From owner-freebsd-hackers Tue Oct 12 3:15:44 1999 Delivered-To: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org Received: from implode.root.com (root.com [209.102.106.178]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id C1B8115005 for ; Tue, 12 Oct 1999 03:15:40 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from dg@implode.root.com) Received: from implode.root.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by implode.root.com (8.8.8/8.8.5) with ESMTP id DAA16112; Tue, 12 Oct 1999 03:14:54 -0700 (PDT) Message-Id: <199910121014.DAA16112@implode.root.com> To: Doug Cc: FreeBSD-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: SMP + fxp0 wierdness In-reply-to: Your message of "Mon, 11 Oct 1999 21:12:23 PDT." <3802B527.CB34008C@gorean.org> From: David Greenman Reply-To: dg@root.com Date: Tue, 12 Oct 1999 03:14:54 -0700 Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG >David Greenman wrote: >> >> >> So if this problem is NOT related to specific hardware, how can we get >> >> the driver fixed? >> > >> >Talk to the maintainer (David). We've offered him cores and kernels >> >before. Alternatively, you'll need to experiment with your setup to >> >determine what characterises the failures and help David out with more >> >data. >> >> Hotmail has troubleshooted the problem down to the NCR controller. It >> appears that the problem only occurs when using one of those. If they plug >> in an Adaptec 2940 and use it instead of the onboard NCR then the problems >> disappear. > > Well that's not good, since I have almost convinced my boss to replace >the crappy IDE drives on our shiny new Intel N440BX mb's with scsi >drives since the controller is built in. :-/ Does this look like a >soluble problem, or is it just going to be a case of "don't do that?" >Anything I can do to help mail me and let me know. Intel generally makes good stuff. On the other hand, I'm not too happy with the NCR/Symbios support in FreeBSD...the conversion to CAM wasn't all that great and the driver really needs a rewrite. I wouldn't personally put a machine with an NCR/Symbios into production - I have just too much negative history with it. I don't understand why some machines are having this problem with the Intel Pro/100B/100+ and (most) others never do. All indications right now is that it is a DMA corruption problem of some kind, but I don't have any clue what might be causing it. I don't think it is a software bug, but it's conceivable that the problem could be worked around with software if I knew what was causing it. -DG David Greenman Co-founder/Principal Architect, The FreeBSD Project - http://www.freebsd.org Creator of high-performance Internet servers - http://www.terasolutions.com Pave the road of life with opportunities. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message