[SunHELP] SSA and fiber card being a royal PITA

[Brian Hechinger]

i finally got a fiber card that i bought on eBay.  i really want to make sure
it works before i leave feedback since this was a rather amount of cash i put
out for this thing.  but i means i'll finally be able to use my SSA, so it is
well worth it.  but it doesn't seem to work so well.  and i'm wondering if it
is the card or the SSA (which UPS dropped during shipping and suffered damage
to the plastic panels that go on the outside, but didn't seem to do any thing
to the insides. it boots fine and passes its POST) and i'm not sure how to go
about checking it. well, let me describe what is happening first, since i can
not even get the machine to boot with the fiber attached.

Rebooting with command: -r                                            
Boot device: /iommu/sbus/espdma at f,400000/esp at f,800000/sd at 3,0  File and args: -r
SunOS Release 5.8 Version Generic_108528-08 32-bit
Copyright 1983-2001 Sun Microsystems, Inc.  All rights reserved.
configuring IPv4 interfaces: nf0.
Hostname: zaphod
Configuring /dev and /devices
soc0: port 1: Fibre Channel is ONLINE
NOTICE: pln0: Old SSA firmware has been detected (Ver:1.3) : Expected (Ver:3.12) - Please upgrade

NOTICE: pln0: Old SSA firmware has been detected (Ver:1.3) : Expected (Ver:3.12) - Please upgrade

WARNING: /iommu at f,e0000000/sbus at f,e0001000/SUNW,soc at 3,0/SUNW,pln at b0000800,2018386e (SUNW,pln0):
        Timeout recovery being invoked...

soc0: port 1 WWN 2018386e: Fibre Channel is OFFLINE
soc0: port 1 WWN 2018386e: Fibre Channel is ONLINE
WARNING: /iommu at f,e0000000/sbus at f,e0001000/SUNW,soc at 3,0/SUNW,pln at b0000800,2018386e (SUNW,pln0):
        Timeout recovery being invoked...

soc0: port 1 WWN 2018386e: Fibre Channel is OFFLINE
soc0: port 1 WWN 2018386e: Fibre Channel is ONLINE

it them proceeds to stick in this loop until i unplug the fiber and let it time
out for good.

from a quick glance, does anyone have any idea what this could be?  i'm going
to install VTS and give it a good runthough, but from the looks of it, it gets
connected to the SSA but then when it actually tries to access it, it gets all
stupid.

ok, just as a what the hell, i thought i'd plug it in now that it was all
running.  well, now it doesn't even want to see the fiber at all.  the ONLINE
message never comes up.  it did before the reboot.  i wonder what the hell
happened since then.  i am NOT having fun here.

-brian