Bad hardware & kernel lockups

John Carter (john@dwaf-hri.pwv.gov.za)
Mon, 16 Nov 1998 07:20:26 +0000 (GMT)


OK, so I know I have bad hardware. They are an ancient creaky first
generation SCSI-1 EXABYTE tape look-a-like and an opto-magnetic disk
drive.

Their adherence to the SCSI standard was slightly suspect when they
first were tied to ye olde VAXEN and age has not been kind to them.

So I can't expect the authors of the SCSI tape / SCSI disk drivers to
really do anything about them. But I have a cosmic level question for
the list...

When this hardware screws up, the kernel (most versions I've tried but
currently I'm on 2.1.127) locks up hard.

Is this basically a side effect of the non-microkernel nature of linux
and would it go away if I used something like Hurd? Or would bad
hardware confuse any system (via the woodpecker syndrome) anyway?

Are there any parameters on linux scsi I can twiddle that would cause
more paranoid assumptions to be made about the sanity of the hardware?

John Carter EMail: ece@dwaf-hri.pwv.gov.za
Telephone : 27-12-808-0374x194 Fax:- 27-12-808-0338
<http://www.geocities.com/SoHo/Cafe/5947> or <http://iwqs.pwv.gov.za>

In a cluster of galaxies, one of many such clusters, there is a
galaxy. On the edge of this galaxy, is a star, one of trillions of such
stars. Orbiting this star, is tiny ball of iron. On this tiny ball is
a very thin scum of lighter elements.

Some of which have delusions of grandeur.

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