File corruption: how to find the guilty?

[Stephane Bortzmeyer]

I have a Linux box which shows random corruption of files. Example: all Perl 
scripts suddenly die with "segmentation fault". Reinstalling the same Perl 
package cures it. Two days ago, /etc/resolv.conf became corrupted : strange 
characters were in it.

I wonder what to do? Change the disk? The SCSI controller? The kernel?

I run Linux 2.0.35 (Debian distribution 2.0), patched for the Adaptec driver 
5.1.2. Here is the configuration:

/proc/pci says:

  Bus  0, device  17, function  0:
    SCSI storage controller: Adaptec AIC-7871 (rev 0).
      Medium devsel.  Fast back-to-back capable.  IRQ 11.  Master Capable.  
Latency=32.  Min Gnt=8.Max Lat=8.
      I/O at 0x6000.
      Non-prefetchable 32 bit memory at 0xe0800000.

elsa:~> uname -a
Linux elsa 2.0.35 #2 Sat Nov 14 18:19:31 CET 1998 i586 unknown

elsa:~> uptime 
  2:47pm  up 31 days, 20:25,  1 user,  load average: 1.25, 1.34, 1.35

elsa:~> cat /proc/scsi/aic7xxx/0
Adaptec AIC7xxx driver version: 5.1.2/3.2.4
Compile Options:
  AIC7XXX_RESET_DELAY    : 5
  AIC7XXX_TAGGED_QUEUEING: Adapter Support Enabled
                             Check below to see which
                             devices use tagged queueing
  AIC7XXX_PAGE_ENABLE    : Enabled (This is no longer an option)
  AIC7XXX_PROC_STATS     : Enabled

Adapter Configuration:
           SCSI Adapter: Adaptec AHA-294X SCSI host adapter
                           Narrow Controller
    PCI MMAPed I/O Base: 0xe0800000
 Adapter SEEPROM Config: SEEPROM found and used.
      Adaptec SCSI BIOS: Enabled
                    IRQ: 11
                   SCBs: Active 0, Max Active 2,
                         Allocated 15, HW 16, Page 255
             Interrupts: 9205250
      BIOS Control Word: 0x18b6
   Adapter Control Word: 0x005d
   Extended Translation: Enabled
Disconnect Enable Flags: 0x00ff
 Tag Queue Enable Flags: 0x0000
Ordered Queue Tag Flags: 0x0000
Default Tag Queue Depth: 8
    Tagged Queue By Device array for aic7xxx host instance 0:
      {255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255,255}
    Actual queue depth per device for aic7xxx host instance 0:
      {1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1,1}

Statistics:
(scsi0:0:3:0)
  Device using Narrow/Sync transfers at
  5.0 MByte/sec, offset 15
    Device Negotiation Settings
        Period Offset Bus Width
User       025    015        0
Goal       025    015        0
Current    044    015        0
    Total transfers 79105 (79105 read;0 written)
      blks(512) rd=318217; blks(512) wr=0
        < 512 512-1K   1-2K   2-4K   4-8K  8-16K 16-32K 32-64K 64-128K >128K
 Reads:     0     13      0  78797    260     32      2      1      0      0 
Writes:     0      0      0      0      0      0      0      0      0      0 

(scsi0:0:6:0)
  Device using Narrow/Sync transfers at
  10.0 MByte/sec, offset 15
    Device Negotiation Settings
        Period Offset Bus Width
User       025    015        0
Goal       025    015        0
Current    025    015        0
    Total transfers 9124154 (2745891 read;6378263 written)
      blks(512) rd=11549121; blks(512) wr=50733934
        < 512 512-1K   1-2K   2-4K   4-8K  8-16K 16-32K 32-64K 64-128K >128K
 Reads:     0      1 1925453  36560 715724  58093   5820   2535   1705      0 
Writes:     0      0 4250996 983869 455109 279300 243148 139484  26357      0 

elsa:~> cat /proc/scsi/scsi 
Attached devices: 
Host: scsi0 Channel: 00 Id: 03 Lun: 00
  Vendor: SONY     Model: CD-ROM CDU-76S   Rev: 1.1c
  Type:   CD-ROM                           ANSI SCSI revision: 02
Host: scsi0 Channel: 00 Id: 06 Lun: 00
  Vendor: CONNER   Model: CFP4207S  4.28GB Rev: 1524
  Type:   Direct-Access                    ANSI SCSI revision: 02



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