Re: AHA-2940 SCSI won't boot
At 09:38 PM 2/23/1999 -0600, Nathan E Norman wrote:
>On Tue, 23 Feb 1999, Kent West wrote:
>
> : I asked this a week or two ago, but am still having trouble.
> :
> : As a recap, I have a Gateway2000 P5-200 with an Adaptec AHA-2940
> : Ultra/Ultraw SCSI host adapter with four 2GB Seagate ST32155W drives. DOS
> : does fine with it; Win95 does fine; WinNT does fine.
>
>Non-Linux-like OSs seem to be "tolerant" of SCSI trouble that will bring
>Linux (and FreeBSD for that matter) to its knees.
>
> : When I try to install Hamm, Slink, or Potato, with the standard images or
> : with the boot images from http://www.debian.org/~adric/aic7xxx/, I either
> : get an infinite loop of trying to reset channell 0 (or something similar)
> : or I get a total lock-up just after the point in the boot-up where 419
> : instructions are downloaded to the adapter.
>
>Adaptec cards can be tough, particularly cards of this vintage.
>However, I've struggled mightily with ST32155W drives, too. Termination
>is almost always "wrong" from the factory.
>
>Some ideas:
>
>Use a boot kernel with the aha7xxx driver as the only SCSI HBA driver -
>all are compiled in by default and this can really piss off some
>Adaptecs. You should find, steal, or borrow such a kernel - your
>chances of success without it are slim :/
>
>Try getting just one drive to work; add more drives after success. Use
>different cables, if you have extras.
>
>Make sure termination and cabling is absolutely correct! I assume
>you're using 68 pin connectors here. Look for bent pins in the cable.
>Make sure each drive uses active termination, with only the last drive
>terminated. Throw away any passive terminators. If you're using 50 to
>68 pin header converters (usually seen on CD-ROMS or non-UW devices),
>throw those away too! Connect 50 pin devices via the 50 pin HBA
>connector (I see the "converters" used far too often).
>
>Are you using delayed spin? I prefer making the controller "start" each
>drive during the scan. Four UW drives spinning up at the same time
>could cause problems.
>
>Turn off drive translation in the controller. Don't turn off parity -
>if turning parity off gives better results then something is hosed
>anyway :)
>
>SCSI isn't magic; you just need the right phase of the moon, some
>incantations, etc. :)
>
>Hopefully this gives you some ideas ...
>
>--
>Nathan Norman
>MidcoNet 410 South Phillips Avenue Sioux Falls, SD
>mailto:finn@midco.net http://www.midco.net
>finger finn@home.midco.net for PGP Key: (0xA33B86E9)
>
WHOOHOO! Thanks to all. Not knowing anything about SCSI, it was this type
of info that led me to the fix.
The cable was fine, but the termination and id settings were all screwed
up; I had assumed they must be fine since DOS/Win95/WinNT didn't complain.
Even after I got those things fixed, Debian still wouldn't boot, so as per
Nathan's advice, I disconnected all but one drive, and Debian did fine. I
added the second drive, and Debian did fine. I added the third; fine. I
added the fourth; fine. Huh, go figure. At any rate, I'm into the install
routine now.
Thanks again!
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