Very Computer

  1) NCR wants IRQ0
       -->  set up IRQs in the BIOS properly
  2) SCSI bus hang during boot reported by driver
       --> This happens to me sometimes, usually on the first try.
  3) SCSI bus lock up
       --> the kernel reports "Aiee, killing interrupt...".  My system
           won't reboot at all because the SCSI bus won't respond.

   Some kind soul suggested turning off optimizations set in the BIOS,
such as hidden DRAM refresh.  I turned it off and it worked, ONCE.  I
was happy and though my troubles were gone, but when I tried reloading
Linux the NCR driver choked again.
   I have the 3.04 NCR BIOS, which is older and supposedly has more problems
with the newer kernels.  This has to be some kind of bug with the drivers
not doing a thorough job initializing the NCR chip.  The thing works, just
not under Linux.  Is there an NCR mailing list, any patches, or newer boot
disks for all of us with NCR53c810 v3.04 BIOS's ?

Thanks to any response.

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P.Chen

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------------------------------------------------------------------
P.Chen

I upgraded last night (I would have done it a long time ago, but ASUS made
a mistake in their documentation).  It works fine now.  The upgrade changed
my CMOS PCI setup to produce those IRQ 0 messages, but that was quickly
fixed by putting the setting back where they belonged.

If you have an asus MB, ftp to asustek.asus.com.tw and look in /pub/ASUS
for the files you need.

Bruce

--

Carnegie Mellon Computer Science        (412)268-7673
http://www.veryComputer.com/~lowekamp/home.html

:    I have the 3.04 NCR BIOS, which is older and supposedly has more problems
: with the newer kernels.  This has to be some kind of bug with the drivers
: not doing a thorough job initializing the NCR chip.  The thing works, just
: not under Linux.  Is there an NCR mailing list, any patches, or newer boot
: disks for all of us with NCR53c810 v3.04 BIOS's ?

You should check for the name of the manufacturer of the chips on your
mainboard and then try contacting them. If ASUS is the one they have a
site at

asustek.asus.com.tw

Unfortunately my manufacturer is ALI. Could anyone help me with a site for
them or does anybody have a step-up for ALI NCR BIOS 3.0.4 -> 3.0.5.

*    Per?miehenkatu 15 A 1            Tel: +358 - 0 - 622 3830        *
**   00150 HELSINKI , FINLAND      Office: +358 - 0 - 564 8192       **

The impression I get is that it can be patched into ANY award BIOS at
the location given.  I'm going to try it tonight / tomorrow on my
non-asus motherboard...

Justin

I was also one of the poor guys with a* SCSI bus ("Warning: NCR7xx
Reset is NOP").
This only happened when accessing (manly, mounting) my CD ROM drive.

Tracing through the NCR driver did not help too much (I fiddled with timeouts
etc., but without a deep understanding of the NCR chip with its downloaded
scripts, to no avail).

Finally, it turned out to be one specific CD (a Linux distribution from
S.U.S.E, Germany).
I have not the faintest idea why this really happened - but I am not using
that fairly outdated edition any more, so I do not care too much.

No problems any more. Weird, but true.

(HW: P5/90, SIS, NCR810 Rev.2, DEC 2 GB HD, Apple CD-300 (NEC CDU561), root
on Seagate IDE disk)

Jan
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If anybody dead for 50 years is posting to the net, let me know. - B.Templeton