jensen@uunet.uu.net (peter jensen) (07/18/89)
Apparent sc driver change causes timing problems with Wren drives:
We recently upgraded *one* of our machines from 4.0.1 to 4.0.3 to reassure
ourselves that this was a good thing to do. Since the upgrade, the system
has "hung" eight times. Here's the scoop:
Hardware:
Sun 3/50M-4
CDC Wren IV (94171-300) SCSI disk
Exabyte 8mm cartridge tape drive
Laserprinter
The system will boot and run fine for a few days and then hang, possibly
displaying the following message several times:
(This also happens without the Exabyte connected. The SCSI bus is
properly terminated.)
sd0: sdtimer: I/O request timeout
last phase= 0x4 (DATA IN)
csr= 0xc407 bcr= 65535 tcr= 0x1
cbsr= 0x45 (DATA IN) cdr= 0x24 mr= 0x2 bsr=0x89
target= 0, lun= 0 DMA addr= 0x3600 count= 2560 (8192)
cdb= 8 6 7d ba 10 0
I had sent in a tape containing two crash dumps and talked to a CSC rep
several times about this problem. This morning, I got a call from the rep
explaining that the problem was due to changes in the driver to optimize
it for faster disks. The rep did acknolwedge that there is now a timing
problem with slower drives.
Sun's position on this is that Wrens (and Exabytes) are not supported
products, and customers should call Sun Consulting to BUY a new driver to
resolve the problem. Personally, I don't feel someone should have to buy
a custom driver for a standard SCSI device. Also, if Sun doesn't want to
support the Wren drives, they should remove the misleading information
from format.dat:
# @(#)format.dat 1.20 89/03/26 SMI
#
# Copyright (c) 1987 by Sun Microsystems, Inc.
#
# Data file for the 'format' program. This file defines the known
# disks, disk types, and partition maps.
#
...
#
# This is the list of supported disks for embedded SCSI.
#
disk_type = "CDC Wren III 94161-155" ...
disk_type = "CDC Wren IV 94171-344" ...
disk_type = "CDC Wren V 94181-702" ...
...
Unless Engineering starts receiving more bug reports about this problem,
they will not be doing anything to resolve the timing issue.
FLAME ON
Aren't there enough {yp | nfs | network | compiler | your choice here}
bugs already, without needing to introduce additional problems? We're
still waiting to get an NFS problem fixed - Is anyone else having problems
with their remote files getting corrupted (some bytes being replaced by
garbage or nulls)?
FLAME OFF
I hope other customers will place calls with CSC and show them how many
sites they're affecting with this driver BUG. My service order number is
327515.
Peter C. Jensen jensen@jarsun1.ZONE1.COM
Jordan Apostal Ritter Associates ANSYS, ARIES, and Engineering Analysis
Admin Bldg 7, North Kingstown RI 02852 (401) 884-3014 or (401) 294-4589ekrell@ulysses.att.com (Eduardo Krell) (07/21/89)
We upgraded our desktops (one 3/75, seven 3/60's, a 3/80, a 4/110 and a
4/60) to 4.0.3 a few weeks ago. All these have CDC/Imprimis Wren disks,
mostly Wren III's and one Wren IV.
We've never had a problem with the system hanging and crashing as you
describe it.
Eduardo Krell AT&T Bell Laboratories, Murray Hill, NJ
UUCP: {att,decvax,ucbvax}!ulysses!ekrell Internet: ekrell@ulysses.att.com