Bug#325904: incorrect mac68k SCSI boot parameter
Package: debian-installer-manual
Version: 20050317
Severity: minor
Hi,
The Debian install manual for m68k says the following in section
5.1.1.4:
If your hardware uses a 53c9x-based scsi bus, then you may need
to include the kernel parameter mac53c9x=1. Hardware with two
such scsi buses, such as the Quadra 950, will need mac53c9x=2
instead.
This information is not fully accurate.
The mac53c9x parameter allows one to configure some aspects of this
driver.
The first is to disable bus autodetection and manually specify
the number of buses.
The second is to disable SCSI disconnects. As the peculiarities of the
mac hardware have had to be reverse engineered, some bugs remain in the
driver, and one of those bugs is that the system can experience complete
lockups if SCSI disconnects are allowed. To remedy this, this second
parameter was implemented; when at "1" (which is the default)
disconnects are allowed, but when at "0", disconnects are disabled
(which is safer but also slower).
The above instructions do disable bus autodetection, but do not disable
SCSI disconnects -- which was the whole point of including it!
To remedy, the paremeters should read "mac53c9x=1,0" or "mac53c9x=2,0",
respectively. Alternatively, the parameter can be specified as
"mac53c9x=-1,0" which will leave autodetection on, but which will
disable SCSI disconnects.
-- System Information:
Debian Release: testing/unstable
APT prefers unstable
APT policy: (500, 'unstable'), (500, 'testing')
Architecture: powerpc (ppc)
Shell: /bin/sh linked to /bin/bash
Kernel: Linux 2.6.13
Locale: LANG=nl_BE.UTF-8@euro, LC_CTYPE=nl_BE.UTF-8@euro (charmap=UTF-8)
-- no debconf information
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