*BSD News Article 89054


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From: robert@tabby.kudra.com (Robert Sexton)
Newsgroups: comp.periphs.scsi,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: Bizarre SCSI problem (3 disks work, 4 don't) (2940UW/Quantum Atlas II)
Followup-To: comp.periphs.scsi,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Date: 13 Feb 1997 04:04:56 GMT
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Alan Judge (ajudge@maths.tcd.ie) wrote:
: I have a really odd (in my experience, at least) SCSI problem.  The setup is
: a PC (running FreeBSD 2.2-BETA) containing an Adaptec 2940UW.  No internal
: disks.  The external 68-pin connector is connected to a case containing 4 
: Quantum Atlas II disks.  Inside the case, the 4 disks are chained together
: on a ribbon cable.  The case is terminated with an external active 
: terminator, and the 2940 termination is set to automatic.

Two potential problems come to mind:
1.  Is your SCSI Bust within Length Limits?  Ultra means cables can
only be half as long as Fast SCSI.

2.  Are all drives supplying terminator power?  The SCSI Standard says
that the controller supplies termpwr, but I have found that its not
always enough.


: The 4 disks are numbers 0..3.  When *any* three disks are connected to
: the ribbon cable, everything works fine;  I can access and use the
: disks.  When all four are connected, the SCSI system fails quite
: quickly.  The usual symptoms are a lockup where one of the disk
: activity lights will remain on.

This is a symptom of termination problems.

--
Robert Sexton - robert@kudra.com
As a software development model, Anarchy does not scale well.  -Dave Welch