AHA-2940 Ultra/Ultra Wide

[Mike Isely]

[Quoted from Dan Eischen:]

>> Perhaps someone else can comment on whether your
>> QUANTUM FIREBALL ST6.4S 0F04 needs firmware upgrades?
>

dledford at dialnet.net Mon Sep 15 07:46:52 1997 stated:

>I'm not aware of any problems with Stratus class Fireball firmware, but I 
>haven't tested any of those myself.  Justin, I thought you mentioned having 
>some of these you were working with.  If so, has the firmware proven to be 
>decent on those?  Have you done your normal try to break the drive testing 
>on this class of Quantum drive Leonard?
>

I can add some info to this:

1. I've been running the 4GB version of that drive (with an AHA3940
   controller) under Linux successfully for several months now.  I
   tested it under a variety of conditions, with tagged queuing on and
   off, using the May08 version of the driver.  Following advice on
   this list, I kept the tag count at 8 or below, and have never even
   had a hint of trouble with it.  Currently I'm running this drive
   with a stock 2.0.29 kernel (which I know has a really old aic7xxx
   driver), and it's been working perfectly.

2. Just last Friday I purchased ($469 at Dirt Cheap Drives!!!)  and
   installed the ST6.4S in my system.  I don't remember the reported
   firmware level (but will check).  I am within a day or so of
   getting Linux going on it.  I've wasted, uh spent most of the past
   weekend getting Win95 transferred to it first.  (Unlike Win95, I
   expect the Linux transition to be not much more than a pair of
   tar-pipe copies plus a lilo reconfig and a quick edit of
   /etc/fstab.)  The ST6.4S is nearly identical to the 4GB drive.  In
   fact, I spent 10 minutes just staring at the two side-by-side in an
   attempt to see what physical differences there might be.  They use
   identcal electronics.  I couldn't find so much as a jumper or
   solder-joint different between them.  The *only* thing different
   that I could see was the sticker with the model number.  Of course
   the firmware has to be at least a little bit changed.  Based on my
   experience with the 4GB model, I don't expect any trouble with this
   new drive.

3. Also, FYI, this past weekend I configured a 486/66 VL-Bus system
   out of a bunch of old parts.  For the first time in almost 2 years
   I brought my old AHA2842 out of mothballs and fired it up.  The
   stock 2.0.29 kernel used by my Debian "rescue" disk failed utterly.
   There were a few serious looking errors from the aic7xxx driver,
   followed by a kernel panic.  I know that's an old driver; I've
   already downloaded patches to bring myself more up-to-date and I'll
   run it again once I finish straightening out the other system.
   It's my intention to run the 4GB Quantum Fireball-ST drive on this
   controller.  If there's any question about the the reliability of
   this combo I'll be happy to report back results.




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