some UltraPenguin experience

some UltraPenguin experience

[Ward Deng]

HI, folks,

First I'd like to thank JJ and davem along with others for their
excellent job on UltraLinux. Here I have something to share with you.

We installed several systems during last week or so. Something we
discovered could be useful for our UltraLinux team and all users:

1. We have a Symbios 22801 dual-channel SCSI controller, we tested
   it on an UltraAX. It worked fine under Solaris 2.6 but had some
   problems with UltraLinux. Kernel 2.1.99 simple hangs there during
   the installation after detecting it as two 53c875 based SCSI
   instead of one while under kernel 2.1.125, it emited the following
   error message:

   SCSI host 1 abort (pid23) timed out - resetting
   SCSI bus is being reset for host 1 channel 0
   ncr53c8xx_reset: pid# reset_flags=2 serial_number=xx \
                                      serial_number_at_timeout=xx

   Note: here xx starts from 38 and the message repeats forever.
   We do not know if it is a hardware problem.

2. When I compiled the kernel, vmlinux was created without any problem
   but when I "make modules," it died somewhere with the following
   message (only a part):

   vfc_dev.c: In function `vfc_set_control_ioctl':
   vfc_dev.c:317: `MEMPRST' undeclared (first use this function)
   vfc_dev.c:323: `CAPTRCMD' undeclared (first use this function)
   vfc_dev.c:327: `DIAGMODE' undeclared (first use this function)
   vfc_dev.c:336: `NORMMODE' undeclared (first use this function)
   vfc_dev.c:343: `CAPTRSTR' undeclared (first use this function)
   vfc_dev.c:347: `CAPTRWAIT' undeclared (first use this function)

   Many modules were not compiled. Did I make any mistake during the
   configuration?

3. We have an Ultra30 with OpenBoot 3.11.2. However, it says
   "strange OpenBoot version" when I tried to boot from a tftpboot
   boot image. I have the file but I just do not remember where I
   ftp'ed from - it is slightly bigger (2612152 bytes) than 2.1.99
   based version (2582793 bytes) so I guess it is newer. More
   interestingly, all ATI PCI cards which work perfectly on AX/AXi
   are not recognized by this OpenBoot. Obviously there is no support
   there. I know this is not an UltraLinux problem but I am curious to
   know if there is OpenBoot update. Do we have to say these ATI cards
   only work on AX/AXi but not other Sun Ultra workstations?

--ward

Ward Deng, Ph.D                   |  Kachina Technologies, Inc.
Vice President and COO            |  4708 Douglas MacArthur Road NE,
Tel: 505-888-5934                 |  Albuquerque NM 87110
Fax: 505-888-5902                 |  info@KachinaTech.COM
Email: Ward.Deng@KachinaTech.COM  |  URL: http://www.KachinaTech.COM

Re: some UltraPenguin experience

[Ward Deng]

> > We installed several systems during last week or so. Something we
> > discovered could be useful for our UltraLinux team and all users:
> > 
> > 1. We have a Symbios 22801 dual-channel SCSI controller, we tested
> >    it on an UltraAX. It worked fine under Solaris 2.6 but had some
> >    problems with UltraLinux. Kernel 2.1.99 simple hangs there during
> >    the installation after detecting it as two 53c875 based SCSI
> >    instead of one while under kernel 2.1.125, it emited the following
> >    error message:
> 
> If this is a dual channel controller it should be detected as two
> controllers. Is the 22801 53c875 compatible? Need more knowledge about
> this first to separate out eventual hardware problems.

It is 53c876 and _is_ 53c875 compatible. Since AXi uses 53c876 too and it 
ultrapenguin supports it.

> 
> > 2. When I compiled the kernel, vmlinux was created without any problem
> >    but when I "make modules," it died somewhere with the following
> >    message (only a part):
> 
> What kernel did you try to compile? - Jakub has you updated ultrapenguin
> to contain 2.1.125 kernels, please use these. Same goes for question
> below, please get net tftpboot image from ultra.linux.cz, this should
> work properly on the Ultra30. The boot image is found under sparc/images.

2.1.125 from vger CVS.  sparc/image/tftpboot.img contains 2.1.99 while
official ultra.linux.cz contains 2.1.106.

> 
> > 3. We have an Ultra30 with OpenBoot 3.11.2. However, it says
> >    "strange OpenBoot version" when I tried to boot from a tftpboot
> >    boot image. I have the file but I just do not remember where I
> >    ftp'ed from - it is slightly bigger (2612152 bytes) than 2.1.99
> >    based version (2582793 bytes) so I guess it is newer. More
> >    interestingly, all ATI PCI cards which work perfectly on AX/AXi
> >    are not recognized by this OpenBoot. Obviously there is no support
> >    there. I know this is not an UltraLinux problem but I am curious to
> >    know if there is OpenBoot update. Do we have to say these ATI cards
> >    only work on AX/AXi but not other Sun Ultra workstations?
> 
> Once you have the new image booting the thing, please see if the kernel
> detects the card (even though OBP hasn't). For an OBP update, please
> look at Sun's web page, I know they have updates for AX / AXi on there,
> but I don't know if there are any for the 30/60.

I guess graphics drivers work differently from others. I did not see any
information from "dmsg" but "scanpci" does show ATI Mach64 VT. I think it
does not matter. AX/AXi are SME products while 30/60 are SMCC products. 

--ward
> 
> 
> Eddie.
> ecd@skynet.be
>