Date: Mon, 18 Jan 1999 21:12:24 +0000 From: Karl Pielorz <kpielorz@tdx.co.uk> To: "Roger P. Johnson" <rpj@fep.hirshfields.com> Cc: freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Will FreeBSD *ever* fix their 2940U drivers ??????????????? Message-ID: <36A3A3B8.D1952D5E@tdx.co.uk> References: <199901182006.OAA08238@fep.hirshfields.com>
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"Roger P. Johnson" wrote: > > Like the subject line says, will FreeBSD ever fix their 2940U driver. > > I have had nothing but nightmares getting FreeBSD's 2940U, 2940AU, and 2940UW > controllers to work in PC's that have, what, I believe the TX or LX chipset ??? > > On newer PC's I can tell exactly what chipset the MB is, but on these older > DEC PC's, Celebris 590's, I can't tell _exactly_ what chipset it is. > > I get either "Read error" (which after a year found the problem and made a patch > for so it boots like it should), or the controller card is reconized, but then > times out. Ugh! Ugh! The 'read error' problem is know, and apparently a failing in the BIOS of the system to pass the correct boot drive ID or similar (check the mailing list archives :) > What ticks me off is: > I have one 2940U from about 1996, and it works with FreeBSD! > I have one 2940AU from about 1997 and it works with FreeBSD! > > About 9 months ago, I bought 10 2940AU's, guess what? FreeBSD hangs and times out on boot. > (Would anyone like to buy 10 2940AU's cheap cheap cheap ?) > > Just bought some brand new 2940U's (because they work right?), guess what, it now hangs > and times out on boot. I too have around 6-7 of these controllers, some work - some don't work... I was talking to a guy a while ago with a view of publishing our findings... Basically 'some cards don't work with some boards', I beleive theres timing problems (or similar) with some cards, and some motherboards... > Why does uh-em, Linux reconize and boot in the same machine ? No Read error, no time outs > Why does NetBSD reconize and boot the same machine? No Read error, no time outs > Others state that even Win95 works. I've only seen NT boot with 'problematic' cards, I think part of the problem is getting a card + a machine (that doesn't work) to someone who is actually able to hack the drivers... > Don't even mention "termination" and all that crap. That's not the problem. No, only in 1 case did we find it was termination related... That's not to say it might be 'drives hanging off the bus' related or similar... > How do you identify the chipset if you can't see any chip on the MB stating something > like HX blah or LX blah You can't, we have 5 Neptune machines, 4 of our 2940's work in all of them, 2 only work in 1 of them, and 1 works in none of them... I beleive it's more a combination of MB + 2940, rather than one element alone... > I've got 6 machines I would like to use Ultra SCSI in. Guess I can forget it using > FreeBSD anyways. I would think with enough postings to this newsgroup over the _years_, > that this problem would be solved by now. I don't think it ever will be. I think it will, once we either determine the exact cause, and / or get a failing system into the right hands of someone who can do something about it... > After 2 solid years of FreeBSD and this 2940U stuff on approx. 20 PC's, running a Point > of Sale program on them, I am good and ready to dump it for Linux or Solaris x86 for this > reason alone. I'm sorry to hear that - We've had compatively 'nightmare' problems with NT not 'quite' working on various hardware, with various controllers, and various motherboards... The 2940's are the only items we've ever had problems with using FreeBSD, our hardware vendor has been willing to exchange cards etc. - so even then it's not been much of a problem... -Kp To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
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