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Re: SPARC SCSI parity error

To: Kit Halsted <kit@kithalsted.com>
Subject: Re: SPARC SCSI parity error
From: Eric Zylstra <ezylstra@ucla.edu>
Date: Wed, 27 Feb 2002 15:28:35 -0800
Cc: misc@openbsd.org
In-reply-to: <p04320408b8a313a36ff6@[10.0.1.3]>
Sender: owner-misc@openbsd.org
This is a big DOH! on my part. SCSI bus was unterminated with a 3' cable hanging out the back plugged into nothing. Remove the cable and the errors go away.

Apologies for the noise.

EZ


On Wednesday, February 27, 2002, at 03:15 PM, Kit Halsted wrote:

Howdy, Eric:

Disclaimer: My only Sparc experience is with a SPARCstation 4, so I'm not clued in as far as model-specific anomalies like I am with Macs.

At 12:35 PM -0800 2/27/02, Eric Zylstra wrote:
I've just installed 2.8 on a SPARCStation LX. While booting, it has poured out a bunch of SCSI parity errors. I can't get a dmesg out now since is is busy generating the DSA host key. One possibly relevant bit of information is that I had to replace the NVRAM chip which I programmed with some data (aside from the machine type field) that was bogus. I don't expect that would have caused the parity issues.

AFAIK, that's got much to do with networking & nothing to do with disk. (My SGI INDY has been powered down for >6 months now, I'm guessing I'll have to venture into NVRAM-reprogramming-land next time I try to boot it.)

It seems two errors are issued.

#1
sd0 (esp0:3:0):  Check Condition on opcode 8
     SENSE KEY:  Aborted Command
    INFO FIELD:  <some number>
      ASC/ASCQ:  SCSI Parity Error
      FRU CODE:  0x5

#2
sd0 (esp0:3:0):  Check Condition on opcode a
     SENSE KEY:  Aborted Command
    INFO FIELD:  <some number>
      ASC/ASCQ:  SCSI Parity Error
      FRU CODE:  0x5

The errors haven't seemed to interfere with booting.

Could this be corrected by reformatting the hard drive?

Anything's possible, but I doubt it.

Does this just mean the drive is probably getting a bit tired and might need to pass on to eternal rest?

Probably, but...

It's possible, but not likely, that there's a jumper on the "Disable Parity" pins (or no jumper on "Enable Parity") on the drive. Googling for the drive manufacturer + drive model number + the word "jumper" will probably give you all the jumper info you need.

That being said, the drive is most likely toast. Here's what the Sun manual has to say about it:

<http://docs.sun.com:80/ab2/coll.208.1/SMCLASSIC/@Ab2PageView/idmatch
(Z40009C59CA)?Ab2Lang=C&Ab2Enc=iso-8859-1#Z40009C59CA>

& here's the URL for the whole manual:

<http://docs.sun.com/ab2/coll.208.1/SMCLASSIC/>

Thanks for any input,

HTH,
-Kit
-- "They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
-Benjamin Franklin

"...qui desiderat pacem, praeparet bellum"
(...if you would have peace, be prepared for war)
-Flavius Vegetius Renatus

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