What happened to ncr53c8xx module in 2.6? (troubles with sym53c8xx in its place)

What happened to ncr53c8xx module in 2.6? (troubles with sym53c8xx in its place)

[Konstantin Khomoutov]

I had have to upgrade from 2.4.30 to 2.6.15.4 and I've noticed that
there's no more ncr53c8xx kernel module (actually, the code seems to be
there but now it's just a part of 2 drivers for a couple of MCA-bus cards).

The problem is that I have some pretty old SCSI scanner (HP ScanJet 4p)
that was distributed with its own ISA SCSI card (NCR53c400 based, BTW,
but with that card and its driver I had no luck at all, while under
Win98 that card works OK).
Some time ago I've managed to put this scanner to work being attached to
one that same old PCI card based on Symbios Logic 53c810 rev1 chip.
The only driver that was able to control this card (with some parameters
tweakery, though) was ncr53c8xx.

As I can see, sym53c8xx had superseded ncr53c8xx in 2.6, right?
But sym53c8xx gives me this when I try to insert it while the attached
scanner is ON:

PCI: Found IRQ 9 for device 0000:02:09.0
sym0: <810> rev 0x1 at pci 0000:02:09.0 irq 9
sym0: No NVRAM, ID 7, Fast-10, SE, parity checking
CACHE TEST FAILED: timeout.
sym0: CACHE INCORRECTLY CONFIGURED.
sym0: giving up ...

The exactly same results I seen when I tried this driver under a 2.4
kernel.

I've googled that this dumb scanner doesn't report parity and that
disappoints the sym53c8xx driver, but I failed to find an appropriate
option to turn parity checking off. Furthermore, I've also googled some
info that sym53c8xx just doesn't support 53c810 chips at all.

I've also patched my kernel config to just compile ncr53c8xx as a
module, but with no luck (of course).

As you probably can see I'm unsure what to do next.
Can you please give me some advice on it (change to a different driver,
tweak ncr53c8xx somehow to make it a module, pass sym53c8xx some
parameters to make it work, whatewer...)?

Thanks in advance!

What happened to ncr53c8xx module in 2.6? (troubles with sym53c8xx in its place)

[Konstantin Khomoutov]

On Sun, Feb 26, 2006 at 08:04:11PM +0300, Konstantin Khomoutov wrote:

Sorry, I've forgot to append my system info:

Kernel: 2.6.15.4 (last stable).

SCSI config (enabled options):

CONFIG_BLK_DEV_IDESCSI=y
CONFIG_SCSI=y
CONFIG_SCSI_PROC_FS=y
CONFIG_SCSI_MULTI_LUN=y
CONFIG_SCSI_CONSTANTS=y
CONFIG_SCSI_LOGGING=y
CONFIG_SCSI_SPI_ATTRS=m
CONFIG_SCSI_SATA=y
CONFIG_SCSI_ATA_PIIX=y
CONFIG_SCSI_SATA_INTEL_COMBINED=y
CONFIG_SCSI_BUSLOGIC=y
CONFIG_SCSI_OMIT_FLASHPOINT=y
CONFIG_SCSI_SYM53C8XX_2=m
CONFIG_SCSI_SYM53C8XX_DMA_ADDRESSING_MODE=1
CONFIG_SCSI_SYM53C8XX_DEFAULT_TAGS=16
CONFIG_SCSI_SYM53C8XX_MAX_TAGS=64
CONFIG_SCSI_QLA2XXX=y

SCSI card (as reported by lspci -vvv):

0000:02:09.0 Non-VGA unclassified device: LSI Logic / Symbios Logic 53c810 (rev 01)
        Control: I/O+ Mem+ BusMaster- SpecCycle- MemWINV- VGASnoop- ParErr- Stepping- SERR- FastB2B-
        Status: Cap- 66MHz- UDF- FastB2B- ParErr- DEVSEL=medium >TAbort- <TAbort- <MAbort- >SERR- <PERR-
        Interrupt: pin A routed to IRQ 9
        Region 0: I/O ports at b800 [size=256]
        Region 1: Memory at e6800000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=256]


This card is plugged into MB with i845 chipset.

Re: What happened to ncr53c8xx module in 2.6? (troubles with sym53c8xx in its place)

[Matthew Wilcox]

On Sun, Feb 26, 2006 at 08:04:11PM +0300, Konstantin Khomoutov wrote:
> I had have to upgrade from 2.4.30 to 2.6.15.4 and I've noticed that
> there's no more ncr53c8xx kernel module (actually, the code seems to be
> there but now it's just a part of 2 drivers for a couple of MCA-bus cards).

One MCA card and one GSC card actually ;-)

> The problem is that I have some pretty old SCSI scanner (HP ScanJet 4p)
> that was distributed with its own ISA SCSI card (NCR53c400 based, BTW,
> but with that card and its driver I had no luck at all, while under
> Win98 that card works OK).

Somebody should probably investigate that, but I don't really want to
take on another scsi driver ...

> Some time ago I've managed to put this scanner to work being attached to
> one that same old PCI card based on Symbios Logic 53c810 rev1 chip.
> The only driver that was able to control this card (with some parameters
> tweakery, though) was ncr53c8xx.
> 
> As I can see, sym53c8xx had superseded ncr53c8xx in 2.6, right?

That's correct.  We removed support for the 8xx devices from ncr53c8xx
leaving it to drive the non-PCI 720 chip only.

> But sym53c8xx gives me this when I try to insert it while the attached
> scanner is ON:
> 
> PCI: Found IRQ 9 for device 0000:02:09.0
> sym0: <810> rev 0x1 at pci 0000:02:09.0 irq 9
> sym0: No NVRAM, ID 7, Fast-10, SE, parity checking
> CACHE TEST FAILED: timeout.
> sym0: CACHE INCORRECTLY CONFIGURED.
> sym0: giving up ...
> 
> The exactly same results I seen when I tried this driver under a 2.4
> kernel.

Are you saying that it works fine when the scanner isn't plugged in, or
is turned off?

> I've googled that this dumb scanner doesn't report parity and that
> disappoints the sym53c8xx driver, but I failed to find an appropriate
> option to turn parity checking off. Furthermore, I've also googled some
> info that sym53c8xx just doesn't support 53c810 chips at all.

I removed the option to disable parity checking.  Looks like I should
reinstate it.  I have an 810 card here that works fine, so that
information is out of date.

Re: What happened to ncr53c8xx module in 2.6? (troubles with sym53c8xx in its place)

[Konstantin Khomoutov]

On Sun, Feb 26, 2006 at 12:09:29PM -0700, Matthew Wilcox wrote:

[...]
>> The problem is that I have some pretty old SCSI scanner (HP ScanJet 4p)
>> that was distributed with its own ISA SCSI card (NCR53c400 based, BTW,
>> but with that card and its driver I had no luck at all, while under
>> Win98 that card works OK).
> Somebody should probably investigate that, but I don't really want to
> take on another scsi driver ...
Don't bother with it: to date I have no ISA-bus machines in stock so I
am even unable to test patches/send reports.

>> But sym53c8xx gives me this when I try to insert it while the attached
>> scanner is ON:
>> 
>> PCI: Found IRQ 9 for device 0000:02:09.0
>> sym0: <810> rev 0x1 at pci 0000:02:09.0 irq 9
>> sym0: No NVRAM, ID 7, Fast-10, SE, parity checking
>> CACHE TEST FAILED: timeout.
>> sym0: CACHE INCORRECTLY CONFIGURED.
>> sym0: giving up ...
>> 
>> The exactly same results I seen when I tried this driver under a 2.4
>> kernel.
> Are you saying that it works fine when the scanner isn't plugged in, or
> is turned off?
Here's what I get on "cold boot" (e.g. after that PC and the attached
scanner both stood turned off for more than 8 hours) when the scanner is
still being turned OFF:

PCI: Found IRQ 9 for device 0000:02:09.0
sym0: <810> rev 0x1 at pci 0000:02:09.0 irq 9
sym0: No NVRAM, ID 7, Fast-10, SE, parity checking
sym0: SCSI BUS has been reset.
scsi0 : sym-2.2.1

However, on "warm boot" (i.e. the scanner was turned on, I try to insert
the sym53c8xx module with no success, and then I turn off the scanner,
then reboot the PC) I get the *first* output pattern from the driver
most of the time.

Does it mean my SCSI card is going to die? Or the scanner? ;-)

Some more info: the scanner has two connectors: Centronics-50 and
Sub-D25 female, one auto-termination switch (set to ON since it's
the only device on wire), the SCSI card has micro D-60 connector.
The cable used is D-60<->Centronics-50 (since the original cable for
that scanner and its SCSI card was D25<->Centronics-50).

AFAIK, my SCSI card is SCSI-2 and my scanner is SCSI-1. I thought that
SCSI is "backwards compatible", may be I am wrong and they just cannot
coexist?

[...]
>> I've googled that this dumb scanner doesn't report parity and that
>> disappoints the sym53c8xx driver, but I failed to find an appropriate
>> option to turn parity checking off. Furthermore, I've also googled some
>> info that sym53c8xx just doesn't support 53c810 chips at all.
> I removed the option to disable parity checking.  Looks like I should
> reinstate it.  I have an 810 card here that works fine, so that
> information is out of date.
The SCSI card in subject was previously used to run a bunch of SCSI
disks out there, successfully, under Linux 2.4.x.

P.S.
May be there's some way to programmatically "spy" somehow on SCSI bus
for me to take some kind of dump?

Anyway, thanks for you help!