Recently I got my hands on a PC164LX system with a Symbios 53c810
controller. One of the first things I did was install Debian
Woody on it, and it went on without too much fuss using kernel
2.2.20.
Next thing I tried was upgrading to a 2.4 kernel. Currently I'm
trying 2.4.16; it boots to the point of scanning the Symbios
controller, then doesn't get any further (and no terribly
obvious error message either). After booting with
"sym53c8xxx=safe:y,verb:2,debug:0x1fff,wide:0", I got something
a little more informative...the controller gets to "command
processing suspended for 10 seconds" to "command processing
resumed" and finally to "queuepos=2"--and that's all she wrote.
I've dug up two separate options for supporting this controller
(sym53c8xx_2 and ncr53c8xx); both have about the same results.
I would think it's a hardware fault, but it works in 2.2.20?
2.4.18 and 2.4.19 did much the same thing when I tried them (they
failed in many other ways as well, but 2.4.16 doesn't seem to
hork on itself quite so much, just the sym53c8xxx driver).
--
Kelledin
"If a server crashes in a server farm and no one pings it, does
it still cost four figures to fix?"
On Friday 01 November 2002 01:24 pm, Martin Brulisauer wrote:
> Did you apply the core_cia.c patch?
> You can find it at
> http://knowledge.bruli.net/uploads/core_cia-patch.txt
Thx, I did not know about that one...
Are there any other commonly-used patches to get 2.4 working on
the Alpha? It seems Alpha support is just not seriously
maintained in the stock kernel...
--
Kelledin
"If a server crashes in a server farm and no one pings it, does
it still cost four figures to fix?"
On Friday 01 November 2002 05:22 pm, Kelledin wrote:
> On Friday 01 November 2002 01:24 pm, Martin Brulisauer wrote:
> > Did you apply the core_cia.c patch?
> > You can find it at
> > http://knowledge.bruli.net/uploads/core_cia-patch.txt
>
> Thx, I did not know about that one...
>
> Are there any other commonly-used patches to get 2.4 working
> on the Alpha? It seems Alpha support is just not seriously
> maintained in the stock kernel...
Sadly, no luck on it. It doesn't seem to improve my situation at
all. =(
--
Kelledin
"If a server crashes in a server farm and no one pings it, does
it still cost four figures to fix?"
> > > Did you apply the core_cia.c patch?
> > > You can find it at
> > > http://knowledge.bruli.net/uploads/core_cia-patch.txt
>
> Sadly, no luck on it. It doesn't seem to improve my situation
> at all. =(
I booted the Debian hack of 2.4.18 and got a little bit more
informative set of debug messages:
ncr53c810-0: waiting 10 seconds for SCSI devices to settle...
freeing devtbl [8192] @fffffc0000dee000
scsi0: ncr53c8xx-3.4.3b-20010512
ncr53c810-0-<0,0>: CMD=12 ncr53c810-0: command processing resumed
ncr53c810-0-<0,0>: CMD=12 <6>ncr53c810-0-<0,0>: ccb \
@fffffc0000de8000 using tag 255
ncr53c810-0: queuepos=3.
scsi : aborting command due to timeout: pid 0, scsi0, channel \
0, id 0, lun 0 Inquiry 00 00 00 ff 00
ncr53c8xx_abort: pid=0 serial_number=1 serial_number_at_timeout=1
ncr53c810-0: abort ccb=fffffc0000de8000 (cancel)
...and again, that's all she wrote.
Would anyone know where to find the actual maintainer for the
ncr53c8xx driver? It would appear to be Gerard Roudier, but I'd
like to make sure before bugging him directly...
--
Kelledin
"If a server crashes in a server farm and no one pings it, does
it still cost four figures to fix?"
On Friday 01 November 2002 08:57 pm, Kelledin wrote:
> > > > Did you apply the core_cia.c patch?
> > > > You can find it at
> > > > http://knowledge.bruli.net/uploads/core_cia-patch.txt
> >
> > Sadly, no luck on it. It doesn't seem to improve my
> > situation at all. =(
>
> I booted the Debian hack of 2.4.18 and got a little bit more
> informative set of debug messages:
>
> ncr53c810-0: waiting 10 seconds for SCSI devices to settle...
> freeing devtbl [8192] @fffffc0000dee000
> scsi0: ncr53c8xx-3.4.3b-20010512
> ncr53c810-0-<0,0>: CMD=12 ncr53c810-0: command processing
> resumed ncr53c810-0-<0,0>: CMD=12 <6>ncr53c810-0-<0,0>: ccb \
> @fffffc0000de8000 using tag 255
> ncr53c810-0: queuepos=3.
> scsi : aborting command due to timeout: pid 0, scsi0, channel
> \ 0, id 0, lun 0 Inquiry 00 00 00 ff 00
> ncr53c8xx_abort: pid=0 serial_number=1
> serial_number_at_timeout=1 ncr53c810-0: abort
> ccb=fffffc0000de8000 (cancel)
>
> ...and again, that's all she wrote.
Well, never mind the ncr53c8xx driver--the problem appears to be
in the SCSI core code. I threw in a QLogic ISP1040 controller
and had much the same results. Only difference is, I'm not sure
how to gather debug output from the qlogicisp driver. All I
have is the QLogic driver freezing at about the same point...
--
Kelledin
"If a server crashes in a server farm and no one pings it, does
it still cost four figures to fix?"
Hello Kelledin , Two Questions
> scsi0: ncr53c8xx-3.4.3b-20010512
Why are you using this driver ? Tho it should work .
But I am not sure if Gerard is maintaining it beyond bugs .
Won't the sym53x8xx-2 work/compile/...? Hth , JimL
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