Is there a log file for the upgrades done to an installed Ubuntu system?

Sun Apr 3 13:05:03 UTC 2011

This question is associated with my earlier post regarding my problem of 
burning DVDs using k3b (see thread, "Need help, please, with burning DVDs".

Is there a log file created on the system which shows what upgrades were 
done on which date to my system?

I ask this because something happened on my system which has altered the 
way the devices on the second IDE line on my system are being 
recognised. And this occurred *on* 1 April. I know that I put thru 
upgrades over the past days and I would like to know which were done on 
which date. At this point I am pulling my hair out trying to figure out 
what the hell is going on and looking at such a log - if it exists - may 
be of help.

Here is the problem.

My setup is:

IDE Line #1:

HDD with UDMA 133
CDROM with UDMA 33

IDE Line #2:

HDD with UDMA 100
DVDRW with UDMA 100

And the UDMAs were correctly set to their correct values on boot but on, 
and from, 1 April the UDMAs for the devices on Line #2 are being set to 
UDMA 33 because the (??)kernel thinks that the devices are connected 
with a 40-wire cable -- which they are NOT, they are on a 80-wire cable. 
And even though I replaced this cable with a brand new 80-wire cable the 
'error' message is still the same. Here is an extract from the dmesg log 
file for the devices on Lines #1 and #2:

[    1.480321] ata1.00: HPA unlocked: 976773103 -> 976773168, native 
976773168
[    1.480327] ata1.00: ATA-8: WDC WD5000AAKB-00H8A0, 05.04E05, max 
UDMA/133 <============ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
[    1.480331] ata1.00: 976773168 sectors, multi 16: LBA48
[    1.480362] ata1.01: ATAPI: HL-DT-STDVD-ROM GDR8164B, 0L06, max 
UDMA/33 <============ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
[    1.480388] ata1: nv_mode_filter: 0x7f39f&0x7f39f->0x7f39f, 
BIOS=0x7f000 (0xc7c0c6c6) ACPI=0x7f01f (15:60:0x1f)
[    1.480394] ata1: nv_mode_filter: 0x739f&0x739f->0x739f, BIOS=0x7000 
(0xc7c0c6c6) ACPI=0x701f (15:60:0x1f)
[    1.496601] ata1.00: configured for UDMA/133 <==========ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
[    1.512263] ata1.01: configured for UDMA/33 <==========ZZZZZZZZZZZZZ
[    1.513097] scsi 0:0:0:0: Direct-Access     ATA      WDC WD5000AAKB-0 
05.0 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
[    1.513277] sd 0:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg0 type 0
[    1.517039] scsi 0:0:1:0: CD-ROM            HL-DT-ST DVD-ROM GDR8164B 
0L06 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
[    1.517516] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] 976773168 512-byte logical blocks: (500 
GB/465 GiB)
[    1.525264] sr0: scsi3-mmc drive: 52x/52x cd/rw xa/form2 cdda tray
[    1.525268] Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.20
[    1.525391] sr 0:0:1:0: Attached scsi CD-ROM sr0
[    1.525456] sr 0:0:1:0: Attached scsi generic sg1 type 5
[    1.525942] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write Protect is off
[    1.525946] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
[    1.525974] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Write cache: enabled, read cache: 
enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
[    1.526335]  sda: sda1 sda2 < sda5 sda6 sda7 sda8 sda9 sda10 >
[    1.582973] sd 0:0:0:0: [sda] Attached SCSI disk
[    1.655786] Initializing USB Mass Storage driver...
[    1.655926] scsi2 : usb-storage 2-1:1.2
[    1.656118] usbcore: registered new interface driver usb-storage
[    1.656121] USB Mass Storage support registered.
[    1.888334] ata2.00: HPA unlocked: 312579695 -> 312581808, native 
312581808
[    1.888340] ata2.00: ATA-7: ST3160215A, 3.AAD, max UDMA/100 
<=========XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
[    1.888344] ata2.00: 312581808 sectors, multi 16: LBA48
[    1.888374] ata2.01: ATAPI: PIONEER DVD-RW  DVR-118L, 1.02, max 
UDMA/100 <======XXXXXXXXXXXXX
[    1.888400] ata2: nv_mode_filter: 0x3f39f&0x3f39f->0x3f39f, 
BIOS=0x3f000 (0xc7c0c6c6) ACPI=0x3f01f (20:20:0x1f)
[    1.888403] ata2.00: limited to UDMA/33 due to 40-wire cable 
<============XXXXXXXXXXXX
[    1.888409] ata2: nv_mode_filter: 0x3f39f&0x3f39f->0x3f39f, 
BIOS=0x3f000 (0xc7c0c6c6) ACPI=0x3f01f (20:20:0x1f)
[    1.888412] ata2.01: limited to UDMA/33 due to 40-wire cable 
<============XXXXXXXXXXXX
[    1.934119] ata2.00: configured for UDMA/33 <============XXXXXXXXXXXX
[    1.944012] usb 2-2: new low speed USB device using ohci_hcd and 
address 3
[    1.948263] ata2.01: configured for UDMA/33 <============XXXXXXXXXXXX
[    1.951241] scsi 1:0:0:0: Direct-Access     ATA      ST3160215A       
3.AA PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
[    1.951409] sd 1:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg2 type 0
[    1.956915] sd 1:0:0:0: [sdb] 312581808 512-byte logical blocks: (160 
GB/149 GiB)
[    1.956979] sd 1:0:0:0: [sdb] Write Protect is off
[    1.956982] sd 1:0:0:0: [sdb] Mode Sense: 00 3a 00 00
[    1.957010] sd 1:0:0:0: [sdb] Write cache: enabled, read cache: 
enabled, doesn't support DPO or FUA
[    1.957477]  sdb: sdb1 <
[    1.984836] scsi 1:0:1:0: CD-ROM            PIONEER  DVD-RW  DVR-118L 
1.02 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5
[    1.985048]  sdb5 sdb6 sdb7 sdb8sr1: scsi3-mmc drive: 40x/24x writer 
dvd-ram cd/rw xa/form2 cdda tray
[    2.040932] sr 1:0:1:0: Attached scsi CD-ROM sr1
[    2.041067] sr 1:0:1:0: Attached scsi generic sg3 type 5
[    2.049268]  sdb9 >
[    2.049823] sd 1:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI disk
[    2.060461] ACPI: PCI Interrupt Link [APCM] enabled at IRQ 22

At the same time there is suddenly also a 'Warning' message showing 
about the DVB card I am using, and have been using for years - but this 
doesn't seem to have affected the performance of my DVB card.

Prior to 1 April  all the devices had the correct UDMAs configured for 
them - ata1.00=133, ata1.01=33, ata2.00=100, ata2.01=100 - and there 
were no warning message re my DVB card.

Can anyone throw some light on all this, please? Thanks.

BC

PS There is the suggestion that a particular bug report/work around re 
not having the DMA set for the devices is/may be the culprit here. 
However, I have read the bug report and have applied the "fix" just in 
case - but as you can see from the above it does nothing for the problem 
I describe above (as the above dmesg extract shows). The DMAs *ARE* 
being set on my system but suddenly *incorrectly* for the devices on IDE 
Line #2 - which *IS* most puzzling! :'( .

-- 
Any experiment in life will be at your own experience.