I have an Adaptec 1542C controller with a 1.1 Gb disk and an Exabyte
tape plus two IDE disks.
With all kernel versions since 1.??, I have been able to make tar
backups of the IDE disks to the Exabyte tape without any problems but
after 1.2.13, no version of the SCSI code has been able to backup the
SCSI disk to the Exabyte.
Until 2.0.29, I got many error messages reporting SCSI resets and then
a hung system from which I could usually recover by powering down and
then restarting.
With 2.0.29, I get no error message at all; just a hung system and
damaged file systems.
The 2.0.29 system still has no problems backing up the IDE disks and I
have no problems with any other reading or writing to the SCSI disk -
and haven't had for several years - so I believe that there is nothing
wrong with my cabling or termination and that the problem must lie
with the SCSI driver.
This opinion is supported by the fact that, if I reboot with 1.2.13,
I can again backup the SCSI disk to the Exabyte: all that has changed
is the kernel SCSI code.
It has been suggested that newer kernels are faster and better and are,
therefore, more sensitive to cabling etc but I find this hard to accept.
If it is better, it should work; not fail.
I guess I can live with a 1.2.13 reboot every week but it doesn't
excite me too much.
Could somebody please find a solution.
Cheers and thanks,
Stephen.
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Stephen Davies Consulting P/L scldad@sdc.com.au
Adelaide, South Australia. Voice: 61-8-2728863
Computing & Network solutions. Fax : 61-8-2741015