning off CAP_PMP
[ 5.707718] ahci-sunxi 1c18000.sata: forcing PORTS_IMPL to 0x1
[ 5.707829] ahci-sunxi 1c18000.sata: AHCI 0001.0100 32 slots 1 ports 3 Gbps 0x1 impl platform mode
[ 5.707848] ahci-sunxi 1c18000.sata: flags: ncq sntf pm led clo only pio slum part ccc
[ 5.724602] ata1: SATA max UDMA/133 mmio [mem 0x01c18000-0x01c18fff] port 0x100 irq 44
[ 6.041063] ata1: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 300)

I really want to use this 512GB SSD drive as supposed to running FB from a SD card…

What can I do to activate the SATA and get a “link up”?

Is it possible to download the exact same image that was included on the SD card shipped with my Pioneer HSK somewhere? Assuming that “original” image would be different and work?

Thank you very much for your help!

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You should be able to mount it via Cockpit, or ssh AS described e.g. here:

You nicht also want to read this thread:

The SATA link is down, there’s no /dev/sda that can be mounted:

How to get the Pioneer setup/activate the SATA link?

The SATA link came up “by itself” and after ca. 1 day or so of uptime:

$ dmesg | grep -i ata1

[ 5.724602] ata1: SATA max UDMA/133 mmio [mem 0x01c18000-0x01c18fff] port 0x100 irq 44
[ 6.041063] ata1: SATA link down (SStatus 0 SControl 300)
[145762.475533] ata1: SATA link up 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 SControl 300)
[145762.479655] ata1.00: ATA-9: TEAM T253X2512G, U0330A0, max UDMA/133
[145762.479739] ata1.00: 1000215216 sectors, multi 1: LBA48 NCQ (depth 32)
[145762.486643] ata1.00: configured for UDMA/133
[145767.626853] ata1: SATA link up 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 SControl 300)
[145767.637809] ata1.00: configured for UDMA/133
[145769.215660] ata1: SATA link up 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 SControl 300)
[145769.226678] ata1.00: configured for UDMA/133
[145770.435154] ata1: SATA link up 3.0 Gbps (SStatus 123 SControl 300)
[145770.446121] ata1.00: configured for UDMA/133
[145771.619262] ata1: limiting SATA link speed to 1.5 Gbps
[145772.331345] ata1: SATA link up 1.5 Gbps (SStatus 113 SControl 310)
[145772.342469] ata1.00: configured for UDMA/133

The only explanation that seems reasonable to me is the Pioneer HSK battery:

It seems that without the battery (or a low battery load), there’s not enough voltage to power up the SATA link. A bit weird that it took so long though, and now hoping the SSD runs stable.

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