| blob | f13415a3ac3599b838210fd6ca2556a593ced0ed |
1 The Linux SYM-2 driver documentation file
3 Written by Gerard Roudier <groudier@free.fr>
4 21 Rue Carnot
5 95170 DEUIL LA BARRE - FRANCE
7 Decembre 28 2000
8 ===============================================================================
10 1. Introduction
11 2. Supported chips and SCSI features
12 3. Advantages of this driver for newer chips.
13 3.1 Optimized SCSI SCRIPTS
14 3.2 New features appeared with the SYM53C896
15 4. Memory mapped I/O versus normal I/O
16 5. Tagged command queueing
17 6. Parity checking
18 7. Profiling information
19 8. Control commands
20 8.1 Set minimum synchronous period
21 8.2 Set wide size
22 8.3 Set maximum number of concurrent tagged commands
23 8.4 Set debug mode
24 8.5 Set flag (no_disc)
25 8.6 Set verbose level
26 8.7 Reset all logical units of a target
27 8.8 Abort all tasks of all logical units of a target
28 9. Configuration parameters
29 10. Boot setup commands
30 10.1 Syntax
31 10.2 Available arguments
32 10.2.1 Master parity checking
33 10.2.2 Scsi parity checking
34 10.2.3 Default number of tagged commands
35 10.2.4 Default synchronous period factor
36 10.2.5 Verbosity level
37 10.2.6 Debug mode
38 10.2.7 Burst max
39 10.2.8 LED support
40 10.2.9 Max wide
41 10.2.10 Differential mode
42 10.2.11 IRQ mode
43 10.2.12 Reverse probe
44 10.2.13 Fix up PCI configuration space
45 10.2.14 Serial NVRAM
46 10.2.15 Check SCSI BUS
47 10.2.16 Exclude a host from being attached
48 10.2.17 Suggest a default SCSI id for hosts
49 10.3 PCI configuration fix-up boot option
50 10.4 Serial NVRAM support boot option
51 10.5 SCSI BUS checking boot option
52 11. SCSI problem troubleshooting
53 15.1 Problem tracking
54 15.2 Understanding hardware error reports
55 12. Serial NVRAM support (by Richard Waltham)
56 17.1 Features
57 17.2 Symbios NVRAM layout
58 17.3 Tekram NVRAM layout
60 ===============================================================================
62 1. Introduction
64 This driver supports the whole SYM53C8XX family of PCI-SCSI controllers.
65 It also support the subset of LSI53C10XX PCI-SCSI controllers that are based
66 on the SYM53C8XX SCRIPTS language.
68 It replaces the sym53c8xx+ncr53c8xx driver bundle and shares its core code
69 with the FreeBSD SYM-2 driver. The `glue' that allows this driver to work
70 under Linux is contained in 2 files named sym_glue.h and sym_glue.c.
71 Other drivers files are intended not to depend on the Operating System
72 on which the driver is used.
74 The history of this driver can be summerized as follows:
76 1993: ncr driver written for 386bsd and FreeBSD by:
77 Wolfgang Stanglmeier <wolf@cologne.de>
78 Stefan Esser <se@mi.Uni-Koeln.de>
80 1996: port of the ncr driver to Linux-1.2.13 and rename it ncr53c8xx.
81 Gerard Roudier
83 1998: new sym53c8xx driver for Linux based on LOAD/STORE instruction and that
84 adds full support for the 896 but drops support for early NCR devices.
85 Gerard Roudier
87 1999: port of the sym53c8xx driver to FreeBSD and support for the LSI53C1010
88 33 MHz and 66MHz Ultra-3 controllers. The new driver is named `sym'.
89 Gerard Roudier
91 2000: Add support for early NCR devices to FreeBSD `sym' driver.
92 Break the driver into several sources and separate the OS glue
93 code from the core code that can be shared among different O/Ses.
94 Write a glue code for Linux.
95 Gerard Roudier
97 This README file addresses the Linux version of the driver. Under FreeBSD,
98 the driver documentation is the sym.8 man page.
100 Information about new chips is available at LSILOGIC web server:
102 http://www.lsilogic.com/
104 SCSI standard documentations are available at T10 site:
106 http://www.t10.org/
108 Useful SCSI tools written by Eric Youngdale are part of most Linux
109 distributions:
110 scsiinfo: command line tool
111 scsi-config: TCL/Tk tool using scsiinfo
113 2. Supported chips and SCSI features
115 The following features are supported for all chips:
117 Synchronous negotiation
118 Disconnection
119 Tagged command queuing
120 SCSI parity checking
121 PCI Master parity checking
123 Other features depends on chip capabilities.
124 The driver notably uses optimized SCRIPTS for devices that support
125 LOAD/STORE and handles PHASE MISMATCH from SCRIPTS for devices that
126 support the corresponding feature.
128 The following table shows some characteristics of the chip family.
130 On board LOAD/STORE HARDWARE
131 Chip SDMS BIOS Wide SCSI std. Max. sync SCRIPTS PHASE MISMATCH
132 ---- --------- ---- --------- ---------- ---------- --------------
133 810 N N FAST10 10 MB/s N N
134 810A N N FAST10 10 MB/s Y N
135 815 Y N FAST10 10 MB/s N N
136 825 Y Y FAST10 20 MB/s N N
137 825A Y Y FAST10 20 MB/s Y N
138 860 N N FAST20 20 MB/s Y N
139 875 Y Y FAST20 40 MB/s Y N
140 875A Y Y FAST20 40 MB/s Y Y
141 876 Y Y FAST20 40 MB/s Y N
142 895 Y Y FAST40 80 MB/s Y N
143 895A Y Y FAST40 80 MB/s Y Y
144 896 Y Y FAST40 80 MB/s Y Y
145 897 Y Y FAST40 80 MB/s Y Y
146 1510D Y Y FAST40 80 MB/s Y Y
147 1010 Y Y FAST80 160 MB/s Y Y
148 1010_66* Y Y FAST80 160 MB/s Y Y
150 * Chip supports 33MHz and 66MHz PCI bus clock.
153 Summary of other supported features:
155 Module: allow to load the driver
156 Memory mapped I/O: increases performance
157 Control commands: write operations to the proc SCSI file system
158 Debugging information: written to syslog (expert only)
159 Scatter / gather
160 Shared interrupt
161 Boot setup commands
162 Serial NVRAM: Symbios and Tekram formats
165 3. Advantages of this driver for newer chips.
167 3.1 Optimized SCSI SCRIPTS.
169 All chips except the 810, 815 and 825, support new SCSI SCRIPTS instructions
170 named LOAD and STORE that allow to move up to 1 DWORD from/to an IO register
171 to/from memory much faster that the MOVE MEMORY instruction that is supported
172 by the 53c7xx and 53c8xx family.
174 The LOAD/STORE instructions support absolute and DSA relative addressing
175 modes. The SCSI SCRIPTS had been entirely rewritten using LOAD/STORE instead
176 of MOVE MEMORY instructions.
178 Due to the lack of LOAD/STORE SCRIPTS instructions by earlier chips, this
179 driver also incorporates a different SCRIPTS set based on MEMORY MOVE, in
180 order to provide support for the entire SYM53C8XX chips family.
182 3.2 New features appeared with the SYM53C896
184 Newer chips (see above) allows handling of the phase mismatch context from
185 SCRIPTS (avoids the phase mismatch interrupt that stops the SCSI processor
186 until the C code has saved the context of the transfer).
188 The 896 and 1010 chips support 64 bit PCI transactions and addressing,
189 while the 895A supports 32 bit PCI transactions and 64 bit addressing.
190 The SCRIPTS processor of these chips is not true 64 bit, but uses segment
191 registers for bit 32-63. Another interesting feature is that LOAD/STORE
192 instructions that address the on-chip RAM (8k) remain internal to the chip.
194 4. Memory mapped I/O versus normal I/O
196 Memory mapped I/O has less latency than normal I/O and is the recommended
197 way for doing IO with PCI devices. Memory mapped I/O seems to work fine on
198 most hardware configurations, but some poorly designed chipsets may break
199 this feature. A configuration option is provided for normal I/O to be
200 used but the driver defaults to MMIO.
202 5. Tagged command queueing
204 Queuing more than 1 command at a time to a device allows it to perform
205 optimizations based on actual head positions and its mechanical
206 characteristics. This feature may also reduce average command latency.
207 In order to really gain advantage of this feature, devices must have
208 a reasonable cache size (No miracle is to be expected for a low-end
209 hard disk with 128 KB or less).
210 Some kown old SCSI devices do not properly support tagged command queuing.
211 Generally, firmware revisions that fix this kind of problems are available
212 at respective vendor web/ftp sites.
213 All I can say is that I never have had problem with tagged queuing using
214 this driver and its predecessors. Hard disks that behaved correctly for
215 me using tagged commands are the following:
217 - IBM S12 0662
218 - Conner 1080S
219 - Quantum Atlas I
220 - Quantum Atlas II
221 - Seagate Cheetah I
222 - Quantum Viking II
223 - IBM DRVS
224 - Quantum Atlas IV
225 - Seagate Cheetah II
227 If your controller has NVRAM, you can configure this feature per target
228 from the user setup tool. The Tekram Setup program allows to tune the
229 maximum number of queued commands up to 32. The Symbios Setup only allows
230 to enable or disable this feature.
232 The maximum number of simultaneous tagged commands queued to a device
233 is currently set to 16 by default. This value is suitable for most SCSI
234 disks. With large SCSI disks (>= 2GB, cache >= 512KB, average seek time
235 <= 10 ms), using a larger value may give better performances.
237 This driver supports up to 255 commands per device, and but using more than
238 64 is generally not worth-while, unless you are using a very large disk or
239 disk arrays. It is noticeable that most of recent hard disks seem not to
240 accept more than 64 simultaneous commands. So, using more than 64 queued
241 commands is probably just resource wasting.
243 If your controller does not have NVRAM or if it is managed by the SDMS
244 BIOS/SETUP, you can configure tagged queueing feature and device queue
245 depths from the boot command-line. For example:
247 sym53c8xx=tags:4/t2t3q15-t4q7/t1u0q32
249 will set tagged commands queue depths as follow:
251 - target 2 all luns on controller 0 --> 15
252 - target 3 all luns on controller 0 --> 15
253 - target 4 all luns on controller 0 --> 7
254 - target 1 lun 0 on controller 1 --> 32
255 - all other target/lun --> 4
257 In some special conditions, some SCSI disk firmwares may return a
258 QUEUE FULL status for a SCSI command. This behaviour is managed by the
259 driver using the following heuristic:
261 - Each time a QUEUE FULL status is returned, tagged queue depth is reduced
262 to the actual number of disconnected commands.
264 - Every 200 successfully completed SCSI commands, if allowed by the
265 current limit, the maximum number of queueable commands is incremented.
267 Since QUEUE FULL status reception and handling is resource wasting, the
268 driver notifies by default this problem to user by indicating the actual
269 number of commands used and their status, as well as its decision on the
270 device queue depth change.
271 The heuristic used by the driver in handling QUEUE FULL ensures that the
272 impact on performances is not too bad. You can get rid of the messages by
273 setting verbose level to zero, as follow:
275 1st method: boot your system using 'sym53c8xx=verb:0' option.
276 2nd method: apply "setverbose 0" control command to the proc fs entry
277 corresponding to your controller after boot-up.
279 6. Parity checking
281 The driver supports SCSI parity checking and PCI bus master parity
282 checking. These features must be enabled in order to ensure safe data
283 transfers. However, some flawed devices or mother boards will have
284 problems with parity. You can disable either PCI parity or SCSI parity
285 checking by entering appropriate options from the boot command line.
286 (See 10: Boot setup commands).
288 7. Profiling information
290 This driver does not provide profiling informations as did its predecessors.
291 This feature was not this useful and added complexity to the code.
292 As the driver code got more complex, I have decided to remove everything
293 that didn't seem actually useful.
295 8. Control commands
297 Control commands can be sent to the driver with write operations to
298 the proc SCSI file system. The generic command syntax is the
299 following:
301 echo "<verb> <parameters>" >/proc/scsi/sym53c8xx/0
302 (assumes controller number is 0)
304 Using "all" for "<target>" parameter with the commands below will
305 apply to all targets of the SCSI chain (except the controller).
307 Available commands:
309 8.1 Set minimum synchronous period factor
311 setsync <target> <period factor>
313 target: target number
314 period: minimum synchronous period.
315 Maximum speed = 1000/(4*period factor) except for special
316 cases below.
318 Specify a period of 0, to force asynchronous transfer mode.
320 9 means 12.5 nano-seconds synchronous period
321 10 means 25 nano-seconds synchronous period
322 11 means 30 nano-seconds synchronous period
323 12 means 50 nano-seconds synchronous period
325 8.2 Set wide size
327 setwide <target> <size>
329 target: target number
330 size: 0=8 bits, 1=16bits
332 8.3 Set maximum number of concurrent tagged commands
334 settags <target> <tags>
336 target: target number
337 tags: number of concurrent tagged commands
338 must not be greater than configured (default: 16)
340 8.4 Set debug mode
342 setdebug <list of debug flags>
344 Available debug flags:
345 alloc: print info about memory allocations (ccb, lcb)
346 queue: print info about insertions into the command start queue
347 result: print sense data on CHECK CONDITION status
348 scatter: print info about the scatter process
349 scripts: print info about the script binding process
350 tiny: print minimal debugging information
351 timing: print timing information of the NCR chip
352 nego: print information about SCSI negotiations
353 phase: print information on script interruptions
355 Use "setdebug" with no argument to reset debug flags.
358 8.5 Set flag (no_disc)
360 setflag <target> <flag>
362 target: target number
364 For the moment, only one flag is available:
366 no_disc: not allow target to disconnect.
368 Do not specify any flag in order to reset the flag. For example:
369 - setflag 4
370 will reset no_disc flag for target 4, so will allow it disconnections.
371 - setflag all
372 will allow disconnection for all devices on the SCSI bus.
375 8.6 Set verbose level
377 setverbose #level
379 The driver default verbose level is 1. This command allows to change
380 th driver verbose level after boot-up.
382 8.7 Reset all logical units of a target
384 resetdev <target>
386 target: target number
387 The driver will try to send a BUS DEVICE RESET message to the target.
389 8.8 Abort all tasks of all logical units of a target
391 cleardev <target>
393 target: target number
394 The driver will try to send a ABORT message to all the logical units
395 of the target.
398 9. Configuration parameters
400 Under kernel configuration tools (make menuconfig, for example), it is
401 possible to change some default driver configuration parameters.
402 If the firmware of all your devices is perfect enough, all the
403 features supported by the driver can be enabled at start-up. However,
404 if only one has a flaw for some SCSI feature, you can disable the
405 support by the driver of this feature at linux start-up and enable
406 this feature after boot-up only for devices that support it safely.
408 Configuration parameters:
410 Use normal IO (default answer: n)
411 Answer "y" if you suspect your mother board to not allow memory mapped I/O.
412 May slow down performance a little.
414 Default tagged command queue depth (default answer: 16)
415 Entering 0 defaults to tagged commands not being used.
416 This parameter can be specified from the boot command line.
418 Maximum number of queued commands (default answer: 32)
419 This option allows you to specify the maximum number of tagged commands
420 that can be queued to a device. The maximum supported value is 255.
422 Synchronous transfers frequency (default answer: 80)
423 This option allows you to specify the frequency in MHz the driver
424 will use at boot time for synchronous data transfer negotiations.
425 0 means "asynchronous data transfers".
427 10. Boot setup commands
429 10.1 Syntax
431 Setup commands can be passed to the driver either at boot time or as a
432 string variable using 'insmod'.
434 A boot setup command for this driver begins with the driver name "sym53c8xx=".
435 The kernel syntax parser then expects an optionnal list of integers separated
436 with comma followed by an optional list of comma-separated strings.
438 Example of boot setup command under lilo prompt:
440 lilo: linux root=/dev/sda2 sym53c8xx=tags:4,sync:10,debug:0x200
442 - enable tagged commands, up to 4 tagged commands queued.
443 - set synchronous negotiation speed to 10 Mega-transfers / second.
444 - set DEBUG_NEGO flag.
446 Since comma seems not to be allowed when defining a string variable using
447 'insmod', the driver also accepts <space> as option separator.
448 The following command will install driver module with the same options as
449 above.
451 insmod sym53c8xx.o sym53c8xx="tags:4 sync:10 debug:0x200"
453 The integer list of arguments is discarded by the driver.
455 Each string argument must be specified as "keyword:value". Only lower-case
456 characters and digits are allowed.
458 10.2 Available arguments
460 10.2.1 Master parity checking
461 mpar:y enabled
462 mpar:n disabled
464 10.2.2 Scsi parity checking
465 spar:y enabled
466 spar:n disabled
468 10.2.3 Default number of tagged commands
469 tags:0 (or tags:1 ) tagged command queuing disabled
470 tags:#tags (#tags > 1) tagged command queuing enabled
471 #tags will be truncated to the max queued commands configuration parameter.
472 This option also allows to specify a command queue depth for each device
473 that support tagged command queueing.
474 Example:
475 sym53c8xx=tags:10/t2t3q16-t5q24/t1u2q32
476 will set devices queue depth as follow:
477 - controller #0 target #2 and target #3 -> 16 commands,
478 - controller #0 target #5 -> 24 commands,
479 - controller #1 target #1 logical unit #2 -> 32 commands,
480 - all other logical units (all targets, all controllers) -> 10 commands.
482 10.2.4 Default synchronous period factor
483 sync:255 disabled (asynchronous transfer mode)
484 sync:#factor
485 #factor = 9 Ultra-3 SCSI 80 Mega-transfers / second (Wide only)
486 #factor = 10 Ultra-2 SCSI 40 Mega-transfers / second
487 #factor = 11 Ultra-2 SCSI 33 Mega-transfers / second
488 #factor < 25 Ultra SCSI 20 Mega-transfers / second
489 #factor < 50 Fast SCSI-2
491 In all cases, the driver will use the minimum transfer period supported by
492 controllers according to SYM53C8XX chip type.
494 10.2.5 Verbosity level
495 verb:0 minimal
496 verb:1 normal
497 verb:2 too much
499 10.2.6 Debug mode
500 debug:0 clear debug flags
501 debug:#x set debug flags
502 #x is an integer value combining the following power-of-2 values:
503 DEBUG_ALLOC 0x1
504 DEBUG_PHASE 0x2
505 DEBUG_POLL 0x4
506 DEBUG_QUEUE 0x8
507 DEBUG_RESULT 0x10
508 DEBUG_SCATTER 0x20
509 DEBUG_SCRIPT 0x40
510 DEBUG_TINY 0x80
511 DEBUG_TIMING 0x100
512 DEBUG_NEGO 0x200
513 DEBUG_TAGS 0x400
514 DEBUG_FREEZE 0x800
515 DEBUG_RESTART 0x1000
517 You can play safely with DEBUG_NEGO. However, some of these flags may
518 generate bunches of syslog messages.
520 10.2.7 Burst max
521 burst:0 burst disabled
522 burst:255 get burst length from initial IO register settings.
523 burst:#x burst enabled (1<<#x burst transfers max)
524 #x is an integer value which is log base 2 of the burst transfers max.
525 By default the driver uses the maximum value supported by the chip.
527 10.2.8 LED support
528 led:1 enable LED support
529 led:0 disable LED support
530 Donnot enable LED support if your scsi board does not use SDMS BIOS.
531 (See 'Configuration parameters')
533 10.2.9 Max wide
534 wide:1 wide scsi enabled
535 wide:0 wide scsi disabled
536 Some scsi boards use a 875 (ultra wide) and only supply narrow connectors.
537 If you have connected a wide device with a 50 pins to 68 pins cable
538 converter, any accepted wide negotiation will break further data transfers.
539 In such a case, using "wide:0" in the bootup command will be helpfull.
541 10.2.10 Differential mode
542 diff:0 never set up diff mode
543 diff:1 set up diff mode if BIOS set it
544 diff:2 always set up diff mode
545 diff:3 set diff mode if GPIO3 is not set
547 10.2.11 IRQ mode
548 irqm:0 always open drain
549 irqm:1 same as initial settings (assumed BIOS settings)
550 irqm:2 always totem pole
552 10.2.12 Reverse probe
553 revprob:n probe chip ids from the PCI configuration in this order:
554 810, 815, 825, 860, 875, 885, 875A, 895, 896, 895A,
555 1510D, 1010-33, 1010-66.
556 revprob:y probe chip ids in the reverse order.
558 10.2.13 Fix up PCI configuration space
559 pcifix:<option bits>
561 Available option bits:
562 0x0: No attempt to fix PCI configuration space registers values.
563 0x1: Set PCI cache-line size register if not set.
564 0x2: Set write and invalidate bit in PCI command register.
566 10.2.14 Serial NVRAM
567 nvram:n do not look for serial NVRAM
568 nvram:y test controllers for onboard serial NVRAM
569 (alternate binary form)
570 nvram=<bits options>
571 0x01 look for NVRAM (equivalent to nvram=y)
572 0x02 ignore NVRAM "Synchronous negotiation" parameters for all devices
573 0x04 ignore NVRAM "Wide negotiation" parameter for all devices
574 0x08 ignore NVRAM "Scan at boot time" parameter for all devices
575 0x80 also attach controllers set to OFF in the NVRAM (sym53c8xx only)
577 10.2.15 Check SCSI BUS
578 buschk:<option bits>
580 Available option bits:
581 0x0: No check.
582 0x1: Check and do not attach the controller on error.
583 0x2: Check and just warn on error.
585 10.2.16 Exclude a host from being attached
586 excl=<io_address>
588 Prevent host at a given io address from being attached.
589 For example 'sym53c8xx=excl:0xb400,excl:0xc000' indicate to the
590 driver not to attach hosts at address 0xb400 and 0xc000.
592 10.2.17 Suggest a default SCSI id for hosts
593 hostid:255 no id suggested.
594 hostid:#x (0 < x < 7) x suggested for hosts SCSI id.
596 If a host SCSI id is available from the NVRAM, the driver will ignore
597 any value suggested as boot option. Otherwise, if a suggested value
598 different from 255 has been supplied, it will use it. Otherwise, it will
599 try to deduce the value previously set in the hardware and use value
600 7 if the hardware value is zero.
602 10.3 PCI configuration fix-up boot option
604 pcifix:<option bits>
606 Available option bits:
607 0x1: Set PCI cache-line size register if not set.
608 0x2: Set write and invalidate bit in PCI command register.
610 Use 'pcifix:3' in order to allow the driver to fix both PCI features.
612 Recent SYMBIOS 53C8XX scsi processors are able to use PCI read multiple
613 and PCI write and invalidate commands. These features require the
614 cache line size register to be properly set in the PCI configuration
615 space of the chips. On the other hand, chips will use PCI write and
616 invalidate commands only if the corresponding bit is set to 1 in the
617 PCI command register.
619 Not all PCI bioses set the PCI cache line register and the PCI write and
620 invalidate bit in the PCI configuration space of 53C8XX chips.
621 Optimized PCI accesses may be broken for some PCI/memory controllers or
622 make problems with some PCI boards.
624 10.4 Serial NVRAM support boot option
626 nvram:n do not look for serial NVRAM
627 nvram:y test controllers for onboard serial NVRAM
629 This option can also been entered as an hexadecimal value that allows
630 to control what information the driver will get from the NVRAM and what
631 information it will ignore.
632 For details see '17. Serial NVRAM support'.
634 When this option is enabled, the driver tries to detect all boards using
635 a Serial NVRAM. This memory is used to hold user set up parameters.
637 The parameters the driver is able to get from the NVRAM depend on the
638 data format used, as follow:
640 Tekram format Symbios format
641 General and host parameters
642 Boot order N Y
643 Host SCSI ID Y Y
644 SCSI parity checking Y Y
645 Verbose boot messages N Y
646 SCSI devices parameters
647 Synchronous transfer speed Y Y
648 Wide 16 / Narrow Y Y
649 Tagged Command Queuing enabled Y Y
650 Disconnections enabled Y Y
651 Scan at boot time N Y
653 In order to speed up the system boot, for each device configured without
654 the "scan at boot time" option, the driver forces an error on the
655 first TEST UNIT READY command received for this device.
657 Some SDMS BIOS revisions seem to be unable to boot cleanly with very fast
658 hard disks. In such a situation you cannot configure the NVRAM with
659 optimized parameters value.
661 The 'nvram' boot option can be entered in hexadecimal form in order
662 to ignore some options configured in the NVRAM, as follow:
664 nvram=<bits options>
665 0x01 look for NVRAM (equivalent to nvram=y)
666 0x02 ignore NVRAM "Synchronous negotiation" parameters for all devices
667 0x04 ignore NVRAM "Wide negotiation" parameter for all devices
668 0x08 ignore NVRAM "Scan at boot time" parameter for all devices
669 0x80 also attach controllers set to OFF in the NVRAM (sym53c8xx only)
671 Option 0x80 is disabled by default.
672 Result is that, by default (option not set), the sym53c8xx driver will not
673 attach controllers set to OFF in the NVRAM.
675 10.5 SCSI BUS checking boot option.
677 When this option is set to a non-zero value, the driver checks SCSI lines
678 logic state, 100 micro-seconds after having asserted the SCSI RESET line.
679 The driver just reads SCSI lines and checks all lines read FALSE except RESET.
680 Since SCSI devices shall release the BUS at most 800 nano-seconds after SCSI
681 RESET has been asserted, any signal to TRUE may indicate a SCSI BUS problem.
682 Unfortunately, the following common SCSI BUS problems are not detected:
683 - Only 1 terminator installed.
684 - Misplaced terminators.
685 - Bad quality terminators.
686 On the other hand, either bad cabling, broken devices, not conformant
687 devices, ... may cause a SCSI signal to be wrong when te driver reads it.
689 15. SCSI problem troubleshooting
691 15.1 Problem tracking
693 Most SCSI problems are due to a non conformant SCSI bus or too buggy
694 devices. If infortunately you have SCSI problems, you can check the
695 following things:
697 - SCSI bus cables
698 - terminations at both end of the SCSI chain
699 - linux syslog messages (some of them may help you)
701 If you do not find the source of problems, you can configure the
702 driver or devices in the NVRAM with minimal features.
704 - only asynchronous data transfers
705 - tagged commands disabled
706 - disconnections not allowed
708 Now, if your SCSI bus is ok, your system has every chance to work
709 with this safe configuration but performances will not be optimal.
711 If it still fails, then you can send your problem description to
712 appropriate mailing lists or news-groups. Send me a copy in order to
713 be sure I will receive it. Obviously, a bug in the driver code is
714 possible.
716 My cyrrent email address: Gerard Roudier <groudier@free.fr>
718 Allowing disconnections is important if you use several devices on
719 your SCSI bus but often causes problems with buggy devices.
720 Synchronous data transfers increases throughput of fast devices like
721 hard disks. Good SCSI hard disks with a large cache gain advantage of
722 tagged commands queuing.
724 15.2 Understanding hardware error reports
726 When the driver detects an unexpected error condition, it may display a
727 message of the following pattern.
729 sym0:1: ERROR (0:48) (1-21-65) (f/95/0) @ (script 7c0:19000000).
730 sym0: script cmd = 19000000
731 sym0: regdump: da 10 80 95 47 0f 01 07 75 01 81 21 80 01 09 00.
733 Some fields in such a message may help you understand the cause of the
734 problem, as follows:
736 sym0:1: ERROR (0:48) (1-21-65) (f/95/0) @ (script 7c0:19000000).
737 .....A.........B.C....D.E..F....G.H..I.......J.....K...L.......
739 Field A : target number.
740 SCSI ID of the device the controller was talking with at the moment the
741 error occurs.
743 Field B : DSTAT io register (DMA STATUS)
744 Bit 0x40 : MDPE Master Data Parity Error
745 Data parity error detected on the PCI BUS.
746 Bit 0x20 : BF Bus Fault
747 PCI bus fault condition detected
748 Bit 0x01 : IID Illegal Instruction Detected
749 Set by the chip when it detects an Illegal Instruction format
750 on some condition that makes an instruction illegal.
751 Bit 0x80 : DFE Dma Fifo Empty
752 Pure status bit that does not indicate an error.
753 If the reported DSTAT value contains a combination of MDPE (0x40),
754 BF (0x20), then the cause may be likely due to a PCI BUS problem.
756 Field C : SIST io register (SCSI Interrupt Status)
757 Bit 0x08 : SGE SCSI GROSS ERROR
758 Indicates that the chip detected a severe error condition
759 on the SCSI BUS that prevents the SCSI protocol from functioning
760 properly.
761 Bit 0x04 : UDC Unexpected Disconnection
762 Indicates that the device released the SCSI BUS when the chip
763 was not expecting this to happen. A device may behave so to
764 indicate the SCSI initiator that an error condition not reportable using the SCSI protocol has occurred.
765 Bit 0x02 : RST SCSI BUS Reset
766 Generally SCSI targets do not reset the SCSI BUS, although any
767 device on the BUS can reset it at any time.
768 Bit 0x01 : PAR Parity
769 SCSI parity error detected.
770 On a faulty SCSI BUS, any error condition among SGE (0x08), UDC (0x04) and
771 PAR (0x01) may be detected by the chip. If your SCSI system sometimes
772 encounters such error conditions, especially SCSI GROSS ERROR, then a SCSI
773 BUS problem is likely the cause of these errors.
775 For fields D,E,F,G and H, you may look into the sym53c8xx_defs.h file
776 that contains some minimal comments on IO register bits.
777 Field D : SOCL Scsi Output Control Latch
778 This register reflects the state of the SCSI control lines the
779 chip want to drive or compare against.
780 Field E : SBCL Scsi Bus Control Lines
781 Actual value of control lines on the SCSI BUS.
782 Field F : SBDL Scsi Bus Data Lines
783 Actual value of data lines on the SCSI BUS.
784 Field G : SXFER SCSI Transfer
785 Contains the setting of the Synchronous Period for output and
786 the current Synchronous offset (offset 0 means asynchronous).
787 Field H : SCNTL3 Scsi Control Register 3
788 Contains the setting of timing values for both asynchronous and
789 synchronous data transfers.
790 Field I : SCNTL4 Scsi Control Register 4
791 Only meaninful for 53C1010 Ultra3 controllers.
793 Understanding Fields J, K, L and dumps requires to have good knowledge of
794 SCSI standards, chip cores functionnals and internal driver data structures.
795 You are not required to decode and understand them, unless you want to help
796 maintain the driver code.
798 17. Serial NVRAM (added by Richard Waltham: dormouse@farsrobt.demon.co.uk)
800 17.1 Features
802 Enabling serial NVRAM support enables detection of the serial NVRAM included
803 on Symbios and some Symbios compatible host adaptors, and Tekram boards. The
804 serial NVRAM is used by Symbios and Tekram to hold set up parameters for the
805 host adaptor and it's attached drives.
807 The Symbios NVRAM also holds data on the boot order of host adaptors in a
808 system with more than one host adaptor. This enables the order of scanning
809 the cards for drives to be changed from the default used during host adaptor
810 detection.
812 This can be done to a limited extent at the moment using "reverse probe" but
813 this only changes the order of detection of different types of cards. The
814 NVRAM boot order settings can do this as well as change the order the same
815 types of cards are scanned in, something "reverse probe" cannot do.
817 Tekram boards using Symbios chips, DC390W/F/U, which have NVRAM are detected
818 and this is used to distinguish between Symbios compatible and Tekram host
819 adaptors. This is used to disable the Symbios compatible "diff" setting
820 incorrectly set on Tekram boards if the CONFIG_SCSI_53C8XX_SYMBIOS_COMPAT
821 configuration parameter is set enabling both Symbios and Tekram boards to be
822 used together with the Symbios cards using all their features, including
823 "diff" support. ("led pin" support for Symbios compatible cards can remain
824 enabled when using Tekram cards. It does nothing useful for Tekram host
825 adaptors but does not cause problems either.)
828 17.2 Symbios NVRAM layout
830 typical data at NVRAM address 0x100 (53c810a NVRAM)
831 -----------------------------------------------------------
832 00 00
833 64 01
834 8e 0b
836 00 30 00 00 00 00 07 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 07 04 10 04 00 00
838 04 00 0f 00 00 10 00 50 00 00 01 00 00 62
839 04 00 03 00 00 10 00 58 00 00 01 00 00 63
840 04 00 01 00 00 10 00 48 00 00 01 00 00 61
841 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
843 0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00
844 0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00
845 0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00
846 0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00
847 0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00
848 0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00
849 0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00
850 0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00
852 0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00
853 0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00
854 0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00
855 0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00
856 0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00
857 0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00
858 0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00
859 0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00
861 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
862 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
863 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
864 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
865 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
866 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
867 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
868 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
870 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
871 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
872 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
873 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
874 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
875 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
876 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
877 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
879 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
880 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
881 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
883 fe fe
884 00 00
885 00 00
886 -----------------------------------------------------------
887 NVRAM layout details
889 NVRAM Address 0x000-0x0ff not used
890 0x100-0x26f initialised data
891 0x270-0x7ff not used
893 general layout
895 header - 6 bytes,
896 data - 356 bytes (checksum is byte sum of this data)
897 trailer - 6 bytes
898 ---
899 total 368 bytes
901 data area layout
903 controller set up - 20 bytes
904 boot configuration - 56 bytes (4x14 bytes)
905 device set up - 128 bytes (16x8 bytes)
906 unused (spare?) - 152 bytes (19x8 bytes)
907 ---
908 total 356 bytes
910 -----------------------------------------------------------
911 header
913 00 00 - ?? start marker
914 64 01 - byte count (lsb/msb excludes header/trailer)
915 8e 0b - checksum (lsb/msb excludes header/trailer)
916 -----------------------------------------------------------
917 controller set up
919 00 30 00 00 00 00 07 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 07 04 10 04 00 00
920 | | | |
921 | | | -- host ID
922 | | |
923 | | --Removable Media Support
924 | | 0x00 = none
925 | | 0x01 = Bootable Device
926 | | 0x02 = All with Media
927 | |
928 | --flag bits 2
929 | 0x00000001= scan order hi->low
930 | (default 0x00 - scan low->hi)
931 --flag bits 1
932 0x00000001 scam enable
933 0x00000010 parity enable
934 0x00000100 verbose boot msgs
936 remaining bytes unknown - they do not appear to change in my
937 current set up for any of the controllers.
939 default set up is identical for 53c810a and 53c875 NVRAM
940 (Removable Media added Symbios BIOS version 4.09)
941 -----------------------------------------------------------
942 boot configuration
944 boot order set by order of the devices in this table
946 04 00 0f 00 00 10 00 50 00 00 01 00 00 62 -- 1st controller
947 04 00 03 00 00 10 00 58 00 00 01 00 00 63 2nd controller
948 04 00 01 00 00 10 00 48 00 00 01 00 00 61 3rd controller
949 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 4th controller
950 | | | | | | | |
951 | | | | | | ---- PCI io port adr
952 | | | | | --0x01 init/scan at boot time
953 | | | | --PCI device/function number (0xdddddfff)
954 | | ----- ?? PCI vendor ID (lsb/msb)
955 ----PCI device ID (lsb/msb)
957 ?? use of this data is a guess but seems reasonable
959 remaining bytes unknown - they do not appear to change in my
960 current set up
962 default set up is identical for 53c810a and 53c875 NVRAM
963 -----------------------------------------------------------
964 device set up (up to 16 devices - includes controller)
966 0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00 - id 0
967 0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00
968 0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00
969 0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00
970 0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00
971 0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00
972 0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00
973 0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00
975 0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00
976 0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00
977 0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00
978 0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00
979 0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00
980 0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00
981 0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00
982 0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00 - id 15
983 | | | | | |
984 | | | | ----timeout (lsb/msb)
985 | | | --synch period (0x?? 40 Mtrans/sec- fast 40) (probably 0x28)
986 | | | (0x30 20 Mtrans/sec- fast 20)
987 | | | (0x64 10 Mtrans/sec- fast )
988 | | | (0xc8 5 Mtrans/sec)
989 | | | (0x00 asynchronous)
990 | | -- ?? max sync offset (0x08 in NVRAM on 53c810a)
991 | | (0x10 in NVRAM on 53c875)
992 | --device bus width (0x08 narrow)
993 | (0x10 16 bit wide)
994 --flag bits
995 0x00000001 - disconnect enabled
996 0x00000010 - scan at boot time
997 0x00000100 - scan luns
998 0x00001000 - queue tags enabled
1000 remaining bytes unknown - they do not appear to change in my
1001 current set up
1003 ?? use of this data is a guess but seems reasonable
1004 (but it could be max bus width)
1006 default set up for 53c810a NVRAM
1007 default set up for 53c875 NVRAM - bus width - 0x10
1008 - sync offset ? - 0x10
1009 - sync period - 0x30
1010 -----------------------------------------------------------
1011 ?? spare device space (32 bit bus ??)
1013 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 (19x8bytes)
1014 .
1015 .
1016 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
1018 default set up is identical for 53c810a and 53c875 NVRAM
1019 -----------------------------------------------------------
1020 trailer
1022 fe fe - ? end marker ?
1023 00 00
1024 00 00
1026 default set up is identical for 53c810a and 53c875 NVRAM
1027 -----------------------------------------------------------
1031 17.3 Tekram NVRAM layout
1033 nvram 64x16 (1024 bit)
1035 Drive settings
1037 Drive ID 0-15 (addr 0x0yyyy0 = device setup, yyyy = ID)
1038 (addr 0x0yyyy1 = 0x0000)
1040 x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
1041 | | | | | | | | |
1042 | | | | | | | | ----- parity check 0 - off
1043 | | | | | | | | 1 - on
1044 | | | | | | | |
1045 | | | | | | | ------- sync neg 0 - off
1046 | | | | | | | 1 - on
1047 | | | | | | |
1048 | | | | | | --------- disconnect 0 - off
1049 | | | | | | 1 - on
1050 | | | | | |
1051 | | | | | ----------- start cmd 0 - off
1052 | | | | | 1 - on
1053 | | | | |
1054 | | | | -------------- tagged cmds 0 - off
1055 | | | | 1 - on
1056 | | | |
1057 | | | ---------------- wide neg 0 - off
1058 | | | 1 - on
1059 | | |
1060 --------------------------- sync rate 0 - 10.0 Mtrans/sec
1061 1 - 8.0
1062 2 - 6.6
1063 3 - 5.7
1064 4 - 5.0
1065 5 - 4.0
1066 6 - 3.0
1067 7 - 2.0
1068 7 - 2.0
1069 8 - 20.0
1070 9 - 16.7
1071 a - 13.9
1072 b - 11.9
1074 Global settings
1076 Host flags 0 (addr 0x100000, 32)
1078 x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
1079 | | | | | | | | | | | |
1080 | | | | | | | | ----------- host ID 0x00 - 0x0f
1081 | | | | | | | |
1082 | | | | | | | ----------------------- support for 0 - off
1083 | | | | | | | > 2 drives 1 - on
1084 | | | | | | |
1085 | | | | | | ------------------------- support drives 0 - off
1086 | | | | | | > 1Gbytes 1 - on
1087 | | | | | |
1088 | | | | | --------------------------- bus reset on 0 - off
1089 | | | | | power on 1 - on
1090 | | | | |
1091 | | | | ----------------------------- active neg 0 - off
1092 | | | | 1 - on
1093 | | | |
1094 | | | -------------------------------- imm seek 0 - off
1095 | | | 1 - on
1096 | | |
1097 | | ---------------------------------- scan luns 0 - off
1098 | | 1 - on
1099 | |
1100 -------------------------------------- removable 0 - disable
1101 as BIOS dev 1 - boot device
1102 2 - all
1104 Host flags 1 (addr 0x100001, 33)
1106 x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
1107 | | | | | |
1108 | | | --------- boot delay 0 - 3 sec
1109 | | | 1 - 5
1110 | | | 2 - 10
1111 | | | 3 - 20
1112 | | | 4 - 30
1113 | | | 5 - 60
1114 | | | 6 - 120
1115 | | |
1116 --------------------------- max tag cmds 0 - 2
1117 1 - 4
1118 2 - 8
1119 3 - 16
1120 4 - 32
1122 Host flags 2 (addr 0x100010, 34)
1124 x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x x
1125 |
1126 ----- F2/F6 enable 0 - off ???
1127 1 - on ???
1129 checksum (addr 0x111111)
1131 checksum = 0x1234 - (sum addr 0-63)
1133 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------
1135 default nvram data:
1137 0x0037 0x0000 0x0037 0x0000 0x0037 0x0000 0x0037 0x0000
1138 0x0037 0x0000 0x0037 0x0000 0x0037 0x0000 0x0037 0x0000
1139 0x0037 0x0000 0x0037 0x0000 0x0037 0x0000 0x0037 0x0000
1140 0x0037 0x0000 0x0037 0x0000 0x0037 0x0000 0x0037 0x0000
1142 0x0f07 0x0400 0x0001 0x0000 0x0000 0x0000 0x0000 0x0000
1143 0x0000 0x0000 0x0000 0x0000 0x0000 0x0000 0x0000 0x0000
1144 0x0000 0x0000 0x0000 0x0000 0x0000 0x0000 0x0000 0x0000
1145 0x0000 0x0000 0x0000 0x0000 0x0000 0x0000 0x0000 0xfbbc
1148 ===============================================================================
1149 End of Linux SYM-2 driver documentation file