Re: SCSI controllers and SRM

[Jay Estabrook <Jay.Estabrook@hp.com>]

Lennart Sorensen wrote:
> On Wed, Oct 01, 2008 at 08:15:43PM +0100, Simon Brown wrote:
> 
>> Jay seems to say that support for the 39160 controller was added for
>> EV6 machines. Yet earlier the thread starts with some one who has an
>> XP1000, and can't boot from a 39160 controller yet Jay's XP1000 might.
> 
> Different version of SRM?  Different revision of 39160?  Some 39160's
> were made by compaq with a different device ID which might matter.

Most EV6 machines continued to get updated SRM consoles until recently,
HOWEVER, XP1000 was NOT one of them (for various reasons).

XP1000 SRM stopped with v5.9, while the others went on into the v7.x's.

That's not to say that the 39160 (Adaptec 7899 shipset) isn't supported.
At least, the version of the card that I tried, is FULLY supported by
the V5.9-1 Dec 14, 2000, version.

SRM reports my card as: "Adaptec AIC-7899", and shows a connected disk.

Under F8-Alpha running 2.6.24.4-64.3axp kernel, /sbin/lspci -v shows:

0000:00:0b.1 SCSI storage controller: Adaptec AHA-3960D / AIC-7899A U160/m
(rev 01)
	Subsystem: Adaptec AHA-3960D U160/m
	Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 252, IRQ 41
	BIST result: 00
	I/O ports at 8400 [disabled] [size=256]
	Memory at 090f2000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
	Expansion ROM at 090a0000 [disabled] [size=128K]
	Capabilities: <access denied>
	Kernel driver in use: aic7xxx
	Kernel modules: aic7xxx

And running /sbin/lspci -nv gives:

0000:00:0b.1 0100: 9005:00c0 (rev 01)
	Subsystem: 9005:f620
	Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 252, IRQ 41
	BIST result: 00
	I/O ports at 8400 [disabled] [size=256]
	Memory at 090f2000 (64-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
	Expansion ROM at 090a0000 [disabled] [size=128K]
	Capabilities: <access denied>
	Kernel driver in use: aic7xxx
	Kernel modules: aic7xxx

I believe the "3960D" indicates:
a) 3960 was the first name Adaptec used for the card, and
b) "D" means DEC-approved firmware (IIRC).

So, given that, either:

1. your card is a different (and unsupported by SRM) version of 39160
2. cable is bad
3. disk is bad
4. termination is bad or non-existent
5. if more than one disk, disks are mis-configured.

I think the controller should support Ultra SCSI, Ultra-2, and Ultra-3;
I tried it with an Ultra-3 (aka Ultra-160). It's possible it does NOT
support older (ie just Fast/Wide), and possibly not just-Ultra. I tried
an Ultra-2, and it was fine (tried to boot it, and it had been installed
with an old RH Alpha Linux with kernel 2.4.9!!!

Also, I tried an Adaptec 29160N card (7892 chipset) and it was NOT
recognized by SRM.

So, there's a certainly a chance of reason #1 above, though if SRM told
about the card but not the disk(s), there's also a chance of #2-5...

Good luck.

HTH,

--Jay++