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I too have had MANY problems with the Adaptec (aic) controllers. I
too can agree with you that the problem generally lies with Adaptec.
I can get more information from the Pentagon then I can from them.
However, the problem with Adaptec is not unwillingness to give out
information, rather, I believe, that they themselves don't know what's going on.
They constantly change their hardware. I have gotten 3 different
A2940UW from them, and each one was a different hardware/firmware revision.
Now, putting that aside. I have also had MAJOR problems with the
Colorado T4000s. They have gone through 6 revisions in their
firmware. I had to go from 1.02 to 1.06 on my first drive. And when
I got a factory replacement it was only on 1.05, so I had to upgrade
to 1.06 manually. Each time, I had to throw out most of my Travan-4
tapes because they were so screwed up I couldn't get a read after the
first 2 GB. Or, about 1 hour into the tape.
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I'm currently running 2.0.26. And after my 3rd Controller and 2nd
Tape Unit I have had no problems with my system. However, I have
been on 2.05, 2.0.13, 2.0.15, and 2.0.22 versions each of which I had
problems. They problems almost always started after I shutdown the
machine after a long time in service. For example, everything worked
fine for 30 days. Then I rebooted the machine and all hell broke
loose. I then had to get a new kernel, controller or tape unit. I
currently have not had any problems after 43 consecutive days of
uptime. (But I am fearing the next week for I have to shut the
PC down to add a Zip Drive.)
I have heard many people advise that you should copy the aicx kernel
information from younger (2.0.13 or less) kernels. I'm not suprised
that this worked for some because, as I said before, Adaptec seems to
be constantly revising the hardware/firmware. So do this only with
caution.
Hope this helps, and I apologize for the length,
Joe Possert
joseph@voltec.com
Here's my system info:
Host: scsi0 Channel: 00 Id: 04 Lun: 00
Vendor: HP Model: T4000s Rev: 1.06
Type: Sequential-Access ANSI SCSI revision: 02 [
$ cat /proc/scsi/aic7xxx/0
Adaptec AIC7xxx driver version: 4.0/3.2/4.0
Compile Options:
AIC7XXX_RESET_DELAY : 15
AIC7XXX_TWIN_SUPPORT : Enabled
AIC7XXX_TAGGED_QUEUEING: Disabled
AIC7XXX_PAGE_ENABLE : Disabled
AIC7XXX_PROC_STATS : Disabled
Adapter Configuration:
SCSI Adapter: AHA-2940 Ultra
(AIC-788x chipset)
Host Bus: Wide
Base IO: 0xfc00
IRQ: 12
SCBs: Used 1, HW 16, Page 16
Interrupts: 5561789
Serial EEPROM: True
Extended Translation: Enabled
SCSI Bus Reset: Enabled
Ultra SCSI: Enabled
Target Disconnect: Enabled