*BSD News Article 96406


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From: sbjork@filoli.com (Steven Bjork)
Newsgroups: comp.os.linux.hardware,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: adaptec 2940. broken. details inside
Date: 28 May 1997 15:48:11 -0700
Organization: Filoli Information Systems
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Message-ID: <5micnb$ljl$1@ssw.filoli.com>
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Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.os.linux.hardware:75694 comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:41781


Check out solaris 2.5.1 x86 install, May 1996, pg. 74. They say that
their testing revealed complete LOCKUP of adaptec 2940 controllers
(with multiple drives) under heavy load.

I completely verified this with linux. Ran a news server with
two 2940's in it, with two news disks on one 2940, and the root
on another 2940. The dual drive controller would LOCK UP, and
the root disk would work fine. No way out except hard reset
(with reset switch) reboot.

So it seems the 2940 is dog meat. I've seen a "2940a" but the
linux pci driver seems to not recognise it--probably because
the pci signature has changed for the "a" card. Don't know
if the 2940a still has lockup problems.

I now have a buslogic pci/scsi running hunky dory in a similar
machine, with no lockups ever observed.

Now, I'm curious why many freebsd folks claim to not have
seen this 2940 problem, since it seems to be completely
hardware related. If freebsd has a workaround in their
driver, please share the wealth! 

../Steven