no sign of external scsi hdd on boot

takahaya · 05-09-2005, 05:18 AM

no sign of external scsi hdd on boot

I'm pretty much an ignoramus linux-wise. I 'inherited' a Pentium (233MHz) machine with external scsi harddrive and installed Mandrake 10.1 Official with the intention of running Apache (etc).

Everything seemed to install ok except I could find no sign of the external drive.

The external drive comes with its own BIOS? (maybe the controller??) - anyway, a BIOS appears upon bootup (after the *usual* BIOS) saying the external drive has been detected. Then, when linux kicks in, nothing more (as far as I can tell) happens.

The drive is a Buffalo (Melco) 20GB model number DSC-U20GTV (??). It was manufactured for the Japanese market (if that matters). The adaptor (controller?) is a PCI "Buffalo Ultra-SCSI interface board IFC-USP".

I've read the SCSI-howto, trawled through it seems hundreds of postings on scsi hardware problems. I think my problem might be I really don't know where to start.

Whether it's got something to do with 'terminating' the scsi bus, or whether the required modules are loaded...??

uname -r : 2.6.8.1-12mdk-i568-up-1GB
lsmod shows scsi_mod.o loaded though not sd_mod.o.
/var/log/messages show no sign of the harddrive being noticed.
cat /proc/scsi/scsi shows no attached devices
lspcidrake shows:

unknown : Intel Corp.|430TX - 82439TX MTXC [BRIDGE_HOST]
unknown : Intel Corp.|82371AB PIIX4 ISA [BRIDGE_ISA]
unknown : Intel Corp.|82371AB PIIX4 IDE [STORAGE_IDE]
usb-uhci : Intel Corp.|82371AB PIIX4 USB [SERIAL_USB]
sonypi : Intel Corp.|82371AB PIIX4 ACPI - Bus Master IDE Controller [BRIDGE_OTHER]
Card:Cirrus Logic GD5465: Cirrus Logic|GD 5465 [Laguna] [DISPLAY_VGA]
8139too : Realtek|RTL-8139 [NETWORK_ETHERNET]
advansys : Advanced System Products|ABP940-U / ABP960-U [STORAGE_SCSI]
eepro100 : Intel Corp.|PK-UG-X006 [NETWORK_ETHERNET]
hub : Linux 2.6.8.1-12mdk-i586-up-1GB uhci_hcd|UHCI Host Controller [Hub]
usbhid : NEC Systems|Japanese Keyboard [Human Interface Devices|Boot Interface Subclass|Keyboard]

Can anyone give me any advice? I've really reached a point where I don't know what else to do but ask for help.

michaelk · 05-09-2005, 06:36 AM

Your SCSI controller is an Advansys ABP940-U which I believe uses the advansys module. In addition the sd_mod also needs to be loaded.

That BIOS and device scan your seeing during bootup is the SCSI controller's.

tredegar · 05-09-2005, 10:46 AM

lspci shows that linux is "seeing" your SCSI controller, but not the attached disk(s). Check your modules are loaded as recommended by michaelk, but you should also take a look at the SCSI BIOS:

I once had an adaptec SCSI controller card - it also had its own BIOS. The defaults are not necessarily correctly set, so you should go into the SCSI BIOS and check everything (eg, from memory: Default SCSI transfer speed, termination, whether particular devices (eg your HDD) are to be included when the bus is scanned at startup etc). There will be a lot of options to play with, so make a note of your starting configuration, and change one thing at a time.

The end of the scsi cable must to be terminated for reliable operation: Sometimes this can be done with a jumper on the last device [Termination ON | OFF] at the end of the cable, sometimes you might need a special terminator that the cable plugs in to.

Your SCSI disk needs to be allocated a unique number on the SCSI bus. This is normally done with switches or jumpers on the disk itself. Do not set it to 0 (zero) as this is usually the number assigned to the controller card itself.

Code:

                    -Either-

                                        Disk     Terminator
                                         |         |
controller----scsi cable-----V-----V-----V----V----V

                      -or-
                                                  Disk with Termination ON
                                                   |
controller----scsi cable-----V-----V-----V----V----V

Hope this helps

takahaya · 05-09-2005, 06:37 PM

Thanks very much for the replies so far...

I can get sd_mod.o loaded (modprobe sd_mod) ok and cat /proc/modules gives the line:
sd_mod 18336 0 - Live 0xcab4d000

Nothing in /var/log/messages or /var/log/kernel/messages shows anything more than the driver being initialized happening.

cat /proc/scsi/scsi shows no devices attached.

Do I need to get the module loaded during bootup for the harddrive to be recognized? (ie will the hdd only be recognized during bootup?)

Is there a way I can scan the scsi bus having loaded the sd_mod driver after bootup (ie attach the device at this point?)

Your help is much appreciated. Thanks

michaelk · 05-10-2005, 06:23 AM

Is the SCSI controller module loaded?

takahaya · 05-10-2005, 08:32 AM

I'm not sure how I can tell whether the advansys.o module driver is loaded (or builtin?)

/etc/modules and /etc/modules.conf is empty.

Does that help?

michaelk · 05-10-2005, 10:09 AM

What does the output of lsmod show?

takahaya · 05-10-2005, 05:10 PM

Output of lsmod:

Module Size Used by
ipt_MASQUERADE 2624 1
ip_conntrack_irc 70192 0
sd_mod 18336 0
scsi_mod 99244 1 sd_mod
nfsd 179904 8
exportfs 4480 1 nfsd
lockd 54632 2 nfsd
sunrpc 121668 2 nfsd,lockd
md5 3552 1
ipv6 217508 16
rfcomm 30396 0
l2cap 18884 5 rfcomm
bluetooth 36868 4 rfcomm,l2cap
ipt_state 1408 1
ipt_REJECT 5248 2
ipt_LOG 5472 3
ip_nat_ftp 3920 0
iptable_nat 20556 3 ipt_MASQUERADE,ip_nat_ftp
ip_conntrack_ftp 70896 1 ip_nat_ftp
ip_conntrack 27816 6 ipt_MASQUERADE,ip_conntrack_irc,ipt_state,ip_nat_ftp,iptable_nat,ip_conntrack_ftp
af_packet 15400 2
floppy 53328 0
iptable_filter 2016 1
ip_tables 14368 6 ipt_MASQUERADE,ipt_state,ipt_REJECT,ipt_LOG,iptable_nat,iptable_filter
eepro100 25388 0
8139too 20128 0
mii 3968 2 eepro100,8139too
ide-cd 35104 0
cdrom 35100 1 ide-cd
loop 11720 0
supermount 32916 1
tsdev 5632 0
joydev 7808 0
evdev 7328 0
usbmouse 3904 0
usbkbd 5408 0
usbhid 39104 0
uhci-hcd 27184 0
usbcore 96580 6 usbmouse,usbkbd,usbhid,uhci-hcd
ext3 111656 1
jbd 45464 1 ext3

Thanks again for your interest in this.

michaelk · 05-10-2005, 05:20 PM

The advansys module is not loaded. Try:
modprobe advansys

takahaya · 05-10-2005, 05:30 PM

modprobe advansys returns:

FATAL: Module advansys not found

michaelk · 05-10-2005, 06:13 PM

It apperas that advansys SCSI controllers are not in Mandrake's supported hardware.

I do not know if this will work with 2.6 kernels:
http://www.initio.com/support/index-download.htm

takahaya · 05-11-2005, 01:30 AM

I've been Googling around for answers re. support for advansys driver in mandrake kernel 2.6+ but nothing except frequent reference to Fedora and it having dropped advansys (mention made of "races?)

I read of solutions involving downloading DKMS (?) RPMs (only Redhat?) for building the module for the running kernel but I suppose it would be too much to hope the same exists for mandrake. (I really don'T know what I'm talking about!!)

The link you gave me (thanks very much) points to a driver (would I need the big endian fix??) but until I download it on my linux machine at home I won't know if it comes with any documentation for use. (ie what am I suposed to do with it?)

Perhaps I could install the kernel source and run make menuconfig to see if it's possible to enable support for the module and do a rebuild??

I've just installed Mandrake 10.1 and while still not having done much with it perhaps it'd be easier installing a different distribution with known support for this scsi drive and controller? I've had a little look around for info regarding support among the different nix distribtns but haven't come up with much. Any advice on where I might look (if this route suggests itself as offering least resistance?)

Thanks again for any advice.

takahaya · 05-11-2005, 04:59 PM

The notes in the c source file advansys driver say the latest kernel on which the driver's been tested is 2.3.99.

It also says (after a lot of directions regarding editing /usr/src/linux/arch/i386/config):
------------------
6. In the directory /usr/src/linux run 'make config' to configure
the AdvanSys driver, then run 'make vmlinux' or 'make zlilo' to
make the kernel. If the AdvanSys driver is not configured, then
a loadable module can be built by running 'make modules' and
'make modules_install'. Use 'insmod' and 'rmmod' to install
and remove advansys.o.
-------------------------------

I've never built a kernel and had to deal with issues of built-in/loadable modules but wonder if the kernel has to be (re)configured (and built) to be able to load modules when running? Or, does the above mean I can build a loadable module and install (and remove it with insmod/rmmod) without rebuilding the kernel?

Would anyone happen to know of a (recent) distribution that has support for the advansys driver built in??!!

michaelk · 05-11-2005, 05:28 PM

I've found little info on hardware support. I think Fedora supports the card out of the box.
I have the same problem with my Tekram SCSI cards and no support in 2.6 kernels.

takahaya · 05-11-2005, 05:53 PM

If a distribution has no support for a particular card, does that mean one can't even build a driver module somehow?

I've just installed the kernel source and notice that in /usr/src/linux/drivers/scsi there're advansys.c and advansys.h src files. What might this mean?