Re: occasional kernel freezes possibly related to aac(4) 2410SA

[Ingo Schwarze <schwarze@usta.de>]

Hi Per, hi misc,

> I have (maybe had...) server freezing problems (came during test phase
> with a couple of days interval) with my new home server which is a Dell 
> 400SC with an adaptec 2410SA (4.1-0[5934] set up as a mirror. This server
> is new and I have only ran OpenBSD 3.6 and only with my 2410SA card. When
> the server locked up I could not even see anything on the attached
> monitor. I have not enabled any debugging in the kernel yet to track if
> it's the adaptec card or not that causes my hangings. I was going to try
> what "Antonios Anastasiadis" did (see misc thread) and disable both the
> uhci and the ehci driver to see if I get rid of the freezings (he did and
> pointed against a very buggy *hci driver).

As i don't need USB anyway, i just compiled the kernel without any
usb support.  Let's see whether that will change anything...

> However... before disbling the *hci in the kernel I tried to disable the
> driver cache on my 2410 card ( a long shot) and the hangings have not
> showed up since.

When i first configured the controller, i enabled all cache options,
too.  But right after the first hang, i disabled the write cache on
all SATA devices - after all, when the machine hangs with cache
enabled, you lose data.

I just checked the BIOS settings of the card.
They are currently as follows:

  Controller configuration:
  Drive write cache - disabled
  Runtime BIOS - enabled
  Automatic Failover - enabled
  Array background consistency check - disabled
  Array based BBS support - disabled
  Physical device display during POST - enabled
  Alarm control - enabled

  SATA device configuration:
  Write cache - all four channels - no

> Can you try to disable all cache and reply with status?

The last hang of my machine occurred with firmware 4.2-0 (=Build 7348)
while the write cache on all SATA devices was explicitely switched
off.

> I really want to solve my issue AND have an enabled cache.

You mean, having paid cash for cache, you would like to actually
use it?  Hmmmm...

Well, first of all, i should like to get the controller firmware
to work reliably *at all*.  Locking up every second week is not
that nice.

Yours
  Ingo