[SunRescue] Re: Rescue digest, Vol 1 #445 - 10 msgs

[Chris Powell]

On Mon, 17 Apr 2000 07:38:12 -0700, Gregory Leblanc wrote:

> > Talking of the SS1+, it's got a weird SCSI problem. The 
> > monitor probe-scsi
> > works fine for the internal disks and external CD-ROM, disk in Sun 411
> > lunchboxes. However, when SunOS boots (it's running 4.1.4) I get all
> > kinds of SCSI time outs and switching to low speed errors. The CD-ROM
> > in the first 411 doesn't appear in the kernel boot messages, but the
> > disk in the second 411 does. The CD-ROM doesn't respond to mounts, the
> > disk does. If I unplug the two 411s, I only get the errors sometimes.
> > It's not the disks, cables, terminators or 411 PSUs.
> 
> I dunno, sounds a lot like a cabling/termination problem from the symptoms
> you describe...  :)  What's your total cable length?  What kind of
> termination are you using?  How many internal disks?  Tried changing the
> number or order of external chassis?  

The weird thing is that it still gives the errors sometimes when there
are NO external boxes, and only one internal disk (tried two different
disks). Total cable length with the two 411s is about 8', and yes the
ordering of the 411s have been changed. I've tried passive and active
termination.

> > Anyone seen this before? I suspect the SS1+ motherboard is poorly,
> > maybe the SCSI chip output driver is dodgy?
> 
> While the SCSI on these machines isn't fast, I haven't had any problems with
> my SS2 or SS10 running with the SCSI bus saturated for fairly long ammounts
> of time, so I doubt it's the hardware.  I don't know much about SunOS
> 4.1.4...

I don't think it's an inherent problem with the SCSI, but a fault on
my SS1+ motherboard. Luckily I think I have a spare SS1+ motherboard
squirrelled away somewhere....