ISC disk driver bug?

[Karl Denninger]

In article <6404 at turnkey.gryphon.COM> jackv at turnkey.gryphon.COM writes:
>In article <258D393B.1670 at paris.ics.uci.edu> baxter at ics.uci.edu (Ira Baxter) writes:
> 
>[ ..... discussion of controller problem deleted....]
>
>>..... W1-1,2, handling "latched" mode (unfortunately, the
>>docs *don't* say what this does), and W1-5-6, which disables cache
>>control.  If the cure is disabling the cache, then the point of buying
>>the controller was wasted.  I'm waiting for WD to tell me what
>>"latched" mode does.
> 
>No need to wait for WD, latched mode doesn't do much of anything. It controls
>whether the drive select signal is "latched" or not. For instance, on a 1003 I
>think it is hardwired (not sure but any of them I've seen were set up that
>way). The visible evidence of this mode is that the drive select light on
>the drive last selected will stay on, whereas when its off and no drive is
>selected no drive light will be on.
>
>Exciting, right :-}?

I talked to one of the Interactive Guru's this AM.  He gave me a fix --
which WORKED.  Try this one on for size if you are having problems with 2
drives on a WD1006 series board (specific symptoms - random errors on BOTH
drives during the verify of the second disk):

	In /etc/conf/pack.d/dsk/space.c there is a line which reads:
	
	(CCAP_RETRY | CCAP_ERRCOR), /* capabilities */

Modify this to read:
	
	(CCAP_RETRY | CCAP_ERRCOR | CCAP_NOSEEK), /* capabilities */

Relink your kernel, and reboot.  Presto -- problem solved.

Thanks go to dougp at ico (Doug Pintar); he was the one that put me onto this.

If we can keep getting this kind of good, hard information from ISC we just 
might have to admit that we're impressed with the support.  They certainly
solved this problem for me.  :-)

--
Karl Denninger (karl at ddsw1.MCS.COM, <well-connected>!ddsw1!karl)
Public Access Data Line: [+1 708 566-8911], Voice: [+1 708 566-8910]
Macro Computer Solutions, Inc.		"Quality Solutions at a Fair Price"