AHA-2940UW, DLT, alpha & aic driver

[Andrew Sharp]

fox at crisp.demon.co.uk wrote:
> 
> cc: aic7xxx at freebsd.org
> X-Mailer: CRiSP-Mail v4.0
> 
> > Hello,
> >
> > I'm having slight problems while using HP SureStore DLT40 connected to
> > AHA2940UW on Linux/Alpha.
> >
> > My system is alpha, running basically RedHat 5.1 with kernel 2.2 patches
> > and kernel 2.2.14. I'm using stock aic driver.
> >
> > My problem real problem is, that 'mt -f /dev/nst0 fsf' doesn't do
> > anything. 'mt -f /dev/nst rewi' works fine, 'mt -f /dev/nst0 status'
> > prints some meaningful data.
> >
> > There's some funny thing about /proc/scsi/aic7xxx/0 contents: statisctics
> > for the DLT never change while statistics for disks do change.
> >
> > I wonder if the things are better with some recent aic7xxx version?
> >
> > Here's /proc/scsi/aic7xxx/0:
> 
> The aic7xxx driver in Linux 2.2 and 2.3 is a disastrous and utter
> garbled mess.

Really?  I feel like coming to Doug's defense.

> I got a new machine with an 2940UW Pro and it caused me no end
> of disaster. I tried 2.2.9/10/12/14, 2.3.47 all no good.
> 
> Heres what I did. Start with 2.2.14 (5.1.21). Go to
> http://people.redhat.com/dlerner, and download patches for the AIC driver
> 22-27. Apply each patch in turn til you get to 27. Rebuild
> your kernel and hopefully things will be a lot better.

Hacker, indeed.  It might help if you had the right URL.  My dual P-II
with an aic7895 (both channels in use) and a 2940UW has been running
fine for quite some time on various versions of 2.2.  On top of all that
I run software raid, the new stuff, and it hasn't so much as hiccuped. 
Currently running 2.2.12 with 5.1.19 of the driver.  Pretty much since
the day 2.2.12 came out.  Before that I was running 2.2.7 with 5.1.10,
hummed like a champ for ... like ... ever.

The 80/160 bus can be very finicky, especially if you don't have your
bios and/or termination correct.  Sometimes especially if you do!  The
driver has revved several times lately, but many of the changes were to
work around the arguably-not-to-spec behavior of some popular drives for
this bus.  This driver, in my opinion, is the best supported scsi driver
there is for Linux/FreeBSD.  Anybody have a differing opinion?

[...rest of the sillines deleted...]

a


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