problem with linux >2.4.20, aha 2940u2w, ibm dnes disk drive and plextor cdrom on smp system

[Jens Finkhäuser]

hi!

i had a problem with this mailing list. although i subscribed (using a
different email address) i couldn't seem to post mails. oh, well.
let's try with this one.

i've got a problem with the aic7xxx drivers, and would like some pointers to
how i can resolve this issue.

first, i'd like to apologize for the sometimes rather vague info i'm giving
here. i'm perfectly willing to provide more information, but can't easily type
down all the output the drivers give and carry them to work, where i can send a
mail to this list. i'll try to be accurate.

my problem: 2.4.20 is the latest kernel that works, all subsequent kernels loop
(apparently not infinitely, but too long for my patience) when initialising the
aic7xxx stuff. my latest tries involved the 2.6.7 kernel, and then i downloaded
the aic7xxx sources from http://people.freebsd.org/~gibbs/linux/ - the sources,
because i'm running a gentoo box, and would like to build the kernel myself
(rpm and others don't work too well with gentoo).

these latest sources shed a little light on _what_ goes wrong, but
unfortunately i know too little about scsi to understand. with
aic7xxx=verbose,debug=2112 i manged to get more verbose output, and found that
the domain validation code somehow fails.

specifically, the error message mentions a timeout for command (?) 12, just
after something about INQ was mentioned. then a card dump follows. at the end
of the card dump, i'm informed that the error involves 'host_self_blocked',
then the code tries again. the second try informs me that some command (sorry
to be vague) exited with 0x90000, and the whole thing starts again. after a
while the scsi id (scsi:0:0:0, i think) goes up (scsi:0:1:0, i think). since
every iteration takes several minutes, i never waited for all devices to be
tries in this way.

erm, i know that was vague. i'd like to provide detail, but as this is a bit
difficult, i'd like to answer specific questions.

interestingly, after reading the documentation, i tried to pass dv:{0,} in the
command line as well - with absolutely no results. i realise i don't understand
this domain validation thing, but the documentation said it'd be diasbled...?

many thanks for any help!

my system configuration: i've got an adaptec 2940u2w card, to which i've
attached an ibm harddisk and a plextor cdrom. the following is the output that
linux kernel 2.4.19 gives:
SCSI subsystem driver Revision: 1.00
scsi0 : Adaptec AIC7XXX EISA/VLB/PCI SCSI HBA DRIVER, Rev 6.2.8
        <Adaptec 2940 Ultra2 SCSI adapter>
        aic7890/91: Ultra2 Wide Channel A, SCSI Id=7, 32/253 SCBs
  Vendor: IBM       Model: DNES-318350W      Rev: SA30
  Type:   Direct-Access                      ANSI SCSI revision: 03
(scsi0:A:0): 6.600MB/s transfers (16bit)
  Vendor: PLEXTOR   Model: CD-ROM PX-40TS    Rev: 1.14
  Type:   CD-ROM                             ANSI SCSI revision: 02
(scsi0:A:3): 20.000MB/s transfers (20.000MHz, offset 15)
scsi0:A:0:0: Tagged Queuing enabled.  Depth 253
Attached scsi disk sda at scsi0, channel 0, id 0, lun 0

the mainboard make i can't tell you unless i open the box, but here's
/proc/pci, which should be just as helpful:
PCI devices found:
  Bus  0, device   0, function  0:
    Host bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C693A/694x [Apollo PRO133x] (rev
196).
      Master Capable.  Latency=8.
      Prefetchable 32 bit memory at 0xd0000000 [0xd3ffffff].
  Bus  0, device   1, function  0:
    PCI bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C598/694x [Apollo MVP3/Pro133x AGP]
(rev 0).
      Master Capable.  No bursts.  Min Gnt=12.
  Bus  0, device   7, function  0:
    ISA bridge: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686 [Apollo Super South] (rev 64).
  Bus  0, device   7, function  1:
    IDE interface: VIA Technologies, Inc. Bus Master IDE (rev 6).
      Master Capable.  Latency=32.
      I/O at 0xd000 [0xd00f].
  Bus  0, device   7, function  2:
    USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. UHCI USB (rev 22).
      Master Capable.  Latency=32.
      I/O at 0xd400 [0xd41f].
  Bus  0, device   7, function  3:
    USB Controller: VIA Technologies, Inc. UHCI USB (#2) (rev 22).
      Master Capable.  Latency=32.
      I/O at 0xd800 [0xd81f].
  Bus  0, device   7, function  4:
    Non-VGA unclassified device: VIA Technologies, Inc. VT82C686 [Apollo Super
ACPI] (rev 64).
      IRQ 5.
  Bus  0, device  13, function  0:
    SCSI storage controller: Adaptec AHA-2940U2/U2W (rev 0).
      IRQ 18.
      Master Capable.  Latency=32.  Min Gnt=39.Max Lat=25.
      I/O at 0xe800 [0xe8ff].
      Non-prefetchable 64 bit memory at 0xdb021000 [0xdb021fff].


lastly, the board is running 2 866 pentium 3 processors.

-- 
Progress means replacing a theory that is wrong with one more subtly wrong.