[SLE] Cold build of 6.4 on SCSI system with 2940UW Pro

andy＠boris01.demon.co.uk

23 Apr 2000 23 Apr '00

16:48

Hi, I have this nice, shiny, new copy of 6.4 and three servers in the office to build with it. However, they are all SCSI systems with an Adaptec 2940UW Pro card. The version of the aic7xxx driver (5.1.20 ??) that comes with the kernel has problems with the pro card - an additional chip was added so I believe - and none of the normal boot methods will work; they all hang on the hardware detect stage or on the loading of the aic7xxx module depending on which method I try. I gather from searches that there are a range of patches to the aic7xxx module that, when applied, will enable the module to correctly drive this card. So, how do I go about getting around this problem? I could build the systems with 6.1 - which works fine with the card but is getting a bit long in the tooth. Replacing the Pro card with a "standard" 2940UW is *not* an option - it was hard enough screwing the money out of the bean-counters tight fists as it was, going back and telling them I need to change the hardware because Linux doesn't support it will just allow them to tell me to load NT onto them instead - not an acceptable option! I have a number of other Suse and RH systems scattered around the place that I can use to build new kernels, bootdisks and the like on if necessary. Any advice, pointers to URLs, etc that can help?? Thanks, a. -- Andy Nudd Oh no! It can't be! That the kindly, noble Zachary Smith could end up in this infernal place. It's not fair. Oh dear! -- To unsubscribe send e-mail to suse-linux-e-unsubscribe@suse.com For additional commands send e-mail to suse-linux-e-help@suse.com Also check the FAQ at http://www.suse.com/Support/Doku/FAQ/

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clarge＠macn.bc.ca

23 Apr 23 Apr

18:45

...

I have this nice, shiny, new copy of 6.4 and three servers in the office to build with it. However, they are all SCSI systems with an Adaptec 2940UW Pro card. The version of the aic7xxx driver (5.1.20 ??) that comes with the kernel has problems with the pro card - an additional chip was added so I believe - and none of the normal boot methods will work; they all hang on the hardware detect stage or on the loading of the aic7xxx module depending on which method I try.

I just installed 6.4 on a new system with a 2940UW card. Not sure if it was a pro card or not but i was brand new last month. Only problem i had was that i had to install a wide (68 pin) harddrive for it to boot off of. the 50 pin ones would not boot. they do work as a mounted drive thou. I don't compile the kernel to use the drive as a module as the system is totally scsi and i took out the initr part of the kernel compile so it would not work as a module. Other that, it works fine for me.

...

I gather from searches that there are a range of patches to the aic7xxx module that, when applied, will enable the module to correctly drive this card.

So, how do I go about getting around this problem? I could build the systems with 6.1 - which works fine with the card but is getting a bit long in the tooth. Replacing the Pro card with a "standard" 2940UW is *not* an option - it was hard enough screwing the money out of the bean-counters tight fists as it was, going back and telling them I need to change the hardware because Linux doesn't support it will just allow them to tell me to load NT onto them instead - not an acceptable option! I have a number of other Suse and RH systems scattered around the place that I can use to build new kernels, bootdisks and the like on if necessary.

Any advice, pointers to URLs, etc that can help??

Thanks,

a. -- Andy Nudd Oh no! It can't be! That the kindly, noble Zachary Smith could end up in this infernal place. It's not fair. Oh dear!

-- To unsubscribe send e-mail to suse-linux-e-unsubscribe@suse.com For additional commands send e-mail to suse-linux-e-help@suse.com Also check the FAQ at http://www.suse.com/Support/Doku/FAQ/

*--------------------------------* | Chris Large clarge@macn.bc.ca | | http://gone for now | *--------------------------------* -- To unsubscribe send e-mail to suse-linux-e-unsubscribe@suse.com For additional commands send e-mail to suse-linux-e-help@suse.com Also check the FAQ at http://www.suse.com/Support/Doku/FAQ/

andy＠boris01.demon.co.uk

19:33

On Sun, Apr 23, 2000 at 11:45:10AM -0700, Chris Large wrote:

...

I just installed 6.4 on a new system with a 2940UW card. Not sure if it was a pro card or not but i was brand new last month.

You can tell what type of card it is by watching the SCSI BIOS output as the card initialises itself and gropes all the devices hanging off it. Just before you get the "press CNTL/A for setup" prompt. There's no problem with the standard 2940UW (AFAIK), just the Pro version! If you've got yours working ok, it ain't a Pro!!

...

Only problem i had was that i had to install a wide (68 pin) harddrive for it to boot off of. the 50 pin ones would not boot. they do work as a mounted drive thou.

I don't compile the kernel to use the drive as a module as the system is totally scsi and i took out the initr part of the kernel compile so it would not work as a module. Other that, it works fine for me.

Noted for the future. :-) Thanks, a. -- Andy Nudd Oh no! It can't be! That the kindly, noble Zachary Smith could end up in this infernal place. It's not fair. Oh dear! -- To unsubscribe send e-mail to suse-linux-e-unsubscribe@suse.com For additional commands send e-mail to suse-linux-e-help@suse.com Also check the FAQ at http://www.suse.com/Support/Doku/FAQ/

clarge＠macn.bc.ca

21:10

...

...
I just installed 6.4 on a new system with a 2940UW card. Not sure if it was a pro card or not but i was brand new last month.

You can tell what type of card it is by watching the SCSI BIOS output as the card initialises itself and gropes all the devices hanging off it. Just before you get the "press CNTL/A for setup" prompt. There's no problem with the standard 2940UW (AFAIK), just the Pro version! If you've got yours working ok, it ain't a Pro!!

Yup it is a 2940UW Pro card with a Bios version of 2.11.0. I actually have 2 of them. And no problems with either of them. One is in a 6.4 machine and the other is in a 6.3 machine soon to be 6.4. both machine are P3's with 128 ram and a 550 cpu with a 9.??gig qauntum hard drive. differnet mother boards thou. Standard install. Mind you i used the yast1 for install but yast2 did work. I recompile the kernel right after install before a clean reboot to make sure the scsi stuff is set up right.

...

...
Only problem i had was that i had to install a wide (68 pin) harddrive for it to boot off of. the 50 pin ones would not boot. they do work as a mounted drive thou.

I don't compile the kernel to use the drive as a module as the system is totally scsi and i took out the initr part of the kernel compile so it would not work as a module. Other that, it works fine for me.

Noted for the future. :-)

Thanks,

a.

-- Andy Nudd Oh no! It can't be! That the kindly, noble Zachary Smith could end up in this infernal place. It's not fair. Oh dear!

-- To unsubscribe send e-mail to suse-linux-e-unsubscribe@suse.com For additional commands send e-mail to suse-linux-e-help@suse.com Also check the FAQ at http://www.suse.com/Support/Doku/FAQ/

andy＠boris01.demon.co.uk

24 Apr 24 Apr

23:23

On Sun, Apr 23, 2000 at 02:10:17PM -0700, Chris Large wrote:

...

Yup it is a 2940UW Pro card with a Bios version of 2.11.0. I actually have 2 of them.

That sounds remarkably like the beast I've got.

...

And no problems with either of them.

Damn, there goes another theory up the spout!

...

One is in a 6.4 machine and the other is in a 6.3 machine soon to be 6.4. both machine are P3's with 128 ram and a 550 cpu with a 9.??gig qauntum hard drive. differnet mother boards thou.

They sound very similar too: P3's, 128meg, 2 x 9.??gig hard drives, cdrom and dds3 DAT all haging off the pro board. I'll check the exact specs tomorrow (sorry later today - just seen what the time is!), when I get back into the office after our Easter break.

...

Standard install. Mind you i used the yast1 for install but yast2 did work.

yast2 hung at the hardware detection stage, had to hit the reset switch with trusty unbent paperclip. yast1 loaded, got as far as the selection of input medium then said cdrom? what cdrom? I see no cdrom! Both showed zero scsi at boot time in the displays.

...

I recompile the kernel right after install before a clean reboot to make sure the scsi stuff is set up right.

Which is exactly what I intend(ed) to do. I'll have another play tomorrow and see what happens.

...

...
...
Only problem i had was that i had to install a wide (68 pin) harddrive for it to boot off of. the 50 pin ones would not boot. they do work as a mounted drive thou.

I'll check which connections the hard drives hang off tomorrow too. Thanks, a. -- Andy Nudd Oh no! It can't be! That the kindly, noble Zachary Smith could end up in this infernal place. It's not fair. Oh dear! -- To unsubscribe send e-mail to suse-linux-e-unsubscribe@suse.com For additional commands send e-mail to suse-linux-e-help@suse.com Also check the FAQ at http://www.suse.com/Support/Doku/FAQ/

clarge＠macn.bc.ca

25 Apr 25 Apr

01:13

...

...
Standard install. Mind you i used the yast1 for install but yast2 did work.

yast2 hung at the hardware detection stage, had to hit the reset switch with trusty unbent paperclip. yast1 loaded, got as far as the selection of input medium then said cdrom? what cdrom? I see no cdrom! Both showed zero scsi at boot time in the displays.

Do you boot off the cd or do you use the boot disks? I use the boot disk and then load the module for the scsi card before i start to load the files. If you don't load the module then it will not work as it doesn't have scsi stuff loaded into memeory. Hope that helps.

...

...
I recompile the kernel right after install before a clean reboot to make sure the scsi stuff is set up right.

Which is exactly what I intend(ed) to do.

I'll have another play tomorrow and see what happens.

...
...
...
Only problem i had was that i had to install a wide (68 pin) harddrive for it to boot off of. the 50 pin ones would not boot. they do work as a mounted drive thou.

I'll check which connections the hard drives hang off tomorrow too.

Thanks,

a. -- Andy Nudd Oh no! It can't be! That the kindly, noble Zachary Smith could end up in this infernal place. It's not fair. Oh dear!

-- To unsubscribe send e-mail to suse-linux-e-unsubscribe@suse.com For additional commands send e-mail to suse-linux-e-help@suse.com Also check the FAQ at http://www.suse.com/Support/Doku/FAQ/

andy＠boris01.demon.co.uk

20:32

On Mon, Apr 24, 2000 at 06:13:57PM -0700, Chris Large wrote:

...

Do you boot off the cd or do you use the boot disks? I use the boot disk and then load the module for the scsi card before i start to load the files. If you don't load the module then it will not work as it doesn't have scsi stuff loaded into memeory.

I've tried CD1, CD2 and boot floppy. All fail, but I get further with the floppy. First some m/c details:- PIII @ 550Mhz, 128MB RAM, No IDE SCSI: Adaptec AHA2940UW Pro Bios version 2.11.0 ID 0 - FUJITSU MAG 3091LS 9.?Gb Hard Disc ID 1 - ditto ID 5 - HP C1537A DDS3 DAT ID 6 - TEAC CD-5325 CDROM ID 0 & 1 - 68 pin connection; ID 5 & 6 - 50 pin connection With a floppy boot: 1) load aic7xxx module, no params; hangs after displaying:- "Downloading sequencer code ... 422 instructions downloaded" 2) load aic7xxx module, add param "no_reset" (or any other param or combination of paras); hangs in VT4 (no new messages output to screen), VT3 last line is:- "Executing: >>insmod aic7xxx no_reset<<" VT1 has popup box:- "Trying to load module aic7xxx" Just for laughs, 6.1 loads and runs fine on an identically spec'd m/c! I found the posting to alt.os.linux.suse that indicated that the aic7xxx code wasn't up the correct patch level for the Pro cards. See Message- ID for the full text, but the guist was he added a Pro card & CDrom to a working 6.3 system and had to download all the patches from Doug's aic7xxx Page, http://people.redhat.com/dledford/aic7xxx.html, patch his kernel source, recomp and his card & CDROM then worked. The web pages do imply that there are problems with Pro cards until at least version 5.1.26 of the driver. Thanks, a. -- Andy Nudd Oh no! It can't be! That the kindly, noble Zachary Smith could end up in this infernal place. It's not fair. Oh dear! -- To unsubscribe send e-mail to suse-linux-e-unsubscribe@suse.com For additional commands send e-mail to suse-linux-e-help@suse.com Also check the FAQ at http://www.suse.com/Support/Doku/FAQ/

clarge＠macn.bc.ca

22:56

...

...
Do you boot off the cd or do you use the boot disks? I use the boot disk and then load the module for the scsi card before i start to load the files. If you don't load the module then it will not work as it doesn't have scsi stuff loaded into memeory.

I've tried CD1, CD2 and boot floppy. All fail, but I get further with the floppy.

...

SCSI: Adaptec AHA2940UW Pro Bios version 2.11.0

ID 0 - FUJITSU MAG 3091LS 9.?Gb Hard Disc ID 1 - ditto

ID 5 - HP C1537A DDS3 DAT ID 6 - TEAC CD-5325 CDROM

ID 0 & 1 - 68 pin connection; ID 5 & 6 - 50 pin connection

With a floppy boot:

1) load aic7xxx module, no params; hangs after displaying:-

"Downloading sequencer code ... 422 instructions downloaded"

I had that same problem with 6.3 but not with 6.4, but can't remeber how i fixed it. I do know that i had to switch 68 pin cables. The cable that came with the one machine didn't work. It had a terminator that could be removed from the cable. We finally got a cable with a built in terminator and problems went a way. I think i had to do a nsf install of 6.3 to over come this problem. For some reason this worked better or was that 6.1. I had this problem more after the system was installed. The kernel would try to install the card over again with "INITRD", once i took this out of the kernel, my problems went away. One side note, I just loaded 6.4 on the 6.3 machine without any problems. all did was put in the bootdisk to boot the system. go down to load modules for the 2940 and just load that with out any arguments, than carry on with the install. Once the module loaded, it showed me all the scsi drives i have.

...

2) load aic7xxx module, add param "no_reset" (or any other param or combination of paras); hangs in VT4 (no new messages output to screen), VT3 last line is:- "Executing: >>insmod aic7xxx no_reset<<" VT1 has popup box:- "Trying to load module aic7xxx"

Just for laughs, 6.1 loads and runs fine on an identically spec'd m/c!

I found the posting to alt.os.linux.suse that indicated that the aic7xxx code wasn't up the correct patch level for the Pro cards. See Message- ID for the full text, but the guist was he added a Pro card & CDrom to a working 6.3 system and had to download all the patches from Doug's aic7xxx Page, http://people.redhat.com/dledford/aic7xxx.html, patch his kernel source, recomp and his card & CDROM then worked. The web pages do imply that there are problems with Pro cards until at least version 5.1.26 of the driver.

Thanks,

a. -- Andy Nudd Oh no! It can't be! That the kindly, noble Zachary Smith could end up in this infernal place. It's not fair. Oh dear!

-- To unsubscribe send e-mail to suse-linux-e-unsubscribe@suse.com For additional commands send e-mail to suse-linux-e-help@suse.com Also check the FAQ at http://www.suse.com/Support/Doku/FAQ/

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andy＠boris01.demon.co.uk
clarge＠macn.bc.ca