Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Tue, 30 Mar 2004 16:29:07 -0500
From:      Todd Denniston <Todd.Denniston@ssa.crane.navy.mil>
To:        Kris Popat <popat@parc.com>
Cc:        aic7xxx@freebsd.org
Subject:   Re: RM8000 and aic7xxx
Message-ID:  <4069E6A3.42E965F0@ssa.crane.navy.mil>
References:  <20040330122149.35b4cf7a.popat@parc.com>

next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
This is a multi-part message in MIME format.
--------------AB352FEB4B28BCA17E7F1FFE
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

Kris Popat wrote:
> 
> Todd:
> 
> Recently I saw your message quoted below about using a promise RM8000
> with Linux.  We would like to run the same setup at Xerox PARC.  Did
> it work out for you?  Did you have to modify the aic7xxx driver?
> Thanks for any advice.
> 
> Best wishes,
> 
> Kris Popat
> Manager, Human-Document Interaction Area
<SNIP>
I am still not happy with the way the RM8000 acts with a bad disk[1] in it's
raid 5 configuration, and this does not involve linux.  It just does not
through the disk out fast enough for me, it pretty much has to error the whole
disk before it drops over to the spare, and it never drops the bad disk when
it has no spare. Could be I don't understand raid5 but the above behavior
seems bad to me.

Make sure the RM8000 has a Firmware Rev:1.1.0.30 or higher, 1.1.0.30 still
seemed to be misbehaving on the scsi bus but the aic7xxx driver included with
fedora could tolerate it pretty well.

The only mod I had to make to the aic7xxx driver was to put the SRC one from
Justin's page[2] and put it in the fedora kernel I am using, i.e.,
   cd /usr/src/linux-2.4.22-1.2174.nptl/drivers/scsi/
   mv Config.in Config.in.shippedwith
   mv Makefile Makefile.shippedwith
   mv aic7xxx aic7xxx.shippedwith
   cd /usr/src/linux-2.4.22-1.2174.nptl
   tar -xzvf /tmp/aic79xx-linux-2.4-20040209-tar.gz 
#very important with fedora ... use the right gcc
   export CC=gcc32
   make mrproper
   cp /boot/config-2.4.22-1.2174.nptl .config
#mod make file to set EXTRAVERSION = -1.2174.nptl.aic7xxx-R6.3.5
   make oldconfig
   make oldconfig
   make dep
   make rpm
   /usr/src/redhat/SRPMS/kernel-2.4.221.2174.nptl.aic7xxxR6.3.5-1.src.rpm \
   /usr/src/redhat/RPMS/i386/kernel-2.4.221.2174.nptl.aic7xxxR6.3.5-1.i386.rpm
   /sbin/new-kernel-pkg --mkinitrd --depmod --install \
   2.4.22-1.2174.nptl.aic7xxx-R6.3.5
#simple right ;]

the 6.3.5 version has not had any bus drops or card dumps since I installed
it.

The adaptec card and driver set seems solid enough, I have rarely had problems
with them in linux over the last 5 years.

The promise raid box ... has not left me happy, and I am still using it
because the money has been spent and it _mostly_ works now.

advice: shop a little for the raid box.

[1] bad disk, there are a few blocks that don't show up as bad when I run
ext2-tools badblocks on the drive by itself... really a trash disk, but it
makes for testing these things.

[2] http://people.freebsd.org/~gibbs/linux/
http://people.freebsd.org/~gibbs/linux/SRC/
-- 
Todd Denniston
Crane Division, Naval Surface Warfare Center (NSWC Crane) 
Harnessing the Power of Technology for the Warfighter
--------------AB352FEB4B28BCA17E7F1FFE
Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii;
 name="stddisclamer.h"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: inline;
 filename="stddisclamer.h"

The opinions expressed here are not sanctioned by and do not necessarily 
represent those of my employer.

--------------AB352FEB4B28BCA17E7F1FFE--



Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?4069E6A3.42E965F0>