Re: SPAM: [parisc-linux] Can't write to hard drives on a K200

Re: SPAM: [parisc-linux] Can't write to hard drives on a K200

[Michael S. Zick]

On Mon September 25 2006 18:28, Joe Emenaker wrote:
> I've booted a Gentoo install CD, which puts me in a root shell. The 
> first step, I guess, is to partition the drives... but the thing won't 
> let me.
> 
>  > When I try to write from "cfdisk /dev/sda", it gives me:
>  > Wrting partition table to disk...
>  > end_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 0
>  > Buffer I/O error on device sda, logical block 0
>  > lost page write due to I/O error on sda
>  > SCSI device sda: 8388314 512-byte hdwr sectors (4295 MB)
> 
> Just in case it was a glitch in cfdisk, I tried writing from fdisk, as well:
> 
>  > Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
>  > end_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 0
>  > Buffer I/O error on device sda, logical block 0
>  > lost page write due to I/O error on sda
>  > SCSI device sda: 8388314 512-byte hdwr sectors (4295 MB)
>  > sda: Write Protect is off
>  > SCSI device sda: drive cache: write through w/ FUA
>  > SCSI device sda: 8388314 512-byte hdwr sectors (4295 MB)
>  > sda: Write Protect is off
>  > SCSI device sda: drive cache: write through w/ FUA
> 
> Hrmmm.... so maybe the disks are read-only somehow, right? Well then how 
> come I can dd like so:
> 
>    dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=512 count=10
> 
> That works fine. So.... anybody have any idea what's going on?
> 

Other problems have been report on other models that also use the ncr53c720
driver -  most often filesystem corruption.

The problem has not yet been isolated - might be the driver code or the
hardware adapter code used with that scsi adapter.

In contrast, some pci add-in cards that use the driver are known to work(???).

Translation: Something is wrong, no one has yet offered a solution.

Mike
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Re: [parisc-linux] Can't write to hard drives on a K200

[Joel Soete]

Joe Emenaker wrote:
> I've booted a Gentoo install CD, which puts me in a root shell. The 
> first step, I guess, is to partition the drives... but the thing won't 
> let me.
> 
>  > When I try to write from "cfdisk /dev/sda", it gives me:
>  > Wrting partition table to disk...
>  > end_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 0
>  > Buffer I/O error on device sda, logical block 0
>  > lost page write due to I/O error on sda
>  > SCSI device sda: 8388314 512-byte hdwr sectors (4295 MB)
> 
> Just in case it was a glitch in cfdisk, I tried writing from fdisk, as 
> well:
> 
>  > Calling ioctl() to re-read partition table.
>  > end_request: I/O error, dev sda, sector 0
>  > Buffer I/O error on device sda, logical block 0
>  > lost page write due to I/O error on sda
>  > SCSI device sda: 8388314 512-byte hdwr sectors (4295 MB)
>  > sda: Write Protect is off
>  > SCSI device sda: drive cache: write through w/ FUA
>  > SCSI device sda: 8388314 512-byte hdwr sectors (4295 MB)
>  > sda: Write Protect is off
>  > SCSI device sda: drive cache: write through w/ FUA
> 
> Hrmmm.... so maybe the disks are read-only somehow, right? Well then how 
> come I can dd like so:
> 
>   dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=512 count=10
> 
> That works fine. So.... anybody have any idea what's going on?
> 
If that doesn't matter to completely erase your disk try the same cmdl without count param, i.e.
	dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=512

Or to be quicker:
	dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=512k (e.g.)

(I don't remember where [c ]fdisk write its "partition table" but) my hypothesis is that could be out of first 5k?

btw, iirc you have severall other disks on this system, didn't you have the opportunity to switch this disk with another one 
  or, if possible, choose another disk (sdb, sdc, sdd?) to install your distro?

Hth,
	Joel
> 
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> 
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Re: [parisc-linux] Can't write to hard drives on a K200

[Joe Emenaker]

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Joel Soete wrote:
>> Hrmmm.... so maybe the disks are read-only somehow, right? Well then 
>> how come I can dd like so:
>>
>>   dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=512 count=10
>>
>> That works fine. So.... anybody have any idea what's going on?
> If that doesn't matter to completely erase your disk try the same cmdl 
> without count param, i.e.
>     dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=512
Well, I did the entire drive with:
   dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=512 count=10 count=8388314
and that worked fine.

I also tried your
    dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=512k
and that worked too (8192 records in, 8192 records out).

So... dd works, (c)fdisk doesn't. I guess I could just get someone to 
partition a blank hd just the way I want and then send me their 
partition table (dd if=/dev/sdX bs=512 count=1 | gzip -9 | mail ....), 
then I could dd it on this end and I'd be all set, huh?

Well, there's another option. I could plug the drives into a SCSI card 
on a PC... but I've tried that, and I can't get that to work. If someone 
wants to help me with *that*, I'd appreciate that as well, since I 
clearly don't understand all of the intricacies of SCSI, because I 
couldn't get the PC to recognize the drive(s). I *think* it had to do 
with the drives being (apparently) "single-ended"... but I don't know.

- Joe

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Re: [parisc-linux] Can't write to hard drives on a K200

[Michael S. Zick]

On Tue September 26 2006 18:38, Joe Emenaker wrote:
> Joel Soete wrote:
> >> Hrmmm.... so maybe the disks are read-only somehow, right? Well then 
> >> how come I can dd like so:
> >>
> >>   dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=512 count=10
> >>
> >> That works fine. So.... anybody have any idea what's going on?
> > If that doesn't matter to completely erase your disk try the same cmdl 
> > without count param, i.e.
> >     dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=512
> Well, I did the entire drive with:
>    dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=512 count=10 count=8388314
> and that worked fine.
> 
> I also tried your
>     dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/sda bs=512k
> and that worked too (8192 records in, 8192 records out).
> 
> So... dd works, (c)fdisk doesn't. I guess I could just get someone to 
> partition a blank hd just the way I want and then send me their 
> partition table (dd if=/dev/sdX bs=512 count=1 | gzip -9 | mail ....), 
> then I could dd it on this end and I'd be all set, huh?
> 
> Well, there's another option. I could plug the drives into a SCSI card 
> on a PC... but I've tried that, and I can't get that to work. If someone 
> wants to help me with *that*, I'd appreciate that as well, since I 
> clearly don't understand all of the intricacies of SCSI, because I 
> couldn't get the PC to recognize the drive(s). I *think* it had to do 
> with the drives being (apparently) "single-ended"... but I don't know.
>

It is hard to say - 

The drive's firmware reported a model number that indicates SE - but
it also reported an HP revision number for the drive firmware.  Which,
as Dave pointed, means the model number reported may not be complete.

The driver reported that the drives where using differential - this
might stand a better chance of being correct.

The driver in pa-risc is a derivative of the {open,free,net}BSD
driver - it should negotiate with the attached drive(s) the proper
SCSI connection or tri-state the SCSI bus to prevent drive/adapter
damage.

Still with me?
differential comes in two flavors - High Voltage and Low Voltage
I am guessing from the chip's age that its version of differential is HVD.

If your pa-risc machine has connectors to external drives - they should
be labeled - now that label you can trust.

Another thing to consider - as I recall, the dmesg of your machine has 
reported two SCSI controllers - the one not using the ncr53c driver has
only the CD-ROM on it - you might consider adding a drive 
(of the proper type - check your dmesg) to the scsi chain with the 
CD-ROM on it.

Another thing that might be worth trying - DD your live-cd image onto
one of the hard drives - if there are no read/write problems with DD, 
it should work.

An cd-rom image on a hard drive?  Yes, that does work for me - I have
an iso image DD copied to a 100Mb removable (zip) SCSI-2 drive.  Linux
doesn't care about media type vs filesystem type.

Mike
 
> - Joe
> 
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Re: [parisc-linux] Can't write to hard drives on a K200

[Michael S. Zick]

On Fri September 29 2006 09:56, Matthew Wilcox wrote:
> On Fri, Sep 29, 2006 at 09:39:19AM -0500, Michael S. Zick wrote:
> > I can confirm that - having never worked for HP, all I can do is guess,
> > and I often guess wrong.
> 

Still reading, perhaps learning.  Now have a HP specific question...

> 
> We can call you unable to read.  Looking at
> http://hwdb.parisc-linux.org/view.php?type=machine&name=K200
> there is indeed
> KittyHawk GSY Core SCSI (Foreign I/O Module)  (NCR53c710 driver)
> but there is also
> KittyHawk GSY Core FW-SCSI (A DMA)  (Zalon driver)
> 
> The hard drives are HVD SCSI and are connected to the Core FW-SCSI
> (ncr720 chip).  The tape drive and CD-ROM drive are SE SCSI and are
> connected to the Core SCSI (ncr710 chip).
> 
> This is not an uncommon arrangement; it is also found in the
> B160L, C100, C110, C160, C160L, C180, C180XP, J200, J210, J210XC, J282,
> as well as all the other K-class machines.
> 
> Several B, C and J class machines use a PCI NCR 875 chip to provide HVD
> SCSI.  They also still use the 710 provided in Lasi for SE SCSI.
> 

I am still studying the documentation with an eye towards re-writing
the ncr-risc code as hp-specific...

I see from a note on the wiki that some machines with more than one
GSC (GSY?) bus run the buses at different speeds (32 Mhz and 40 Mhz).

Could you (or anyone on the list) eyeball the GSC scsi card(s) and
see if they have their own crystal(s)? 
Or are these controllers clocked by the GSC bus clock?

Expected would be a 40 or 80 Mhz crystal depending on the controller
if not clocked by the card's bus.

Mike
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Re: [parisc-linux] Can't write to hard drives on a K200

[Grant Grundler]

On Wed, Oct 11, 2006 at 11:14:13AM -0500, Michael S. Zick wrote:
> Could you (or anyone on the list) eyeball the GSC scsi card(s) and
> see if they have their own crystal(s)? 
> Or are these controllers clocked by the GSC bus clock?
> 
> Expected would be a 40 or 80 Mhz crystal depending on the controller
> if not clocked by the card's bus.

The GSC bus and the SCSI bus are in independent frequency domains.
All logic on the board will be divided between those two zones.
My guess is the SCSI chip is bridging the two but I don't know that
for sure.

My point is the presence of the crystal is just to drive the clocking
on the SCSI Bus and probably doesn't tell us much about
which frequency domain any particular part is unless you
put an oscilloscope on the board

grant
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