Am I using IDE or AHCI?

Question

I recently installed an SSD in my laptop, but according to what I've read AHCI mode is preferable to IDE mode for SATA drives, something that is set in the computer's BIOS. However, I don't have any such option in my BIOS. Is there a way to check which SATA mode I am using from inside the OS?

I own a Sony Vaio S13 running Ubuntu 12.04.1.

score 12 · Accepted Answer · answered Feb 12 '13 at 19:29

12

dmesg | grep -i ahci

[    1.971970] ahci 0000:00:1f.2: version 3.0
[    1.972034] ahci 0000:00:1f.2: irq 41 for MSI/MSI-X
[    1.972071] ahci: SSS flag set, parallel bus scan disabled
[    1.986971] ahci 0000:00:1f.2: AHCI 0001.0300 32 slots 6 ports 6 Gbps 0x7 impl SATA mode
[    1.986974] ahci 0000:00:1f.2: flags: 64bit ncq sntf stag pm led clo pio slum part ems apst 
[    1.986980] ahci 0000:00:1f.2: setting latency timer to 64
[    2.003333] scsi0 : ahci
[    2.003408] scsi1 : ahci
[    2.003473] scsi2 : ahci
[    2.003536] scsi3 : ahci
[    2.003596] scsi4 : ahci
[    2.003658] scsi5 : ahci

answered Feb 12 '13 at 19:29

Rinzwind

310,127

am I right to conclude that if all the scsiX entries are in the ahci mode, all of the sata ports in the laptop are set to AHCI mode? – João André Feb 12 '13 at 21:00
yes @JoãoAndré . – Rinzwind Feb 12 '13 at 21:29
...and what does that line mean?: SSS flag set, parallel bus scan disabled – knb Apr 06 '14 at 13:18

koalatree · Answer 2 · 2019-09-11T11:01:45.487

5

You can also look at this place by the command:

lspci -v

00:1f.2 SATA controller: ... SATA Controller [AHCI mode] (rev 04) (prog-if 01 [AHCI 1.0])
    Subsystem: blabla...
    ...
    Kernel driver in use: ahci
    Kernel modules: ahci

edited Sep 11 '19 at 11:01

answered Sep 10 '19 at 22:40

koalatree

111
1
8

Easier to read than Rinzwind's answer. On some distro where lspci command is not available, however, dmesg seems to be the universal solution. – Livy Aug 04 '20 at 06:46

Am I using IDE or AHCI?

2 Answers2