“ata8.00: exception Emask 0x52 SAct 0x0 Serr 0xffffffff action 0xe frozen”

Question

I am trying to install Ubuntu on a new desktop computer with an asus MAXIMUS FORMULA VII motherboard. As I tried to boot from the DVD, nothing happened, it froze pretty quickly with no useful messages.

Now I have installed Linux on the hdd using another computer. When I put the hdd back to my computer and try to boot, it freezes after showing the following messages:

[ 31.846247] ata8.00: exception Emask 0x52 SAct 0x0 Serr 0xffffffff action 0xe frozen
[ 31.846254] ata8: SError: { RecovData RecovComm UnrecovData Persist Proto HostInt PHYRdyChg PHYInt CommWake 10B8B Dispar BadCRC Handshk LinkSeq TrStaTrns UnrefFIS DevExch }
[ 31.846258] ata8.00: failed command: IDENTIFY PACKET DEVICE
[ 31.846262] ata8.00: cmd a1/00:01:00:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/00 tag 22 pio 512 in
[ 31.846262]          res 40/00:00:00:00:00/00:00:00:00:00/00 Emask 0x56 (ATA bus error)
[ 31.846266] ata8.00: status { DRDY }

When I attempt to enter the recovery mode, I get the same messages as above with one more line in the end:

ata8: hard resetting link

Apparently there is some sort of incompatibility with the SATA controller of the motherboard. Is there any way to fix this? What should I try out?

Answer 1

I solved the problem by removing all drives from the ASMedia SATA ports that use the rogue ASM1061 controller.

Initially I had connected a DVD drive to the ASM1061 controller, but now I saw in the motherboard specs that these ports are only to be used with hard disk drives (see here footnote 4). I moved the DVD to a SATA Express port (also ASMedia), and now everything works. This is a bit strange, because according to the motherboard specs, this port is also only for hard drives. But it works for now, so I wont touch it.

Just for completeness: I got some useful tips from a relevant discussion in a debian forum: http://forums.debian.net/viewtopic.php?f=17&t=116143