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Sym53c8xx module active in X5000 kernels?

Posted: Fri Jul 28, 2017 1:29 pm
by Roland
Is the Sym53c8xx module, which can be found in sys/modules of Ubuntu 16.04, 'active' in any of the recent kernels for X5000...? If not, would it be complicated to switch on? I happened to found a controller board with that circuit, and would like to test it.

Re: Sym53c8xx module active in X5000 kernels?

Posted: Fri Jul 28, 2017 1:55 pm
by Spectre660
@Roland

Support is built in with my recent kernels.No modules required.
Have not tested as I don't have a SCSI controller of this type.

CONFIG_SCSI_SYM53C8XX_2=y
CONFIG_SCSI_SYM53C8XX_DMA_ADDRESSING_MODE=1
CONFIG_SCSI_SYM53C8XX_DEFAULT_TAGS=16
CONFIG_SCSI_SYM53C8XX_MAX_TAGS=64
CONFIG_SCSI_SYM53C8XX_MMIO=y
Roland wrote:Is the Sym53c8xx module, which can be found in sys/modules of Ubuntu 16.04, 'active' in any of the recent kernels for X5000...? If not, would it be complicated to switch on? I happened to found a controller board with that circuit, and would like to test it.

Re: Sym53c8xx module active in X5000 kernels?

Posted: Fri Jul 28, 2017 9:29 pm
by Roland
Spectre660 wrote:Support is built in with my recent kernels.No modules required.
Have not tested as I don't have a SCSI controller of this type.

CONFIG_SCSI_SYM53C8XX_2=y
CONFIG_SCSI_SYM53C8XX_DMA_ADDRESSING_MODE=1
CONFIG_SCSI_SYM53C8XX_DEFAULT_TAGS=16
CONFIG_SCSI_SYM53C8XX_MAX_TAGS=64
CONFIG_SCSI_SYM53C8XX_MMIO=y
Tested with Kernel 4.10.4 - it works! Also with Xeno's 4.9.39. Thank you!-)

Re: Sym53c8xx module active in X5000 kernels?

Posted: Tue May 29, 2018 11:48 am
by Roland
As I told in previous message, I was initilally able to use a SCSI controller and a disk connected to it. Now when I tried that again, with the same controller and disk, I got several error messages (shown in the picture attached). Booting was slowed down to several minutes, as the last commands listed were repeted several times, before it gave up. The SCSI disk was not mounted, but a sdx definition (sda in this case) had been reserved to it (GParted did not see it, though). Also the controller itself was visible in hardware info.

I alredy tried different kernel lines and distros, but the problem was there in all cases. I also tested with two other disks units (the other one a CDROM drve) but no difference.

Now I am out of ideas... Could someone please interpret from that error listing what has gone wrong? Is there a hardware or a software problem...?

Re: Sym53c8xx module active in X5000 kernels?

Posted: Tue May 29, 2018 2:02 pm
by xeno74
With which kernels did you test? Have you tried it with the tested kernels 4.10.4 and 4.9.39 yet?

Re: Sym53c8xx module active in X5000 kernels?

Posted: Tue May 29, 2018 3:12 pm
by Roland
xeno74 wrote:With which kernels did you test? Have you tried it with the tested kernels 4.10.4 and 4.9.39 yet?
I do not have any more those two exact subversions, but I tested quite a many:
4.4.8
4.9.85
4.10.1/.17 (hard to believe only the .4 version would work)
4.12.8
4.13.1
4.14.40
4.15.14
4.16.9 (the error listing was from this; some older kernels were more 'verbous' but impossible to see as they scrolled so quickly)

Re: Sym53c8xx module active in X5000 kernels?

Posted: Tue May 29, 2018 5:02 pm
by xeno74
Roland,

Could you please test the kernel 4.9.39 again?

Thanks,
Christian

Re: Sym53c8xx module active in X5000 kernels?

Posted: Tue May 29, 2018 5:09 pm
by xeno74
Please add mem=3500M to the boot arguments and test the kernels again.

Thanks

Re: Sym53c8xx module active in X5000 kernels?

Posted: Tue May 29, 2018 7:43 pm
by Roland
xeno74 wrote:Please add mem=3500M to the boot arguments and test the kernels again.
MANY THANKS Christian - that did the trick!!!-) I should of course have remembered that I had used that parameter until I changed my ethernet card from RTL 8169 to RTL 8139 a couple of monts ago... I would really need some extra memory to my head ;-).

But this means that Dawicontrol DC SCSI boards are also in the "3500M Club", in addition of RTL 8169. Is there somewhere a X5000-Linux compatibility list where to add that kind of information?

Re: Sym53c8xx module active in X5000 kernels?

Posted: Tue May 29, 2018 7:52 pm
by Roland
Speaking of SCSI disks, is there for Linux a similar program/command like "scsiswitch" for AmigaOS? With it you can e.g. spin up and down a scsi disk. That is handy for disks which you use only occasionally, e.g. for backups or confidental data.