*BSD News Article 38322


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From: nb@xap.com (Nathan Bradshaw)
Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.questions
Subject: FreeBSD and Adaptec 1542CF SCSI
Date: 24 Nov 1994 12:45:47 -0800
Organization: XAP Company, Inc.
Lines: 58
Message-ID: <3b2u2e$27u@scoob.xap.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: scoob.xap.com
Summary: FreeBSD dies with SCSI timeout
Keywords: scsi adaptec freebsd

Hi, FreeBSD hackers!  We've got a puzzlin' problem here that probably has a
real simple solution.

My roommate installed 2.0 RELEASE yesterday on his new Pentium 90 VLB/PCI
16Mb with an ISA Adaptec 1542cf and a Conner 1.2Gb disk.  Overnight it
bombed out with an error much like:

sd0: aha0: aha154x debug: timeout (again)  retrying: (frozen?)

...repeated again and again forever.  It boots fine and if left alone will
have this condition again after a couple hours.

We had this problem with 1.1.5.1 release too a while ago and went with Linux
because we did not experience this with that OS.  But we want to run FreeBSD!

We're thinking it must be a (mis-)configuration of the Adaptec's settings,
'cause there must be literally billions of folks running FreeBSD with 1542s.

Here's the Adaptec's current settings:  
port address 0x330
IRQ 11
DMA 5
parity checking ON
DMA transfer rate 5Mb/sec
scsi termination ENABLED
floppy controller is ENABLED (3f0h-3f7h)
reset scsi bus at power-on ENABLED
adapter BIOS ENABLED
system boot (19h) controlled by host adapter BIOS ENABLED
extended translation for DOS drives > 1Gb DISABLED
scan SCSI bus for BIOS devices DISABLED
BIOS support for > 2 drives DISABLED
immediate return on seek command ENABLED
(the following are for SCSI device configuration; here's the config for 
 device 0, the drive, we have no other devices connected)
enable sync negotiation NO
enable fast SCSI NO
enable disconnection YES
sent start unit command NO (the drive powers up automatically)

Here's the BIOS information:
revision 2.01
base address DC000h

Here's the firmware information:
revision C.0
checksum 563Dh

The adapter checks out OK under DOS and Linux.  I'd be interested in hearing
from other fBSD folks who have 1542CF controllers working properly - what's
your configuration look like?

When FreeBSD runs, it's fast and great!  Please help.

Yours,
Nathan Bradshaw
nb@xap.com