Installation Problems

[Irving Lopez]

Hi,
I'm trying to install Caldera eServer 2.3 in a HP-LC200 server and the installation program don't detect the SCSI driver SymBios SIM53C896

[Albert E. Whale, CISSP]

Irving,

I have not heard of any installation detection problems for the SCSI Devices under Linux-Mandrake (my OS of choice). However I too have had installtion detection problems for various cards in the past, I would recommend using the correct IRQ information on the boot string.

I would recommend the BOOT Prompt Howto. You can get the Master Copy from http://www.linuxdoc.org/HOWTO/BootPrompt-HOWTO.html

Hope that helps!

Have a Great Day!

[Irving Lopez]

i find that the adapter i'm using (NCR53c896) is not listed in the supported devices and doesn't accept boot args.

Thanks for your response Albert

[Albert E. Whale, CISSP]

I am not sure if the Caldera software uses modules or not, but if it does, this should work!

Add the following entry to /etc/conf.modules or /etc/modules.conf (it's use is deprecated!):

alias scsi_hostadapter ncr53c8xx

More information is available in the Configure.help file documentation for your Kernel Version Doc. Here's an excerpt for 2.2.14 -

CONFIG_SCSI_NCR53C8XX
This is the BSD ncr driver adapted to Linux for the NCR53C8XX family
of PCI-SCSI controllers. This driver supports parity checking,
tagged command queuing and fast synchronous data transfers up to 80
MB/s with wide FAST-40 LVD devices and controllers.

Recent versions of the 53C8XX chips are better supported by the
option "SYM53C8XX SCSI support", below. This option will configure
a different driver.

If you want the kernel to select the recommended driver for each of
of your NCR/SYM53C8XX controllers you may just configure both the
NCR53C8XX and the SYM53C8XX options to Y, or if modules are preferred,
load first the sym53c8xx.o module and then the ncr53c8xx.o module.

Note: there is yet another driver for the 53c8xx family of controllers
("NCR53c7,8xx SCSI support" above). If you want to use them both,
you need to say M to both and build them as modules, but only one
may be active at a time. If you have a 53c8xx board, you probably do
not want to use the "NCR53c7,8xx SCSI support".

Please read drivers/scsi/README.ncr53c8xx for more information.


SYM53C8XX SCSI support
CONFIG_SCSI_SYM53C8XX
This driver supports all the features of recent 53C8XX chips (used
in PCI SCSI controllers), notably the hardware phase mismatch
feature of the SYM53C896.

Older versions of the 53C8XX chips are not supported by this
driver. If your system uses either a 810 rev. < 16, a 815, or a 825
rev. < 16 PCI SCSI processor, you must use the generic NCR53C8XX
driver ("NCR53C8XX SCSI support" above) or configure both the
NCR53C8XX and this SYM53C8XX drivers either as module or linked to
the kernel image.

When both drivers are linked to the kernel, the SYM53C8XX driver is
called first at initialization and you can use the 'excl=ioaddr'
driver boot option to exclude attachment of adapters by the SYM53C8XX
driver. For instance, entering 'sym53c8xx=excl:0xb400,excl=0xc000' at
lilo prompt prevents adapters at io address 0xb400 and 0xc000 from
being attached by the SYM53C8XX driver, thus allowing the NCR53C8XX
driver to attach them. The 'excl' option is also supported by the
NCR53C8XX driver.

This is probably more information than you need, but needless to say, I am doing this for the Points!

Have a Great Day!

[Irving Lopez]

Hi,
I resolved the problem just disabling the "Reserve PCI bus Numbers" in the BIOS

Thanks for your help Albert

[Albert E. Whale, CISSP]

Glad to be able to help!

Thanks for the Points!