SCSI Card/Tape Drive Problem

Optimistic · 03-13-2005, 01:37 AM

I recently bought a scsi card and a tape drive that I wanted to try out, but can't get them to work. When I try to boot it eventually just gives me:

scsi1: Someone reset channel A.
scsi1: Someone reset channel A.
scsi1: Someone reset channel A.
scsi1: Someone reset channel A.
...

It looks like it recognizes the card during the hardware detection, so I'm not sure what is going on. I can try to dig up more info, but any quick ideas?

Note: Got same error with both a 2.4 and a 2.6 kernel. Working on a Debian Sarge box. I tried posting this in the hardware forum, but weeks went on and I got no replies.

bobbens · 03-13-2005, 06:54 AM

Are you using it as "/" (root folder) or "/boot"?

Optimistic · 03-13-2005, 12:30 PM

I'm not sure what you mean. With the equipment plugged in the computer won't even boot up, it just get to a certain point and prints out the above message.

bobbens · 03-13-2005, 02:12 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Optimistic
I'm not sure what you mean. With the equipment plugged in the computer won't even boot up, it just get to a certain point and prints out the above message.

What i mean is that did you install debian on the scsi disk or did you install it on a ide hard drive and then install the scsi disk. From your remark i can guess that you installed it on the scsi disk. I guess you'll have to recompile your kernel (i had to on my scsi-disk using server). What i would do is use the knoppix boot cd to boot up your computer (if it does of course) and then use:

Code:

lsmod

to find out what scsi module you are using. Then i would chroot into debian. First mount up your hard drive as root. Once it's mounted at /mnt/<whatever> chroot into your hard drive with

Code:

chroot /mnt/<whatever> /bin/bash

. You should then download the newest kernel image from http://www.kernel.org . I'm using 2.6.10. Move this kernel into /usr/src and untar it with

Code:

tar -xvjf kernel-image-<whatever>.tar.bz2

. Then run

Code:

ln -s ./kernel-image-<whatever> ./linux
cd ./linux
make menuconfig

Now choose whatever is fit for your kernel. The important thing is to go to Device Drivers -> SCSI Device Support . There you must compile in SCSI device support and SCSI disk support. Then scroll down and go to SCSI low-level drivers and compile in the one you need and you saw from lsmod up at the top. Finish up and exit. When it asks you if you want to save your settings say yes. Now you must compile the kernel with

Code:

make-kpkg --initrd --append-to-version=<write something special here like the computer's name> kernel_image

Once done just "cd .." and

Code:

dpkg -i <kernel package name>.deb

Now eject the knoppix cd and reboot. You should be able to boot up now. BTW if you get some error messages installing the new kernel don't worry it's just that you built in the modules you need. With that you should get it working in no time. For help compiling the kernel check out this thread. Now just boot up with the new kernel. Good luck. I hope it works for you as it did for me.

Optimistic · 03-13-2005, 02:45 PM

Ok, now I understand. I have Debian installed on the hard drive and it runs just fine. The SCSI card and tape drive was just for backup purposes. But, when I plug in the card into an open PCI slot and drive into the card, my computer will not boot. Eventually the boot process will hang and print out the message from my first post. When I remove the card, my machine boots into Debian just fine.

I thought that SCSI support was already built into the 2.6 kernels? If this is not the case, will I have to compile my own kernel, or just use a Debian kernel image that has SCSI support?

Thanks for the help.

bobbens · 03-13-2005, 03:26 PM

Quote:

Originally posted by Optimistic
Ok, now I understand. I have Debian installed on the hard drive and it runs just fine. The SCSI card and tape drive was just for backup purposes. But, when I plug in the card into an open PCI slot and drive into the card, my computer will not boot. Eventually the boot process will hang and print out the message from my first post. When I remove the card, my machine boots into Debian just fine.

I thought that SCSI support was already built into the 2.6 kernels? If this is not the case, will I have to compile my own kernel, or just use a Debian kernel image that has SCSI support?

Thanks for the help.

Then i would guess you just have to load the proper module. I would boot up with knoppix and it'll almost surely auto-detect it. Then just run lsmod and see what module you need. Then you have to add this module to load at boot time. I'm pretty rusty on this so just do a www.google.com/linux search. Good luck.

Optimistic · 03-13-2005, 04:19 PM

Thanks for the tip. I'll give Knoppix a try and see what happens.

Optimistic · 03-14-2005, 01:01 AM

I tried Knoppix (3.7) and got nowhere. So, I installed kudzu and discover just to see if they would help. No go.

Now, when I try to boot I get:

Unexpected busfree while idle
SEQADDR == 0x166

I have no idea what this means. Since even knoppix didn't detect the tape drive, does that mean that it is broke or not compatible?

The tape drive is an Exabyte XL. I think that scsi card is an Adaptec.

bobbens · 03-14-2005, 03:19 AM

Quote:

Originally posted by Optimistic
I tried Knoppix (3.7) and got nowhere. So, I installed kudzu and discover just to see if they would help. No go.

Now, when I try to boot I get:

Unexpected busfree while idle
SEQADDR == 0x166

I have no idea what this means. Since even knoppix didn't detect the tape drive, does that mean that it is broke or not compatible?

The tape drive is an Exabyte XL. I think that scsi card is an Adaptec.

Have you check out the HCL? See if you find your hardware there, if not check google for it and see if it is compatible, because if it doesn't load up it must mean the generic module isn't compatible and you need a more specific one. Of course another solution might be adding a commands to grub and getting it working, but this tends to be scsi card specific. Good luck.