patch-2.4.7 linux/drivers/scsi/README.aic7xxx
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- Lines: 478
- Date:
Thu Jul 5 11:28:17 2001
- Orig file:
v2.4.6/linux/drivers/scsi/README.aic7xxx
- Orig date:
Wed Dec 31 16:00:00 1969
diff -u --recursive --new-file v2.4.6/linux/drivers/scsi/README.aic7xxx linux/drivers/scsi/README.aic7xxx
@@ -0,0 +1,477 @@
+ AIC7xxx Driver for Linux
+
+Introduction
+----------------------------
+The AIC7xxx SCSI driver adds support for Adaptec (http://www.adaptec.com)
+SCSI controllers and chipsets. Major portions of the driver and driver
+development are shared between both Linux and FreeBSD. Support for the
+AIC-7xxx chipsets have been in the default Linux kernel since approximately
+linux-1.1.x and fairly stable since linux-1.2.x, and are also in FreeBSD
+2.1.0 or later.
+
+ Supported cards/chipsets
+ ----------------------------
+ Adaptec Cards
+ ----------------------------
+ AHA-274x
+ AHA-274xT
+ AHA-274xW
+ AHA-284x
+ AHA-284xW
+ All PCI based cards using any of the chipsets listed under motherboard
+ chipsets. In general, this means *all* of the Adaptec SCSI controllers
+ except the ones specifically excluded later on in this document.
+
+ Motherboard Chipsets
+ ----------------------------
+ AIC-777x
+ AIC-785x
+ AIC-786x
+ AIC-787x
+ AIC-788x
+ AIC-789x
+ AIC-3860
+
+ Bus Types
+ ----------------------------
+ W - Wide SCSI, SCSI-3, 16bit bus, 68pin connector, will also support
+ SCSI-1/SCSI-2 50pin devices, transfer rates up to 20MB/s.
+ U - Ultra SCSI, transfer rates up to 40MB/s.
+ U2- Ultra 2 SCSI, transfer rates up to 80MB/s.
+ U3- Ultra 3 SCSI, transfer rates up to 160MB/s.
+ D - Differential SCSI.
+ T - Twin Channel SCSI. Up to 14 SCSI devices.
+
+ AHA-274x - EISA SCSI controller
+ AHA-284x - VLB SCSI controller
+ AHA-29xx - PCI SCSI controller
+ AHA-39xx - PCI controllers with multiple separate SCSI channels on-board.
+
+ Not Supported Devices
+ ------------------------------
+ Adaptec Cards
+ ----------------------------
+ AHA-2920 (Only the cards that use the Future Domain chipset are not
+ supported, any 2920 cards based on Adaptec AIC chipsets,
+ such as the 2920C, are supported)
+ AAA-13x Raid Adapters
+ AAA-113x Raid Port Card
+
+ Motherboard Chipsets
+ ----------------------------
+ AIC-781x
+
+ Bus Types
+ ----------------------------
+ R - Raid Port busses are not supported.
+
+ The hardware RAID devices sold by Adaptec are *NOT* supported by this
+ driver (and will people please stop emailing me about them, they are
+ a totally separate beast from the bare SCSI controllers and this driver
+ can not be retrofitted in any sane manner to support the hardware RAID
+ features on those cards - Doug Ledford).
+
+
+ People
+ ------------------------------
+ Justin T Gibbs gibbs@plutotech.com
+ (BSD Driver Author)
+ Dan Eischen deischen@iworks.InterWorks.org
+ (Original Linux Driver Co-maintainer)
+ Dean Gehnert deang@teleport.com
+ (Original Linux FTP/patch maintainer)
+ Jess Johnson jester@frenzy.com
+ (AIC7xxx FAQ author)
+ Doug Ledford dledford@redhat.com
+ (Current Linux aic7xxx-5.x.x Driver/Patch/FTP maintainer)
+
+ Special thanks go to John Aycock (aycock@cpsc.ucalgary.ca), the original
+ author of the driver. John has since retired from the project. Thanks
+ again for all his work!
+
+ Mailing list
+ ------------------------------
+ There is a mailing list available for users who want to track development
+ and converse with other users and developers. This list is for both
+ FreeBSD and Linux support of the AIC7xxx chipsets.
+
+ To subscribe to the AIC7xxx mailing list send mail to the list server,
+ with "subscribe AIC7xxx" in the body (no Subject: required):
+ To: majordomo@FreeBSD.ORG
+ ---
+ subscribe AIC7xxx
+
+ To unsubscribe from the list, send mail to the list server with:
+ To: majordomo@FreeBSD.ORG
+ ---
+ unsubscribe AIC7xxx
+
+ Send regular messages and replies to: AIC7xxx@FreeBSD.ORG
+
+ Boot Command line options
+ ------------------------------
+ "aic7xxx=no_reset" - Eliminate the SCSI bus reset during startup.
+ Some SCSI devices need the initial reset that this option disables
+ in order to work. If you have problems at bootup, please make sure
+ you aren't using this option.
+
+ "aic7xxx=reverse_scan" - Certain PCI motherboards scan for devices at
+ bootup by scanning from the highest numbered PCI device to the
+ lowest numbered PCI device, others do just the opposite and scan
+ from lowest to highest numbered PCI device. There is no reliable
+ way to autodetect this ordering. So, we default to the most common
+ order, which is lowest to highest. Then, in case your motherboard
+ scans from highest to lowest, we have this option. If your BIOS
+ finds the drives on controller A before controller B but the linux
+ kernel finds your drives on controller B before A, then you should
+ use this option.
+
+ "aic7xxx=extended" - Force the driver to detect extended drive translation
+ on your controller. This helps those people who have cards without
+ a SEEPROM make sure that linux and all other operating systems think
+ the same way about your hard drives.
+
+ "aic7xxx=scbram" - Some cards have external SCB RAM that can be used to
+ give the card more hardware SCB slots. This allows the driver to use
+ that SCB RAM. Without this option, the driver won't touch the SCB
+ RAM because it is known to cause problems on a few cards out there
+ (such as 3985 class cards).
+
+ "aic7xxx=irq_trigger:x" - Replace x with either 0 or 1 to force the kernel
+ to use the correct IRQ type for your card. This only applies to EISA
+ based controllers. On these controllers, 0 is for Edge triggered
+ interrupts, and 1 is for Level triggered interrupts. If you aren't
+ sure or don't know which IRQ trigger type your EISA card uses, then
+ let the kernel autodetect the trigger type.
+
+ "aic7xxx=verbose" - This option can be used in one of two ways. If you
+ simply specify aic7xxx=verbose, then the kernel will automatically
+ pick the default set of verbose messages for you to see.
+ Alternatively, you can specify the command as
+ "aic7xxx=verbose:0xXXXX" where the X entries are replaced with
+ hexadecimal digits. This option is a bit field type option. For
+ a full listing of the available options, search for the
+ #define VERBOSE_xxxxxx lines in the aic7xxx.c file. If you want
+ verbose messages, then it is recommended that you simply use the
+ aic7xxx=verbose variant of this command.
+
+ "aic7xxx=pci_parity:x" - This option controls whether or not the driver
+ enables PCI parity error checking on the PCI bus. By default, this
+ checking is disabled. To enable the checks, simply specify pci_parity
+ with no value afterwords. To reverse the parity from even to odd,
+ supply any number other than 0 or 255. In short:
+ pci_parity - Even parity checking (even is the normal PCI parity)
+ pci_parity:x - Where x > 0, Odd parity checking
+ pci_parity:0 - No check (default)
+ NOTE: In order to get Even PCI parity checking, you must use the
+ version of the option that does not include the : and a number at
+ the end (unless you want to enter exactly 2^32 - 1 as the number).
+
+ "aic7xxx=no_probe" - This option will disable the probing for any VLB
+ based 2842 controllers and any EISA based controllers. This is
+ needed on certain newer motherboards where the normal EISA I/O ranges
+ have been claimed by other PCI devices. Probing on those machines
+ will often result in the machine crashing or spontaneously rebooting
+ during startup. Examples of machines that need this are the
+ Dell PowerEdge 6300 machines.
+
+ "aic7xxx=seltime:2" - This option controls how long the card waits
+ during a device selection sequence for the device to respond.
+ The original SCSI spec says that this "should be" 256ms. This
+ is generally not required with modern devices. However, some
+ very old SCSI I devices need the full 256ms. Most modern devices
+ can run fine with only 64ms. The default for this option is
+ 64ms. If you need to change this option, then use the following
+ table to set the proper value in the example above:
+ 0 - 256ms
+ 1 - 128ms
+ 2 - 64ms
+ 3 - 32ms
+
+ "aic7xxx=panic_on_abort" - This option is for debugging and will cause
+ the driver to panic the linux kernel and freeze the system the first
+ time the drivers abort or reset routines are called. This is most
+ helpful when some problem causes infinite reset loops that scroll too
+ fast to see. By using this option, you can write down what the errors
+ actually are and send that information to me so it can be fixed.
+
+ "aic7xxx=dump_card" - This option will print out the *entire* set of
+ configuration registers on the card during the init sequence. This
+ is a debugging aid used to see exactly what state the card is in
+ when we finally finish our initialization routines. If you don't
+ have documentation on the chipsets, this will do you absolutely
+ no good unless you are simply trying to write all the information
+ down in order to send it to me.
+
+ "aic7xxx=dump_sequencer" - This is the same as the above options except
+ that instead of dumping the register contents on the card, this
+ option dumps the contents of the sequencer program RAM. This gives
+ the ability to verify that the instructions downloaded to the
+ card's sequencer are indeed what they are suppossed to be. Again,
+ unless you have documentation to tell you how to interpret these
+ numbers, then it is totally useless.
+
+ "aic7xxx=override_term:0xffffffff" - This option is used to force the
+ termination on your SCSI controllers to a particular setting. This
+ is a bit mask variable that applies for up to 8 aic7xxx SCSI channels.
+ Each channel gets 4 bits, divided as follows:
+ bit 3 2 1 0
+ | | | Enable/Disable Single Ended Low Byte Termination
+ | | En/Disable Single Ended High Byte Termination
+ | En/Disable Low Byte LVD Termination
+ En/Disable High Byte LVD Termination
+
+ The upper 2 bits that deal with LVD termination only apply to Ultra2
+ controllers. Futhermore, due to the current Ultra2 controller
+ designs, these bits are tied together such that setting either bit
+ enables both low and high byte LVD termination. It is not possible
+ to only set high or low byte LVD termination in this manner. This is
+ an artifact of the BIOS definition on Ultra2 controllers. For other
+ controllers, the only important bits are the two lowest bits. Setting
+ the higher bits on non-Ultra2 controllers has no effect. A few
+ examples of how to use this option:
+
+ Enable low and high byte termination on a non-ultra2 controller that
+ is the first aic7xxx controller (the correct bits are 0011),
+ aic7xxx=override_term:0x3
+
+ Enable all termination on the third aic7xxx controller, high byte
+ termination on the second aic7xxx controller, and low and high byte
+ SE termination on the first aic7xxx controller
+ (bits are 1111 0010 0011),
+ aic7xxx=override_term:0xf23
+
+ No attempt has been made to make this option non-cryptic. It really
+ shouldn't be used except in dire circumstances, and if that happens,
+ I'm probably going to be telling you what to set this to anyway :)
+
+ "aic7xxx=stpwlev:0xffffffff" - This option is used to control the STPWLEV
+ bit in the DEVCONFIG PCI register. Currently, this is one of the
+ very few registers that we have absolutely *no* way of detecting
+ what the variable should be. It depends entirely on how the chipset
+ and external terminators were coupled by the card/motherboard maker.
+ Further, a chip reset (at power up) always sets this bit to 0. If
+ there is no BIOS to run on the chipset/card (such as with a 2910C
+ or a motherboard controller with the BIOS totally disabled) then
+ the variable may not get set properly. Of course, if the proper
+ setting was 0, then that's what it would be after the reset, but if
+ the proper setting is actually 1.....you get the picture. Now, since
+ we can't detect this at all, I've added this option to force the
+ setting. If you have a BIOS on your controller then you should never
+ need to use this option. However, if you are having lots of SCSI
+ reset problems and can't seem to get them knocked out, this may help.
+
+ Here's a test to know for certain if you need this option. Make
+ a boot floppy that you can use to boot your computer up and that
+ will detect the aic7xxx controller. Next, power down your computer.
+ While it's down, unplug all SCSI cables from your Adaptec SCSI
+ controller. Boot the system back up to the Adaptec EZ-SCSI BIOS
+ and then make sure that termination is enabled on your adapter (if
+ you have an Adaptec BIOS of course). Next, boot up the floppy you
+ made and wait for it to detect the aic7xxx controller. If the kernel
+ finds the controller fine, says scsi : x hosts and then tries to
+ detect your devices like normal, up to the point where it fails to
+ mount your root file system and panics, then you're fine. If, on
+ the other hand, the system goes into an infinite reset loop, then
+ you need to use this option and/or the previous option to force the
+ proper termination settings on your controller. If this happens,
+ then you next need to figure out what your settings should be.
+
+ To find the correct settings, power your machine back down, connect
+ back up the SCSI cables, and boot back into your machine like normal.
+ However, boot with the aic7xxx=verbose:0x39 option. Record the
+ initial DEVCONFIG values for each of your aic7xxx controllers as
+ they are listed, and also record what the machine is detecting as
+ the proper termination on your controllers. NOTE: the order in
+ which the initial DEVCONFIG values are printed out is not gauranteed
+ to be the same order as the SCSI controllers are registered. The
+ above option and this option both work on the order of the SCSI
+ controllers as they are registered, so make sure you match the right
+ DEVCONFIG values with the right controllers if you have more than
+ one aic7xxx controller.
+
+ Once you have the detected termination settings and the initial
+ DEVCONFIG values for each controller, then figure out what the
+ termination on each of the controllers *should* be. Hopefully, that
+ part is correct, but it could possibly be wrong if there is
+ bogus cable detection logic on your controller or something similar.
+ If all the controllers have the correct termination settings, then
+ don't set the aic7xxx=override_term variable at all, leave it alone.
+ Next, on any controllers that go into an infinite reset loop when
+ you unplug all the SCSI cables, get the starting DEVCONFIG value.
+ If the initial DEVCONFIG value is divisible by 2, then the correct
+ setting for that controller is 0. If it's an odd number, then
+ the correct setting for that controller is 1. For any other
+ controllers that didn't have an infinite reset problem, then reverse
+ the above options. If DEVCONFIG was even, then the correct setting
+ is 1, if not then the correct setting is 0.
+
+ Now that you know what the correct setting was for each controller,
+ we need to encode that into the aic7xxx=stpwlev:0x... variable.
+ This variable is a bit field encoded variable. Bit 0 is for the first
+ aic7xxx controller, bit 1 for the next, etc. Put all these bits
+ together and you get a number. For example, if the third aic7xxx
+ needed a 1, but the second and first both needed a 0, then the bits
+ would be 100 in binary. This then translates to 0x04. You would
+ therefore set aic7xxx=stpwlev:0x04. This is fairly standard binary
+ to hexadecimal conversions here. If you aren't up to speed on the
+ binary->hex conversion then send an email to the aic7xxx mailing
+ list and someone can help you out.
+
+ "aic7xxx=tag_info:{{8,8..},{8,8..},..}" - This option is used to disable
+ or enable Tagged Command Queueing (TCQ) on specific devices. As of
+ driver version 5.1.11, TCQ is now either on or off by default
+ according to the setting you choose during the make config process.
+ In order to en/disable TCQ for certian devices at boot time, a user
+ may use this boot param. The driver will then parse this message out
+ and en/disable the specific device entries that are present based upon
+ the value given. The param line is parsed in the following manner:
+
+ { - first instance indicates the start of this parameter values
+ second instance is the start of entries for a particular
+ device entry
+ } - end the entries for a particular host adapter, or end the entire
+ set of parameter entries
+ , - move to next entry. Inside of a set of device entries, this
+ moves us to the next device on the list. Outside of device
+ entries, this moves us to the next host adapter
+ . - Same effect as , but is safe to use with insmod.
+ x - the number to enter into the array at this position.
+ 0 = Enable tagged queueing on this device and use the default
+ queue depth
+ 1-254 = Enable tagged queueing on this device and use this
+ number as the queue depth
+ 255 = Disable tagged queueing on this device.
+ Note: anything above 32 for an actual queue depth is wasteful
+ and not recommended.
+
+ A few examples of how this can be used:
+
+ tag_info:{{8,12,,0,,255,4}}
+ This line will only effect the first aic7xxx card registered. It
+ will set scsi id 0 to a queue depth of 8, id 1 to 12, leave id 2
+ at the default, set id 3 to tagged queueing enabled and use the
+ default queue depth, id 4 default, id 5 disabled, and id 6 to 4.
+ Any not specified entries stay at the default value, repeated
+ commas with no value specified will simply increment to the next id
+ without changing anything for the missing values.
+
+ tag_info:{,,,{,,,255}}
+ First, second, and third adapters at default values. Fourth
+ adapter, id 3 is disabled. Notice that leading commas simply
+ increment what the first number effects, and there are no need
+ for trailing commas. When you close out an adapter, or the
+ entire entry, anything not explicitly set stays at the default
+ value.
+
+ A final note on this option. The scanner I used for this isn't
+ perfect or highly robust. If you mess the line up, the worst that
+ should happen is that the line will get ignored. If you don't
+ close out the entire entry with the final bracket, then any other
+ aic7xxx options after this will get ignored. So, in general, be
+ sure of what you are entering, and after you have it right, just
+ add it to the lilo.conf file so there won't be any mistakes. As
+ a means of checking this parser, the entire tag_info array for
+ each card is now printed out in the /proc/scsi/aic7xxx/x file. You
+ can use that to verify that your options were parsed correctly.
+
+ Boot command line options may be combined to form the proper set of options
+ a user might need. For example, the following is valid:
+
+ aic7xxx=verbose,extended,irq_trigger:1
+
+ The only requirement is that individual options be separated by a comma or
+ a period on the command line.
+
+ Module Loading command options
+ ------------------------------
+ When loading the aic7xxx driver as a module, the exact same options are
+ available to the user. However, the syntax to specify the options changes
+ slightly. For insmod, you need to wrap the aic7xxx= argument in quotes
+ and replace all ',' with '.'. So, for example, a valid insmod line
+ would be:
+
+ insmod aic7xxx aic7xxx='verbose.irq_trigger:1.extended'
+
+ This line should result in the *exact* same behaviour as if you typed
+ it in at the lilo prompt and the driver was compiled into the kernel
+ instead of being a module. The reason for the single quote is so that
+ the shell won't try to interpret anything in the line, such as {.
+ Insmod assumes any options starting with a letter instead of a number
+ is a character string (which is what we want) and by switching all of
+ the commas to periods, insmod won't interpret this as more than one
+ string and write junk into our binary image. I consider it a bug in
+ the insmod program that even if you wrap your string in quotes (quotes
+ that pass the shell mind you and that insmod sees) it still treates
+ a comma inside of those quotes as starting a new variable, resulting
+ in memory scribbles if you don't switch the commas to periods.
+
+
+ Kernel Compile options
+ ------------------------------
+ The various kernel compile time options for this driver are now fairly
+ well documented in the file Documentation/Configure.help. In order to
+ see this documentation, you need to use one of the advanced configuration
+ programs (menuconfig and xconfig). If you are using the "make menuconfig"
+ method of configuring your kernel, then you would simply highlight the
+ option in question and hit the ? key. If you are using the "make xconfig"
+ method of configuring your kernel, then simply click on the help button
+ next to the option you have questions about. The help information from
+ the Configure.help file will then get automatically displayed.
+
+ /proc support
+ ------------------------------
+ The /proc support for the AIC7xxx can be found in the /proc/scsi/aic7xxx/
+ directory. That directory contains a file for each SCSI controller in
+ the system. Each file presents the current configuration and transfer
+ statistics (enabled with #define in aic7xxx.c) for each controller.
+
+ Thanks to Michael Neuffer for his upper-level SCSI help, and
+ Matthew Jacob for statistics support.
+
+ Debugging the driver
+ ------------------------------
+ Should you have problems with this driver, and would like some help in
+ getting them solved, there are a couple debugging items built into
+ the driver to facilitate getting the needed information from the system.
+ In general, I need a complete description of the problem, with as many
+ logs as possible concerning what happens. To help with this, there is
+ a command option aic7xxx=panic_on_abort. This option, when set, forces
+ the driver to panic the kernel on the first SCSI abort issued by the
+ mid level SCSI code. If your system is going to reset loops and you
+ can't read the screen, then this is what you need. Not only will it
+ stop the system, but it also prints out a large amount of state
+ information in the process. Second, if you specify the option
+ "aic7xxx=verbose:0x1ffff", the system will print out *SOOOO* much
+ information as it runs that you won't be able to see anything.
+ However, this can actually be very useful if your machine simply
+ locks up when trying to boot, since it will pin-point what was last
+ happening (in regards to the aic7xxx driver) immediately prior to
+ the lockup. This is really only useful if your machine simply can
+ not boot up successfully. If you can get your machine to run, then
+ this will produce far too much information.
+
+ FTP sites
+ ------------------------------
+ ftp://ftp.redhat.com/pub/aic/
+ - Out of date. I used to keep stuff here, but too many people
+ complained about having a hard time getting into Red Hat's ftp
+ server. So use the web site below instead.
+ ftp://ftp.pcnet.com/users/eischen/Linux/
+ - Dan Eischen's driver distribution area
+ ftp://ekf2.vsb.cz/pub/linux/kernel/aic7xxx/ftp.teleport.com/
+ - European Linux mirror of Teleport site
+
+ Web sites
+ ------------------------------
+ http://people.redhat.com/dledford/
+ - My web site, also the primary aic7xxx site with several related
+ pages.
+
+Dean W. Gehnert
+deang@teleport.com
+
+$Revision: 3.0 $
+
+Modified by Doug Ledford 1998-2000
+
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