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) 294-4589
ekrell@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