Re: 2.4.20 st + aic7xxx (Adaptec 19160B) + VIA KT333 repeatable freeze

On Sun, Dec 15, 2002 at 01:01:45PM -0700, Justin T. Gibbs wrote:
> > On Fri, 13 Dec 2002 11:51:27 +1100, 
> > Kevin Easton <[e-mail]> wrote:
> >> I'm not sure exactly where this problem fits in, but I'm getting a 
> >> completely repeatable freeze (100% lockup, no response to keyboard)
> >> triggered by writing to /dev/st0 (dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/st0 bs=512
> >> count=163840 will reproduce it).
> >> So... does anyone have any ideas how I should start trying to track this
> >> down?
> 
> You might also look into your BIOS to ensure that the option "PCI Byte
> Merging" is disabled.  This option allows the chipset to perform illegal
> byte merging on the PCI bus that will upset the Adaptec.  Since the byte
> merging will only occur in certain scenarios (heavily dependent on what
> is going on with the SCSI bus), you may only see the lockup when accessing
> a particular device or running a certain program.
> 
> The latest versions of the aic7xxx and aic79xx drivers will automatically
> detect this broken VIA behavior and will fall back to using PIO for register
> access.  Although I haven't generated patches against 2.4.20, you can pull
> down a src tarball for 2.4.X that should just drop in:

OK, will do - thanks.  I don't think the BIOS on this board has such an
option, so I might have to put up with PIO register access.

	- Kevin.