From owner-freebsd-hardware Sat Dec 28 22:21:37 1996 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.8.4/8.8.4) id WAA16064 for hardware-outgoing; Sat, 28 Dec 1996 22:21:37 -0800 (PST) Received: from GndRsh.aac.dev.com (GndRsh.aac.dev.com [198.145.92.241]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.8.4/8.8.4) with ESMTP id WAA16059 for ; Sat, 28 Dec 1996 22:21:33 -0800 (PST) Received: (from rgrimes@localhost) by GndRsh.aac.dev.com (8.7.5/8.7.3) id WAA00617; Sat, 28 Dec 1996 22:21:19 -0800 (PST) From: "Rodney W. Grimes" Message-Id: <199612290621.WAA00617@GndRsh.aac.dev.com> Subject: Re: AHA 2940UW? Linux works.. In-Reply-To: from Brandon Gillespie at "Dec 24, 96 10:29:00 am" To: brandon@glacier.cold.org (Brandon Gillespie) Date: Sat, 28 Dec 1996 22:21:18 -0800 (PST) Cc: freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4ME+ PL25 (25)] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-hardware@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk > I REALLY need help with this, our server is continually rebooting since we > installed the AHA 2940UW controller and new UltraSCSI drive. It is not a > heavilly loaded system, but it does run a database system that NEEDS to > syncronize its database before shutting down. Every time this system > reboots we loose critical data to the last backup. This is flat out > unacceptable. I really like FreeBSD much more than Linux, but at this > point others in the group are suggesting we move to Linux because they > know this hardware works fine in Linux. In my experience I've never known > a system to simply reboot when it was a hardware problem (generally if its > a hardware problem it simply freezes up or does not work at all). This is > working for two to three days when suddenly *wham* reboot. > > Help?? My experience in tracking down ``spontainious reboots'' on FreeBSD systems is that this is usually either memory or a bad motherboard. If I recall your earlier mail you had converted from IDE to AHA2940, which leads me to suspect a motherboard problem in the cache invalidation logic with respect to bus mastered DMA. You didn't saymuch else about the hardware, and ``it'll run Linux'' doesn't tell me much, as Linux does not do a lot of the performance enhancements in FreeBSD that requires _CORRECTLY_ designed boards. Hardware problems _often_ cause exactly what you are seeing, but then so do software problems. -- Rod Grimes rgrimes@gndrsh.aac.dev.com Accurate Automation, Inc. Reliable computers for FreeBSD