Re: scsi termination message

[Heinz Ulrich Stille <Heinz Ulrich Stille mbi-os de>]

Hi!

On Wed, 10 Feb 1999, Tom Holroyd wrote:
>I get this when I boot my AlphaPC164LX:
>
>kernel: (scsi0) <Adaptec AHA-294X Ultra SCSI host adapter> found at PCI 5/0 
>kernel: (scsi0) Wide Channel, SCSI ID=7, 16/255 SCBs 
>kernel: (scsi0) Warning - detected auto-termination 
[...]

>Now, it never prompts me, and ctrl-a doesn't seem to do anything.
>I'm guessing that only works on an x86?  In any case,

The <ctrl-A> is in the bios initialisation on intels. OTOH the alpha bios
does contain an intel emulator for firing up VGA cards. I don't know why
this does not also run the scsi controller's bios.

>	A) How can I make this message go away?
>I have both an external MO disk and a regular external HD (in addition to
>the internal one), and there's a terminator on the end of the chain.
>(Removing it has no effect.)  Are there some jumpers I need to fiddle with
>on the inside?
The 2940 does not have jumpers; if you need to fiddle with the configuration
you'll have to plug it into a wintel game console.
To make the message go away you have to hack the driver in the kernel; it
is just a warning and always present.

Are you sure your internal disk is connected to the adaptec and correctly
terminated? It seems like the internal cable has not been detected.
Both ends should have active termination. How long are your cables?
Doesn't the driver tell anything about the status of the termination? Mine
does (kernel 2.2.x). The low termination should certainly be off, but the
correct status of high termination depends on whether internal and/or
external devices are wide.

I've never yet had real lockups due to scsi errors, though I once had the
problem of the root disk being inaccessible due to continuous scsi bus resets.

MfG, Ulrich
--
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