Re: AIC7xxx errors in 2.2.19 but not in 2.2.18

[Holger Kiehl]

On Fri, 14 Sep 2001, Frank Schneider wrote:

> Holger Kiehl schrieb:
> >
> > Hello
> >
> > I am getting SCSI errors with an onboard Adaptec AIC-7890/1 Ultra2, but
> > only under very heavy disk load and only under kernel 2.2.19. These errors
> > do not appear under 2.2.18.
> >
> > The system I have is a dual PIII-450 with 6 disks attached to the controller.
> > All disks are put together in SW-Raid5 array with one configured as hot
> > spare.
> >
>
> (..log snipped..)
>
> > >From Alan's changelog I see that there where changes in the AIC7xxx code.
> > Any idea what is wrong here?
>
> Hello...
>
> I (and someone else) had also mysterious problems with AIC7xxx and
> RAID1/5, but we use Kernel 2.4.x.
>
Just today Neil Brown has send a patch where he mentioned something
about the AIC7xxx driver. But I don't know if this has anything
to do with this problem.

> In Kernel 2.4.x you can choose between two versions of the
> aix7xxx-driver, one "old" one (Version 5.2.x) and a "new" one (Version
> 6.x.x). Do a "cat /proc/scsi/aic7xxx/0" to find your version.
>
I have played with 2.4.5 and the new aic7xxx driver and did not see
the problems here. Have not tried the old one under 2.4.5. Unfortunately
I cannot take 2.4.x because of the bigger swap demand.

> We both found out that our problems dissapear when we use the "old"
> driver (my tests are still in progress because my error (always the same
> scsi-disk falling out of an raid5-array with an "internal error", but
> the disk seems to be good) only appeared randomly about once a week, so
> i still have to wait if it is really gone.
>
> So perhaps you can try to use the older driver or determine the version
> of your aic7xxx-driver. Perhaps you can use the aic7xxx-driver from
> kernel 2.2.18 in Kernel 2.2.19 ?
>
> You should also boot your system with the parameter "aic7xxx=verbose",
> that will provide more infos in the syslog.
>
Next time when I boot, I will put in this option.

Thanks,
Holger