Re: [REPORT] Adaptec and SMP problems on 2.0.35

Doug Ledford (dledford@dialnet.net)
Thu, 20 Aug 1998 02:27:32 -0500


Dancer wrote:
> We have had similar, with a dual PPRO system. We turned off SMP, which
> did not noticeably help. We achieved stability only when we disabled the
> second CPU in the BIOS.

This is flaky hardware at best. Try looking for a BIOS upgrade for your
motherboard. Also, remove the Adaptec controller if it's not a motherboard
controller, put it in a different PCI slot, and tell the BIOS to reset the
PCI configuration data, that might help.

> We've got a 7800UW and a 2940UW, two 3com ethercards, and one EEPro100.
>
> I found it curious that even the UP kernel (2.0.32) was not stable until
> the second CPU was disabled. Physical design flaw? BIOS problem? Don't
> know. I don't have the luxury of extracting a machine from production,
> or getting one solely for testing. Contractual junk.
>
> Any inspirations would be appreciated. We could really do with the
> second CPU, and the two CPUs+Adaptec seems to be a big lose, regardless
> of whether we're SMP or UP.

Have you only tried 2.0.32? The 4.1.0 driver was in 2.0.32, the 4.1.1
driver was in 2.0.33 and greatly improved reliability. The 5.0.14 driver
was then in 2.0.34, 5.0.19 is in 2.0.35, and 5.0.20 was sent to Alan for
2.0.36. If any of these different versions make a difference, or if they
all fail, this would be helpful information.

-- 

Doug Ledford <dledford@dialnet.net> Opinions expressed are my own, but they should be everybody's.

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