2.1.8X boot hangs on 2940UW controller...

[Robert G. Brown]

On Mon, 9 Mar 1998, Daniel M. Eischen wrote:

> > Hmmm.  When I search their archive I get only one message that says that
> > a P6DLF with a 2940u2w is not detected at boot.  The same message says
> > that a P6DLS is probed and detected just fine with the defaults, which
> > is also my experience with all the 2.0.3X kernels and all the recent
> > (>4.0) aic7xxx drivers.  The kernel I'm writing this message under is
> > 2.0.33 with 5.0.7/3.2.2 installed and the onboard 2940UW (as far as I
> > can tell) works perfectly.  I also searched on generic 2940UW and
> > aic7xxx plus "scanning" hangs, but got nothing like the message I'm
> > seeing.
> 
> Search for Daniel Berlin, ordered by date.  Read the messages
> with subjects "hmmmm" and "AH HAH".
> 
> I recognize the fact that you are running fine with 2.0.33, but
> I assumed that you were running without SMP.  Perhaps that isn't
> the case...
> 
> As noted in Daniel Berlins postings, he too can run without SMP.
> But with SMP enabled, he gets:
> 
> "If i sit there and wait long enough, it starts getting errors on the
>  adaptec controller. It continually times out until the kernel gives up,
>  decides it can't mount root, and panics.
>  I think the adaptec is getting pissed off because it's interrupt was
>  reassigned. or, the apic isn't routing it properly.
>  It works fine without SMP."
> 
> His update to that posting is:
> 
> "The problem with the supermicro boards indeed the adaptec controller.
>  It's the bios version.
>  all the supermicro bioses but one contain version 1.24
>  all the ones (newer and older) with 1.24 fail.
>  the one with 1.25 (which isn't the newest or the oldest) works perfectly."
> 
> It's not too clear from that last posting what BIOS he is talking
> about (motherboard or Adaptec).  It sounds like there is one SuperMicro
> BIOS version that has Adaptec BIOS version 1.25, and that this one
> works.
> 
> If it's not the motherboard, I'm clueless...

It sounds like this could well be the problem, although my system does
work fine with 2.0.33 SMP.  Another person suggested I increase the
reset time (fairly easy to do) and see if giving the controller a bit
more time between the reset and the probe helps.  I'm going to try this
first, since it won't take long.  I looked for quite a while yesterday
for Adaptec BIOS upgrades, but it looks like you have to talk to a
technical rep (yuk!) to get one; the SuperMicro bios upgrades are even
more confusing, since they don't indicate what Adaptec bios version they
encapsulate (or if they encapsulate one at all or it is loaded
directly).  Again, I'll have to deal with silly humans to go this route
(not to mention boot up in Evil Dos to run the update) so I'll put it
off as long as I can.

BTW, I really appreciate the suggestions.

    rgb

Robert G. Brown	                       http://www.phy.duke.edu/~rgb/
Duke University Dept. of Physics, Box 90305
Durham, N.C. 27708-0305
Phone: 1-919-660-2567  Fax: 919-660-2525     email:rgb at phy.duke.edu




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