Date: Tue, 29 Mar 2005 21:01:46 +0200 From: Anthony Atkielski <atkielski.anthony@wanadoo.fr> To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Anthony's drive issues.Re: ssh password delay Message-ID: <2130059.20050329210146@wanadoo.fr> In-Reply-To: <LOBBIFDAGNMAMLGJJCKNAEPDFAAA.tedm@toybox.placo.com> References: <6b3b25263c4e7776fd5127af2c536cd6@chrononomicon.com> <LOBBIFDAGNMAMLGJJCKNAEPDFAAA.tedm@toybox.placo.com>
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Ted Mittelstaedt writes: > He is saying that the microcode was modified and that we speculate that > the mods contain a bug proprietary to the HP implementation of that > controller. What makes it a _bug_? Why would the modified firmware contain a bug ... but not FreeBSD? > Or had whatever extra code was needed for the microcode mods. Yes, or approached the hardware in a way that made the modifications irrelevant. > Yes, they do - I've got a Compaq professional workstation on my desk > at work which has a modded microcode in an Adaptec 2940U adapter card > (I know it's modded because the card will not work in any other > non-Compaq system, even where non-Compaq-branded 2940U cards will > work) that displays similar disk strangeness (although it doesen't > spew errors) This is the same scsi chipset as Anthonys Vectra. > (aic7880) And what does Compaq give you in exchange for the headache of a non-standard adapter card? Can you replace Compaq's distorted adapter with a standard one, or is it theirs or nothing? > This incidentally is WHY I am speculating it's a microcode mod (and it > was I that started this line of discussion regarding the microcode on > his SCSI chipset) because I have proof positive that modded microcode > in other manufacturer's aic7880-based SCSI adapters has problems with > the ahc driver. How did you resolve the problem? > He doesen't want to run Windows (on this system at least) Correct. It's a more or less spare system and I'm more interesting in getting more experience with UNIX than with getting more experience with Windows. I already know plenty about Windows. > He wants the FreeBSD ahc driver modded so that it won't generate > errors and SCSI bus resets anymore under FreeBSD. That would be nice, if it's a legitimate bug in the FreeBSD code (which I suspect it is). If it's a regression (i.e., a change that would break the behavior with standard hardware), then the utility of changing it is debatable (although I still wouldn't object to a version that would run on my hardware). In any case, this wonderfully fun experience is pushing me more and more in the direction of home-built hardware, and further and further away from brand-name machines. I'm glad I decided to build my own server instead of buying that IBM eSeries machine. Who knows what problems I might have had with it? > Unfortunately, Anthony won't do the least bit of troubleshooting (such > as pulling the Quantum disk and just running on the Seagate disk in > this system to see if perhaps the problem is execerbated by one or the > other implementations of SCSI in one or the other of the disks - > granted that is a long shot, but it's within the realm of possibility > it might fix it) so I doubt he would do anything that the ahc driver > (who most likely isn't even subscribed to freebsd-questions) tells him > to do in the way of troubleshooting either. Anything isn't going to do anything until someone can tell him what the existing messages are saying. I don't go pulling boards every time I see a message that I don't recognize. > Also long forgotten in this discussion is Anthony stated once on this > list that Mandrake Linux wouldn't even install on this Vectra system > either. It stops after the splash screen, but I think that is related to the same problem that prevents FreeBSD from booting directly from disk. > I am not sure why he's trying to hold FreeBSD up to the driver support > of Windows NT when Linux won't even talk to the card in his system. I don't know what Linux will or won't do, and unlike you, I'm not prepared to make wild guesses. I know only that Mandrake Linux will stall after displaying a splash screen, and that's that. > ... and we all know that Windows has far better support for the > oddest-ballist modifications of standard computer components such as > SCSI adapters than FreeBSD does since they have unlimited money to buy > oddball samples of hardware to experiment with ... I suspect they just ask the vendor for information on the hardware. Even Microsoft has neither the time nor the money to test every conceivable hardware configuration. A more likely scenario is that the vendor itself writes the driver and then has Microsoft certify it. The certification is pretty rudimentary, IIRC; essentially MS ensures that the system doesn't melt or spew acrid smoke when the driver is invoked and that's about it. -- Anthony
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