Date: Thu, 5 Nov 1998 16:34:10 -0700 (MST) From: "Kenneth D. Merry" <ken@plutotech.com> To: richard@jezebel.demon.co.uk (Richard Smith) Cc: freebsd-scsi@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: ncr0: timeout ccb=0xf0533400 (skip) Message-ID: <199811052334.QAA27028@panzer.plutotech.com> In-Reply-To: <3641689A.72B245FB@jezebel.demon.co.uk> from Richard Smith at "Nov 5, 98 08:58:02 am"
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Richard Smith wrote... > [this question was originally posted to -questions] > > I have a symbios logic v4.0 pci scsi bios pci rev 2.0,2.1 pci-4.03.00 > 53c875 fast20 wide scsi [which has subsequently been upgraded to 4.11] > and a fujitsu M2949E-512 HDD (about 8.5 Gbytes). > > I am running FreeBSD 2.2.7R and NT 4.0 on the same machine. The disk is > split so that NT occupies the lower 4G and FreeBSD occupies the upper 4G > (as this was the only way I could get NT to boot), and using your boot > manager to switch between the two. > > Under FreeBSD, the system keeps falling over with a single ncr0: timeout > error, nothing else gets written to the screen, and nothing gets written > to the message log (as it's on the same disk). The problem usually needs > two power cycles to rectify, as the first falls over again during fsck. > > The problem appears to be pattern sensitive: If I try to tar my mail > directory it falls over every time, while othertimes it may stay up all > day. Needless to say NT never fails. > I have played with cables, checked terminators, searched the mailing > lists. > > I want to advocate FreeBSD for my next project, and I'm prepared to > specify different hardware for that project and for my desktop (such > as the Adaptec 2940UW - which appears to be popular). What I would like > from you is some guidance as to why I appear to be having these problems > with the current configuration. There are any number of reasons why this could be happening. It could be that your drive is "going out to lunch" and not coming back. The timeout message you see may be because of a command that was sent to the drive but not returned before the command timeout expired. If that's the case it could be a drive firmware bug. It could also be some other problem. (i.e. I don't know exactly what the problem is) There are a couple of courses of action I'd suggest: - Try installing FreeBSD 3.0. The SCSI layer in 3.0 has been completely re-written. The NCR driver is very similar to the one in 2.2.7, but the difference is that we can do more to help you fix the problem under 3.0 than we can under 2.2.7. - get an Adaptec 2940UW. In general, the Adaptec boards are among the best supported SCSI cards for FreeBSD. If you want to stay with 2.2.7, you should make sure that you get the regular 2940UW (which has a 7880 on board), and *not* the 2940U2W (which has a 7890 on board), since the Ultra-2 boards are only supported under FreeBSD 3.0. Even if your problem is a drive firmware bug, the above two courses of action will help us get a little more information on the problem. I would also suggest using Seagate or IBM disks. They generally have much better firmware than the other drive manufacturers. Ken -- Kenneth Merry ken@plutotech.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-scsi" in the body of the message
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