RE: Anthony's drive issues.Re: ssh password delay

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To: <freebsd-questions@freebsd.org>
Date: Wed, 30 Mar 2005 09:06:02 -0800

owner-freebsd-questions@freebsd.org wrote:
> Ted Mittelstaedt writes:

>
>> 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?
>

They take away the ability to press f5 during boot to configure the card
and
in exchange the card's bios talks to the Compaq software configuration
utility,
so when you go into the software config that you use to configure the PC
you can also config the SCSI card.

> Can you replace Compaq's distorted adapter with a standard
> one,

Yes

>
>> 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?
>

Just today I replaced the Quantum 8GB Fireball with a Seagate 4GB
baracuda,
I have not yet built a system on there yet so we will see what happens.

If it doesen't work I have another scsi card around, it irks me to toss
a perfectly good scsi adapter card just because the ijuts that made it
slapped
a weirdo firmware on 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.
>

The existing messages are pretty clear IMHO.

>
> I don't know what Linux will or won't do, and unlike you, I'm not
> prepared to make wild guesses.

If there is one single thing that will prevent you from getting FreeBSD
running on the most systems, that is it.

Let me tell you a story.

Back in 1992 I was a lowly IT tech at Central Point Software. (Sadly at
that time CPS had not the vision to recognize the importance of FreeBSD -
they didn't recognize the importance of a great many other things but
that's a different story)

Some idiot had bought 25 Zenith 486 desktop systems (I think it was 486
could have been 386's though) the previous year.

We had these systems failing about once a month by then. The IT
department
had a big closet with about 10 of them piled up. When one broke we would
put a different PC on their desk then take the 486 back to the closet.

I resolved one day to clean out the closet. I pulled all systems out and
set them all up and tested each one - one had a bad video board, one had
a bad disk drive, etc. etc.

By pulling a good video card out of one and replacing a bad video card in
another one with the video card I pulled, I was able to get a pile of
working systems and a pile of broken parts.

I took all the broken parts and put them into 2 of the chassises,
intending
to throw them out.

For grins I plugged in both systems "full of broken parts" to see how bad
they would be. Both powered up and worked perfectly.

After that day I have always included the capability of 'making wild
guesses'
in my troubleshooting. You make wild guesses after you have exhausted
normal
troubleshooting. This is the difference between a medeocre 'by the book'
repair tech, and a true master, and it is why the master manages to fix
things that others believe are beyond hope.

Ted

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• Previous message: Chuck Swiger: "Re: x server"
• In reply to: Anthony Atkielski: "Re: Anthony's drive issues.Re: ssh password delay"
• Next in thread: Ted Mittelstaedt: "RE: Anthony's drive issues.Re: ssh password delay"
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