From: senseman@lonestar.utsa.edu (David M. Senseman)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi
Subject: Re: SCSI Disk Problem? (1.6 MB Seagate) [ with SCSI error info ]
Date: 22 Jul 92 12:22:15 GMT
Organization: University of Texas at San Antonio

In article <njj76k8@zuni.esd.sgi.com> olson@anchor.esd.sgi.com (Dave Olson) writes:
>In <1992Jul22.022754.10599@ringer.cs.utsa.edu> senseman@ricky.brainlab.utsa.edu (David M. Senseman) writes:
>
>
>| We recently installed a 1.6 GB Seagate drive on the external
>| SCSI connector of an Indigo XS-24 (IRIX 4.0.5). The hardware
>| inventory is as follows:
>
>| 	sc0,4,0: cmd=0x1b timeout after 60 sec.  Resetting SCSI Bus
>| 	SCSI device/cable diagnostic     * FAILED *
>
>You almost certainly don't have the drive jumpered to not spinup
>until a startunit cmd is received.  When not jumpered this way,
>various drives will not respond to commands, or will accept commands
>but not complete them, etc.  In this case, the firmware appears to
>be somewhat confused, since a startunit command was issued (0x1b),
>but it timed out.  These drives should spinup in far less than 60
>seconds.  If the drive *is* jumpered to not spin up at poweron,
>then something is wrong with the drive.

The reference sheet stated that the "Motor On" jumpers delayed
start-up for 16 sec TIMES the SCSI ID. At SCSI ID 4, does this
mean that the drive, if jumpered, waits 5 x 16 sec (SCSI counting
begins at 0?). Also it's early in the morning when I'm reading this 
but the double negatives above mean that I should have the jumpers
installed for delayed motor on, or should the jumpers be removed?

BTW, what about the 4 Spindle Index pins/jumpers for synchronization --
are they used for anything in an Indigo? It didn't seem to matter
if they were jumpered or not.

>Sounds like something is wrong with the SCSI bus.  Are you sure
>that the cable to the external drive is a real, honest to god,
>SCSI cable, and not a cheap lookalike ;)  Seriously, some centronics
>printer cables look just like SCSI cables, but have smaller conductors,
>and don't always have all pins connected, particularly some of the
>grounds.

Actually we make our own from flat ribbon cables. I'm not sure
of the gauge -- is AWG 26 reasonable? Of course, if I have
used the vise correctly, every wire should be connected ;-)
Are flat ribbon cables better/worse than round ones? I will
admit that the cable is a bit long (10 ft ?) but everything
did work fine UNTIL we replaced a Toshiba 140 MB drive with 
the Seagate 1.6GB.

>Of course, even that wouldn't explain the earlier errors.  Check
>for unix: messages in /usr/adm/SYSLOG, and see if they indicate
>anything.

OOH--MAAA---GOD!....Things look worse than I thought:

Jul 21 16:27:35 ricky unix: sc0,7,0: cmd=0xA timeout after 150 sec.  Resetting S
CSI bus
Jul 21 16:27:36 ricky unix: dks0d1s1: retrying request
Jul 21 16:27:40 ricky unix: dks0d4s7 (/usr2): retrying request
Jul 21 16:42:16 ricky unix: NOTICE: SCSI tape #3 blocksize mismatch; blocksize o
n tape is 20480 bytes
Jul 21 16:42:24 ricky last message repeated 7 times
Jul 21 17:09:09 ricky unix: sc0,7,0: cmd=0xA timeout after 150 sec.  Resetting S
CSI bus
Jul 21 17:09:10 ricky unix: dks0d1s1: retrying request
Jul 21 17:09:20 ricky unix: dks0d4s7 (/usr2): retrying request
Jul 21 17:14:53 ricky unix: dks0d5s7 (/usr3): retrying request
Jul 21 17:15:01 ricky unix: sc0,7,0: cmd=0xA timeout after 150 sec.  Resetting S
CSI bus
Jul 21 17:15:01 ricky unix: dks0d4s7 (/usr2): retrying request
Jul 21 17:15:01 ricky unix: dks0d1s6 (/usr): retrying request
Jul 21 17:22:05 ricky unix: sc0,7,0: cmd=0x10 timeout after 150 sec.  Resetting
SCSI bus
Jul 21 17:22:06 ricky unix: dks0d1s1: retrying request
Jul 21 17:22:38 ricky unix: dks0d4s7 (/usr2): retrying request
Jul 21 17:44:59 ricky unix: sc0,7,0: cmd=0x10 timeout after 150 sec.  Resetting
SCSI bus
Jul 21 17:44:59 ricky unix: dks0d1s6 (/usr): retrying request
Jul 21 17:46:32 ricky unix: dks0d4s7 (/usr2): retrying request
Jul 21 17:51:28 ricky unix: dks0d4s7 (/usr2): Drive not ready: Driver not ready,
 ASQ=0x2,. Block #0  

sc0,7,0 is the 150 MB SCSI Tape Drive. I was trying make backups using
"bru" and "tar" when these timeout errors occurred. Kinda makes you
think the additional money you pay for SGI peripherals might be
worth it after all. 

Dave, thanks once again for your most execellent help.
Newsgroups: comp.sys.sgi