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Date:      Thu, 13 Jun 1996 22:29:15 +0200
From:      "Julian H. Stacey" <jhs@freebsd.org>
To:        "Hr.Ladavac" <lada@ws2301.gud.siemens.co.at>
Cc:        scsi@freebsd.org, fabio@cesar.unicamp.br, fty@mcnc.org, gcrutchr@nightflight.com, j@uriah.heep.sax.de, jc@irbs.com, julian@freebsd.org, kuku@gilberto.physik.rwth-aachen.de, lehey.pad@sni.de, mrm@sceard.com, nikm@ixa.net, tomppa@fidata.fi, wilko@yedi.iaf.nl, scott@relay.forest.com
Subject:   Re: 8 * 0xFF bytes at intermittent multiples of 0x1000 
Message-ID:  <199606132029.WAA28493@vector.jhs.no_domain>
In-Reply-To: Your message of "Thu, 13 Jun 1996 09:48:17 %2B0200." <199606130748.AA221852097@ws2301.gud.siemens.co.at> 

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Hi, Reference:
> From: "Hr.Ladavac" <lada@ws2301.gud.siemens.co.at> 
> In his e-mail Julian H. Stacey wrote:
> > To scsi@freebsd.org
> > Cc Adaptec 1542A SCSI Adapter People, Julian Elischer.
> > 
> > > > I connected sd1 to my 1542A and here are results:
> > > > 
> > > > 1. No problems if testblock is only one that generates disk activity.
> > > > 2. I launched couple find processes to sd0 and at same time I
> > > >    run testblock. Testblock failed only 1/10 of test runs.
> > > > 3. I copied files with cp to sd1 when running testblock on
> > > >    sd1. Testblock failed on every time.
> > > > 
> > > >   Tomppa
> 
> It need not be FreeBSD specific.  I had a very similar problem a couple of 
> years ago with a 1542CF and Seagate 540 MB disk *WITH LINUX*

Pretty scary if we're still in the same dumb scenario we were in 20 years
ago, back then it was `Unix assumes perfect hardware'
If we're still doing no checks on what the hard disks deliver, it's time to
shiver with fear ;-)
(though I realise implications WRT FFS definition & portability if we were
to add checks, tricky that.)

> The problems went away when I've thrown out the IDE disk on which I had
> the /usr partition (i.e., it was always in use.)  I've used dd < /dev/zero
> and my own simple C program for testing.

I have no IDE :-)
My program started years on a 4.3 with no /dev/zero,
& now does a rolling bytes offset within blocks, to detect skipped blocks.

> Errors appeared, but there was no regularity whatsoever.  

Mine is regular 8 * 0xFF every few 0x1000

> However, in my
> case the errors were simply inverted bits, 90% of the time 1 inverted bit,
> very seldom 2 bits.

Sounds like no commonality.

> Since it never occured afterwards, I've dismissed it as the bus-noise
> generated by an ancient IDE device.

Mine is a short internal ribbon, good firm contacts, properly terminated.

> Needless to say, the same machine, other machines with the very same
> Adaptec/Seagate combo behaved okay, even in presence of other SCSI devices.

Well at least one other person is seeing exactly what I'm seeing he posted 
his log.

Julian
--
Julian H. Stacey	jhs@freebsd.org  	http://www.freebsd.org/~jhs/



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