The Linux SYM-2 driver documentation file

Written by Gerard Roudier <groudier@free.fr>
21 Rue Carnot
95170 DEUIL LA BARRE - FRANCE

Decembre 28 2000
===============================================================================

1.  Introduction
2.  Supported chips and SCSI features
3.  Advantages of this driver for newer chips.
      3.1 Optimized SCSI SCRIPTS
      3.2 New features appeared with the SYM53C896
4.  Memory mapped I/O versus normal I/O
5.  Tagged command queueing
6.  Parity checking
7.  Profiling information
8.  Control commands
      8.1  Set minimum synchronous period
      8.2  Set wide size
      8.3  Set maximum number of concurrent tagged commands
      8.4  Set debug mode
      8.5  Set flag (no_disc)
      8.6  Set verbose level
      8.7  Reset all logical units of a target
      8.8  Abort all tasks of all logical units of a target
9.  Configuration parameters
10. Boot setup commands
      10.1 Syntax
      10.2 Available arguments
             10.2.1  Master parity checking
             10.2.2  Scsi parity checking
             10.2.3  Default number of tagged commands
             10.2.4  Default synchronous period factor
             10.2.5  Verbosity level
             10.2.6  Debug mode
             10.2.7  Burst max
             10.2.8  LED support
             10.2.9  Max wide
             10.2.10 Differential mode
             10.2.11 IRQ mode
             10.2.12 Reverse probe
             10.2.13 Fix up PCI configuration space
             10.2.14 Serial NVRAM
             10.2.15 Check SCSI BUS 
             10.2.16 Exclude a host from being attached
             10.2.17 Suggest a default SCSI id for hosts
      10.3 PCI configuration fix-up boot option
      10.4 Serial NVRAM support boot option
      10.5 SCSI BUS checking boot option
11. SCSI problem troubleshooting
      15.1 Problem tracking
      15.2 Understanding hardware error reports
12. Serial NVRAM support (by Richard Waltham)
      17.1 Features
      17.2 Symbios NVRAM layout
      17.3 Tekram  NVRAM layout

===============================================================================

1. Introduction

This driver supports the whole SYM53C8XX family of PCI-SCSI controllers.
It also support the subset of LSI53C10XX PCI-SCSI controllers that are based 
on the SYM53C8XX SCRIPTS language.

It replaces the sym53c8xx+ncr53c8xx driver bundle and shares its core code 
with the FreeBSD SYM-2 driver. The `glue' that allows this driver to work 
under Linux is contained in 2 files named sym_glue.h and sym_glue.c.
Other drivers files are intended not to depend on the Operating System 
on which the driver is used.

The history of this driver can be summerized as follows:

1993: ncr driver written for 386bsd and FreeBSD by:
          Wolfgang Stanglmeier        <wolf@cologne.de>
          Stefan Esser                <se@mi.Uni-Koeln.de>

1996: port of the ncr driver to Linux-1.2.13 and rename it ncr53c8xx.
          Gerard Roudier

1998: new sym53c8xx driver for Linux based on LOAD/STORE instruction and that 
      adds full support for the 896 but drops support for early NCR devices.
          Gerard Roudier

1999: port of the sym53c8xx driver to FreeBSD and support for the LSI53C1010 
      33 MHz and 66MHz Ultra-3 controllers. The new driver is named `sym'.
          Gerard Roudier

2000: Add support for early NCR devices to FreeBSD `sym' driver.
      Break the driver into several sources and separate the OS glue 
      code from the core code that can be shared among different O/Ses.
      Write a glue code for Linux.
          Gerard Roudier

This README file addresses the Linux version of the driver. Under FreeBSD, 
the driver documentation is the sym.8 man page.

Information about new chips is available at LSILOGIC web server:

          http://www.lsilogic.com/

SCSI standard documentations are available at T10 site:

          http://www.t10.org/

Useful SCSI tools written by Eric Youngdale are part of most Linux 
distributions:
   scsiinfo:    command line tool
   scsi-config: TCL/Tk tool using scsiinfo

2. Supported chips and SCSI features

The following features are supported for all chips:

	Synchronous negotiation
	Disconnection
	Tagged command queuing
	SCSI parity checking
	PCI Master parity checking

Other features depends on chip capabilities.
The driver notably uses optimized SCRIPTS for devices that support 
LOAD/STORE and handles PHASE MISMATCH from SCRIPTS for devices that 
support the corresponding feature.

The following table shows some characteristics of the chip family.

       On board                                   LOAD/STORE   HARDWARE
Chip   SDMS BIOS   Wide   SCSI std.   Max. sync   SCRIPTS      PHASE MISMATCH
----   ---------   ----   ---------   ----------  ----------   --------------
810        N         N      FAST10    10 MB/s        N             N
810A       N         N      FAST10    10 MB/s        Y             N
815        Y         N      FAST10    10 MB/s        N             N
825        Y         Y      FAST10    20 MB/s        N             N
825A       Y         Y      FAST10    20 MB/s        Y             N
860        N         N      FAST20    20 MB/s        Y             N
875        Y         Y      FAST20    40 MB/s        Y             N
875A       Y         Y      FAST20    40 MB/s        Y             Y
876        Y         Y      FAST20    40 MB/s        Y             N
895        Y         Y      FAST40    80 MB/s        Y             N
895A       Y         Y      FAST40    80 MB/s        Y             Y
896        Y         Y      FAST40    80 MB/s        Y             Y
897        Y         Y      FAST40    80 MB/s        Y             Y
1510D      Y         Y      FAST40    80 MB/s        Y             Y
1010       Y         Y      FAST80   160 MB/s        Y             Y
1010_66*   Y         Y      FAST80   160 MB/s        Y             Y

* Chip supports 33MHz and 66MHz PCI bus clock.


Summary of other supported features:

Module:                allow to load the driver
Memory mapped I/O:     increases performance
Control commands:      write operations to the proc SCSI file system
Debugging information: written to syslog (expert only)
Scatter / gather
Shared interrupt
Boot setup commands
Serial NVRAM:          Symbios and Tekram formats


3. Advantages of this driver for newer chips.

3.1 Optimized SCSI SCRIPTS.

All chips except the 810, 815 and 825, support new SCSI SCRIPTS instructions 
named LOAD and STORE that allow to move up to 1 DWORD from/to an IO register 
to/from memory much faster that the MOVE MEMORY instruction that is supported 
by the 53c7xx and 53c8xx family.

The LOAD/STORE instructions support absolute and DSA relative addressing 
modes. The SCSI SCRIPTS had been entirely rewritten using LOAD/STORE instead 
of MOVE MEMORY instructions.

Due to the lack of LOAD/STORE SCRIPTS instructions by earlier chips, this 
driver also incorporates a different SCRIPTS set based on MEMORY MOVE, in 
order to provide support for the entire SYM53C8XX chips family.

3.2 New features appeared with the SYM53C896

Newer chips (see above) allows handling of the phase mismatch context from 
SCRIPTS (avoids the phase mismatch interrupt that stops the SCSI processor 
until the C code has saved the context of the transfer).

The 896 and 1010 chips support 64 bit PCI transactions and addressing, 
while the 895A supports 32 bit PCI transactions and 64 bit addressing.
The SCRIPTS processor of these chips is not true 64 bit, but uses segment 
registers for bit 32-63. Another interesting feature is that LOAD/STORE 
instructions that address the on-chip RAM (8k) remain internal to the chip.

4. Memory mapped I/O versus normal I/O

Memory mapped I/O has less latency than normal I/O and is the recommended 
way for doing IO with PCI devices. Memory mapped I/O seems to work fine on 
most hardware configurations, but some poorly designed chipsets may break 
this feature. A configuration option is provided for normal I/O to be 
used but the driver defaults to MMIO.

5. Tagged command queueing

Queuing more than 1 command at a time to a device allows it to perform 
optimizations based on actual head positions and its mechanical 
characteristics. This feature may also reduce average command latency.
In order to really gain advantage of this feature, devices must have 
a reasonable cache size (No miracle is to be expected for a low-end 
hard disk with 128 KB or less).
Some kown old SCSI devices do not properly support tagged command queuing.
Generally, firmware revisions that fix this kind of problems are available 
at respective vendor web/ftp sites.
All I can say is that I never have had problem with tagged queuing using 
this driver and its predecessors. Hard disks that behaved correctly for 
me using tagged commands are the following:

- IBM S12 0662
- Conner 1080S
- Quantum Atlas I
- Quantum Atlas II
- Seagate Cheetah I
- Quantum Viking II
- IBM DRVS
- Quantum Atlas IV
- Seagate Cheetah II

If your controller has NVRAM, you can configure this feature per target 
from the user setup tool. The Tekram Setup program allows to tune the 
maximum number of queued commands up to 32. The Symbios Setup only allows 
to enable or disable this feature.

The maximum number of simultaneous tagged commands queued to a device
is currently set to 16 by default.  This value is suitable for most SCSI
disks.  With large SCSI disks (>= 2GB, cache >= 512KB, average seek time
<= 10 ms), using a larger value may give better performances.

This driver supports up to 255 commands per device, and but using more than 
64 is generally not worth-while, unless you are using a very large disk or 
disk arrays. It is noticeable that most of recent hard disks seem not to 
accept more than 64 simultaneous commands. So, using more than 64 queued 
commands is probably just resource wasting.

If your controller does not have NVRAM or if it is managed by the SDMS 
BIOS/SETUP, you can configure tagged queueing feature and device queue 
depths from the boot command-line. For example:

  sym53c8xx=tags:4/t2t3q15-t4q7/t1u0q32

will set tagged commands queue depths as follow:

- target 2  all luns  on controller 0 --> 15
- target 3  all luns  on controller 0 --> 15
- target 4  all luns  on controller 0 -->  7
- target 1  lun 0     on controller 1 --> 32
- all other target/lun                -->  4

In some special conditions, some SCSI disk firmwares may return a
QUEUE FULL status for a SCSI command. This behaviour is managed by the
driver using the following heuristic:

- Each time a QUEUE FULL status is returned, tagged queue depth is reduced 
  to the actual number of disconnected commands. 

- Every 200 successfully completed SCSI commands, if allowed by the
  current limit, the maximum number of queueable commands is incremented.

Since QUEUE FULL status reception and handling is resource wasting, the 
driver notifies by default this problem to user by indicating the actual 
number of commands used and their status, as well as its decision on the 
device queue depth change.
The heuristic used by the driver in handling QUEUE FULL ensures that the 
impact on performances is not too bad. You can get rid of the messages by 
setting verbose level to zero, as follow:

1st method: boot your system using 'sym53c8xx=verb:0' option.
2nd method: apply "setverbose 0" control command to the proc fs entry 
            corresponding to your controller after boot-up.

6. Parity checking

The driver supports SCSI parity checking and PCI bus master parity
checking. These features must be enabled in order to ensure safe data
transfers. However, some flawed devices or mother boards will have
problems with parity. You can disable either PCI parity or SCSI parity 
checking by entering appropriate options from the boot command line.
(See 10: Boot setup commands).

7. Profiling information

This driver does not provide profiling informations as did its predecessors.
This feature was not this useful and added complexity to the code. 
As the driver code got more complex, I have decided to remove everything 
that didn't seem actually useful.

8. Control commands

Control commands can be sent to the driver with write operations to
the proc SCSI file system. The generic command syntax is the
following:

      echo "<verb> <parameters>" >/proc/scsi/sym53c8xx/0
      (assumes controller number is 0)

Using "all" for "<target>" parameter with the commands below will
apply to all targets of the SCSI chain (except the controller).

Available commands:

8.1 Set minimum synchronous period factor

    setsync <target> <period factor>

    target:    target number
    period:    minimum synchronous period.
               Maximum speed = 1000/(4*period factor) except for special
               cases below.

    Specify a period of 0, to force asynchronous transfer mode.

       9 means 12.5 nano-seconds synchronous period
      10 means 25 nano-seconds synchronous period
      11 means 30 nano-seconds synchronous period
      12 means 50 nano-seconds synchronous period

8.2 Set wide size

    setwide <target> <size>

    target:    target number
    size:      0=8 bits, 1=16bits

8.3 Set maximum number of concurrent tagged commands
 
    settags <target> <tags>

    target:    target number
    tags:      number of concurrent tagged commands
               must not be greater than configured (default: 16)

8.4 Set debug mode

    setdebug <list of debug flags>

    Available debug flags:
        alloc:   print info about memory allocations (ccb, lcb)
        queue:   print info about insertions into the command start queue
        result:  print sense data on CHECK CONDITION status
        scatter: print info about the scatter process
        scripts: print info about the script binding process
	tiny:    print minimal debugging information
	timing:  print timing information of the NCR chip
	nego:    print information about SCSI negotiations
	phase:   print information on script interruptions

    Use "setdebug" with no argument to reset debug flags.


8.5 Set flag (no_disc)
 
    setflag <target> <flag>

    target:    target number

    For the moment, only one flag is available:

        no_disc:   not allow target to disconnect.

    Do not specify any flag in order to reset the flag. For example:
    - setflag 4
      will reset no_disc flag for target 4, so will allow it disconnections.
    - setflag all
      will allow disconnection for all devices on the SCSI bus.


8.6 Set verbose level

    setverbose #level

    The driver default verbose level is 1. This command allows to change 
    th driver verbose level after boot-up.

8.7 Reset all logical units of a target

    resetdev <target>

    target:    target number
    The driver will try to send a BUS DEVICE RESET message to the target.

8.8 Abort all tasks of all logical units of a target

    cleardev <target>

    target:    target number
    The driver will try to send a ABORT message to all the logical units 
    of the target.


9. Configuration parameters

Under kernel configuration tools (make menuconfig, for example), it is 
possible to change some default driver configuration parameters.
If the firmware of all your devices is perfect enough, all the
features supported by the driver can be enabled at start-up. However,
if only one has a flaw for some SCSI feature, you can disable the
support by the driver of this feature at linux start-up and enable
this feature after boot-up only for devices that support it safely.

Configuration parameters:

Use normal IO                         (default answer: n)
    Answer "y" if you suspect your mother board to not allow memory mapped I/O.
    May slow down performance a little.

Default tagged command queue depth    (default answer: 16)
    Entering 0 defaults to tagged commands not being used.
    This parameter can be specified from the boot command line.

Maximum number of queued commands     (default answer: 32)
    This option allows you to specify the maximum number of tagged commands 
    that can be queued to a device. The maximum supported value is 255.

Synchronous transfers frequency       (default answer: 80)
    This option allows you to specify the frequency in MHz the driver 
    will use at boot time for synchronous data transfer negotiations.
    0 means "asynchronous data transfers".

10. Boot setup commands

10.1 Syntax

Setup commands can be passed to the driver either at boot time or as a 
string variable using 'insmod'.

A boot setup command for this driver begins with the driver name "sym53c8xx=".
The kernel syntax parser then expects an optionnal list of integers separated 
with comma followed by an optional list of  comma-separated strings.

Example of boot setup command under lilo prompt:

lilo: linux root=/dev/sda2 sym53c8xx=tags:4,sync:10,debug:0x200

- enable tagged commands, up to 4 tagged commands queued.
- set synchronous negotiation speed to 10 Mega-transfers / second.
- set DEBUG_NEGO flag.

Since comma seems not to be allowed when defining a string variable using  
'insmod', the driver also accepts <space> as option separator. 
The following command will install driver module with the same options as 
above.

    insmod sym53c8xx.o sym53c8xx="tags:4 sync:10 debug:0x200"

The integer list of arguments is discarded by the driver. 

Each string argument must be specified as "keyword:value". Only lower-case 
characters and digits are allowed.

10.2 Available arguments

10.2.1  Master parity checking
        mpar:y     enabled
        mpar:n     disabled

10.2.2  Scsi parity checking
        spar:y     enabled
        spar:n     disabled

10.2.3  Default number of tagged commands
        tags:0     (or tags:1 ) tagged command queuing disabled
        tags:#tags (#tags  > 1) tagged command queuing enabled
  #tags will be truncated to the max queued commands configuration parameter.
  This option also allows to specify a command queue depth for each device 
  that support tagged command queueing.
  Example:
      sym53c8xx=tags:10/t2t3q16-t5q24/t1u2q32
               will set devices queue depth as follow:
      - controller #0 target #2 and target #3                  -> 16 commands,
      - controller #0 target #5                                -> 24 commands,
      - controller #1 target #1 logical unit #2                -> 32 commands,
      - all other logical units (all targets, all controllers) -> 10 commands.

10.2.4  Default synchronous period factor
        sync:255     disabled (asynchronous transfer mode)
        sync:#factor
  #factor =  9     Ultra-3 SCSI 80 Mega-transfers / second (Wide only)
  #factor = 10     Ultra-2 SCSI 40 Mega-transfers / second
  #factor = 11     Ultra-2 SCSI 33 Mega-transfers / second
  #factor < 25     Ultra   SCSI 20 Mega-transfers / second
  #factor < 50     Fast    SCSI-2

  In all cases, the driver will use the minimum transfer period supported by 
  controllers according to SYM53C8XX chip type.

10.2.5  Verbosity level
        verb:0     minimal
        verb:1     normal
        verb:2     too much

10.2.6 Debug mode
        debug:0	 clear debug flags
        debug:#x   set debug flags
  #x is an integer value combining the following power-of-2 values:
  DEBUG_ALLOC       0x1
  DEBUG_PHASE       0x2
  DEBUG_POLL        0x4
  DEBUG_QUEUE       0x8
  DEBUG_RESULT     0x10
  DEBUG_SCATTER    0x20
  DEBUG_SCRIPT     0x40
  DEBUG_TINY       0x80
  DEBUG_TIMING    0x100
  DEBUG_NEGO      0x200
  DEBUG_TAGS      0x400
  DEBUG_FREEZE    0x800
  DEBUG_RESTART  0x1000

  You can play safely with DEBUG_NEGO. However, some of these flags may 
  generate bunches of syslog messages. 

10.2.7 Burst max
        burst:0    burst disabled
        burst:255  get burst length from initial IO register settings.
        burst:#x   burst enabled (1<<#x burst transfers max)
  #x is an integer value which is log base 2 of the burst transfers max.
  By default the driver uses the maximum value supported by the chip.

10.2.8 LED support
        led:1      enable  LED support
        led:0      disable LED support
  Donnot enable LED support if your scsi board does not use SDMS BIOS.
  (See 'Configuration parameters')

10.2.9 Max wide
        wide:1      wide scsi enabled
        wide:0      wide scsi disabled
  Some scsi boards use a 875 (ultra wide) and only supply narrow connectors.
  If you have connected a wide device with a 50 pins to 68 pins cable 
  converter, any accepted wide negotiation will break further data transfers.
  In such a case, using "wide:0" in the bootup command will be helpfull. 

10.2.10 Differential mode
        diff:0	never set up diff mode
        diff:1	set up diff mode if BIOS set it
        diff:2	always set up diff mode
        diff:3	set diff mode if GPIO3 is not set

10.2.11 IRQ mode
        irqm:0     always open drain
        irqm:1     same as initial settings (assumed BIOS settings)
        irqm:2     always totem pole

10.2.12 Reverse probe
        revprob:n   probe chip ids from the PCI configuration in this order:
                    810, 815, 825, 860, 875, 885, 875A, 895, 896, 895A,
                    1510D, 1010-33, 1010-66.
        revprob:y   probe chip ids in the reverse order.

10.2.13 Fix up PCI configuration space
        pcifix:<option bits>

    Available option bits:
        0x0:   No attempt to fix PCI configuration space registers values.
        0x1:   Set PCI cache-line size register if not set.
        0x2:   Set write and invalidate bit in PCI command register.

10.2.14 Serial NVRAM
        nvram:n     do not look for serial NVRAM
        nvram:y     test controllers for onboard serial NVRAM
        (alternate binary form)
        mvram=<bits options>
        0x01   look for NVRAM  (equivalent to nvram=y)
        0x02   ignore NVRAM "Synchronous negotiation" parameters for all devices
        0x04   ignore NVRAM "Wide negotiation"  parameter for all devices
        0x08   ignore NVRAM "Scan at boot time" parameter for all devices
        0x80   also attach controllers set to OFF in the NVRAM (sym53c8xx only)

10.2.15 Check SCSI BUS 
        buschk:<option bits>

    Available option bits:
        0x0:   No check.
        0x1:   Check and do not attach the controller on error.  
        0x2:   Check and just warn on error.

10.2.16 Exclude a host from being attached
        excl=<io_address>

    Prevent host at a given io address from being attached.
    For example 'sym53c8xx=excl:0xb400,excl:0xc000' indicate to the 
    driver not to attach hosts at address 0xb400 and 0xc000.

10.2.17 Suggest a default SCSI id for hosts
        hostid:255	no id suggested.
        hostid:#x   (0 < x < 7) x suggested for hosts SCSI id.

    If a host SCSI id is available from the NVRAM, the driver will ignore 
    any value suggested as boot option. Otherwise, if a suggested value 
    different from 255 has been supplied, it will use it. Otherwise, it will 
    try to deduce the value previously set in the hardware and use value 
    7 if the hardware value is zero.

10.3 PCI configuration fix-up boot option

pcifix:<option bits>

Available option bits:
    0x1:     Set PCI cache-line size register if not set.
    0x2:     Set write and invalidate bit in PCI command register.

Use 'pcifix:3' in order to allow the driver to fix both PCI features.

Recent SYMBIOS 53C8XX scsi processors are able to use PCI read multiple 
and PCI write and invalidate commands. These features require the 
cache line size register to be properly set in the PCI configuration 
space of the chips. On the other hand, chips will use PCI write and 
invalidate commands only if the corresponding bit is set to 1 in the 
PCI command register.

Not all PCI bioses set the PCI cache line register and the PCI write and 
invalidate bit in the PCI configuration space of 53C8XX chips.
Optimized PCI accesses may be broken for some PCI/memory controllers or 
make problems with some PCI boards.

10.4 Serial NVRAM support boot option

nvram:n     do not look for serial NVRAM
nvram:y     test controllers for onboard serial NVRAM

This option can also been entered as an hexadecimal value that allows 
to control what information the driver will get from the NVRAM and what 
information it will ignore.
For details see '17. Serial NVRAM support'.

When this option is enabled, the driver tries to detect all boards using 
a Serial NVRAM. This memory is used to hold user set up parameters.

The parameters the driver is able to get from the NVRAM depend on the 
data format used, as follow:

                                 Tekram format      Symbios format
General and host parameters
    Boot order                         N                   Y
    Host SCSI ID                       Y                   Y
    SCSI parity checking               Y                   Y
    Verbose boot messages              N                   Y
SCSI devices parameters
    Synchronous transfer speed         Y                   Y
    Wide 16 / Narrow                   Y                   Y
    Tagged Command Queuing enabled     Y                   Y
    Disconnections enabled             Y                   Y
    Scan at boot time                  N                   Y

In order to speed up the system boot, for each device configured without 
the "scan at boot time" option, the driver forces an error on the 
first TEST UNIT READY command received for this device.

Some SDMS BIOS revisions seem to be unable to boot cleanly with very fast 
hard disks. In such a situation you cannot configure the NVRAM with 
optimized parameters value.

The 'nvram' boot option can be entered in hexadecimal form in order 
to ignore some options configured in the NVRAM, as follow:

mvram=<bits options>
      0x01   look for NVRAM  (equivalent to nvram=y)
      0x02   ignore NVRAM "Synchronous negotiation" parameters for all devices
      0x04   ignore NVRAM "Wide negotiation"  parameter for all devices
      0x08   ignore NVRAM "Scan at boot time" parameter for all devices
      0x80   also attach controllers set to OFF in the NVRAM (sym53c8xx only)

Option 0x80 is disabled by default.
Result is that, by default (option not set), the sym53c8xx driver will not 
attach controllers set to OFF in the NVRAM.

10.5 SCSI BUS checking boot option.

When this option is set to a non-zero value, the driver checks SCSI lines 
logic state, 100 micro-seconds after having asserted the SCSI RESET line.
The driver just reads SCSI lines and checks all lines read FALSE except RESET.
Since SCSI devices shall release the BUS at most 800 nano-seconds after SCSI 
RESET has been asserted, any signal to TRUE may indicate a SCSI BUS problem.
Unfortunately, the following common SCSI BUS problems are not detected:
- Only 1 terminator installed.
- Misplaced terminators.
- Bad quality terminators.
On the other hand, either bad cabling, broken devices, not conformant 
devices, ... may cause a SCSI signal to be wrong when te driver reads it.

15. SCSI problem troubleshooting

15.1 Problem tracking

Most SCSI problems are due to a non conformant SCSI bus or too buggy
devices.  If infortunately you have SCSI problems, you can check the
following things:

- SCSI bus cables
- terminations at both end of the SCSI chain
- linux syslog messages (some of them may help you)

If you do not find the source of problems, you can configure the
driver or devices in the NVRAM with minimal features.

- only asynchronous data transfers
- tagged commands disabled
- disconnections not allowed

Now, if your SCSI bus is ok, your system has every chance to work
with this safe configuration but performances will not be optimal.

If it still fails, then you can send your problem description to
appropriate mailing lists or news-groups.  Send me a copy in order to
be sure I will receive it.  Obviously, a bug in the driver code is
possible.

  My cyrrent email address: Gerard Roudier <groudier@free.fr>

Allowing disconnections is important if you use several devices on
your SCSI bus but often causes problems with buggy devices.
Synchronous data transfers increases throughput of fast devices like
hard disks.  Good SCSI hard disks with a large cache gain advantage of
tagged commands queuing.

15.2 Understanding hardware error reports

When the driver detects an unexpected error condition, it may display a 
message of the following pattern.

sym0:1: ERROR (0:48) (1-21-65) (f/95/0) @ (script 7c0:19000000).
sym0: script cmd = 19000000
sym0: regdump: da 10 80 95 47 0f 01 07 75 01 81 21 80 01 09 00.

Some fields in such a message may help you understand the cause of the 
problem, as follows:

sym0:1: ERROR (0:48) (1-21-65) (f/95/0) @ (script 7c0:19000000).
.....A.........B.C....D.E..F....G.H..I.......J.....K...L.......

Field A : target number.
  SCSI ID of the device the controller was talking with at the moment the 
  error occurs.

Field B : DSTAT io register (DMA STATUS)
  Bit 0x40 : MDPE Master Data Parity Error
             Data parity error detected on the PCI BUS.
  Bit 0x20 : BF   Bus Fault
             PCI bus fault condition detected
  Bit 0x01 : IID  Illegal Instruction Detected
             Set by the chip when it detects an Illegal Instruction format 
             on some condition that makes an instruction illegal.
  Bit 0x80 : DFE Dma Fifo Empty
             Pure status bit that does not indicate an error.
  If the reported DSTAT value contains a combination of MDPE (0x40), 
  BF (0x20), then the cause may be likely due to a PCI BUS problem.

Field C : SIST io register (SCSI Interrupt Status)
  Bit 0x08 : SGE  SCSI GROSS ERROR
             Indicates that the chip detected a severe error condition 
             on the SCSI BUS that prevents the SCSI protocol from functioning
             properly.
  Bit 0x04 : UDC  Unexpected Disconnection
             Indicates that the device released the SCSI BUS when the chip 
             was not expecting this to happen. A device may behave so to 
             indicate the SCSI initiator that an error condition not reportable              using the SCSI protocol has occurred.
  Bit 0x02 : RST  SCSI BUS Reset
             Generally SCSI targets do not reset the SCSI BUS, although any 
             device on the BUS can reset it at any time.
  Bit 0x01 : PAR  Parity
             SCSI parity error detected.
  On a faulty SCSI BUS, any error condition among SGE (0x08), UDC (0x04) and 
  PAR (0x01) may be detected by the chip. If your SCSI system sometimes 
  encounters such error conditions, especially SCSI GROSS ERROR, then a SCSI 
  BUS problem is likely the cause of these errors.

For fields D,E,F,G and H, you may look into the sym53c8xx_defs.h file 
that contains some minimal comments on IO register bits.
Field D : SOCL  Scsi Output Control Latch
          This register reflects the state of the SCSI control lines the 
          chip want to drive or compare against.
Field E : SBCL  Scsi Bus Control Lines
          Actual value of control lines on the SCSI BUS.
Field F : SBDL  Scsi Bus Data Lines
          Actual value of data lines on the SCSI BUS.
Field G : SXFER  SCSI Transfer
          Contains the setting of the Synchronous Period for output and 
          the current Synchronous offset (offset 0 means asynchronous).
Field H : SCNTL3 Scsi Control Register 3
          Contains the setting of timing values for both asynchronous and 
          synchronous data transfers. 
Field I : SCNTL4 Scsi Control Register 4
          Only meaninful for 53C1010 Ultra3 controllers.

Understanding Fields J, K, L and dumps requires to have good knowledge of 
SCSI standards, chip cores functionnals and internal driver data structures.
You are not required to decode and understand them, unless you want to help 
maintain the driver code.

17. Serial NVRAM (added by Richard Waltham: dormouse@farsrobt.demon.co.uk)

17.1 Features

Enabling serial NVRAM support enables detection of the serial NVRAM included
on Symbios and some Symbios compatible host adaptors, and Tekram boards. The 
serial NVRAM is used by Symbios and Tekram to hold set up parameters for the 
host adaptor and it's attached drives.

The Symbios NVRAM also holds data on the boot order of host adaptors in a
system with more than one host adaptor. This enables the order of scanning
the cards for drives to be changed from the default used during host adaptor
detection.

This can be done to a limited extent at the moment using "reverse probe" but
this only changes the order of detection of different types of cards. The
NVRAM boot order settings can do this as well as change the order the same
types of cards are scanned in, something "reverse probe" cannot do.

Tekram boards using Symbios chips, DC390W/F/U, which have NVRAM are detected
and this is used to distinguish between Symbios compatible and Tekram host 
adaptors. This is used to disable the Symbios compatible "diff" setting
incorrectly set on Tekram boards if the CONFIG_SCSI_53C8XX_SYMBIOS_COMPAT 
configuration parameter is set enabling both Symbios and Tekram boards to be 
used together with the Symbios cards using all their features, including
"diff" support. ("led pin" support for Symbios compatible cards can remain
enabled when using Tekram cards. It does nothing useful for Tekram host
adaptors but does not cause problems either.)


17.2 Symbios NVRAM layout

typical data at NVRAM address 0x100 (53c810a NVRAM)
-----------------------------------------------------------
00 00
64 01
8e 0b

00 30 00 00 00 00 07 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 07 04 10 04 00 00 

04 00 0f 00 00 10 00 50 00 00 01 00 00 62 
04 00 03 00 00 10 00 58 00 00 01 00 00 63 
04 00 01 00 00 10 00 48 00 00 01 00 00 61 
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 

0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00
0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00 
0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00 
0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00 
0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00 
0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00 
0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00 
0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00 

0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00 
0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00 
0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00 
0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00 
0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00 
0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00 
0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00 
0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00 

00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 

00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 

00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 

fe fe
00 00
00 00
-----------------------------------------------------------
NVRAM layout details

NVRAM Address 0x000-0x0ff not used
              0x100-0x26f initialised data
              0x270-0x7ff not used

general layout

        header  -   6 bytes,
        data    - 356 bytes (checksum is byte sum of this data)
        trailer -   6 bytes
                  ---
        total     368 bytes

data area layout

        controller set up  -  20 bytes
        boot configuration -  56 bytes (4x14 bytes)
        device set up      - 128 bytes (16x8 bytes)
        unused (spare?)    - 152 bytes (19x8 bytes)
                             ---
        total                356 bytes

-----------------------------------------------------------
header

00 00   - ?? start marker
64 01   - byte count (lsb/msb excludes header/trailer)
8e 0b   - checksum (lsb/msb excludes header/trailer)
-----------------------------------------------------------
controller set up

00 30 00 00 00 00 07 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 07 04 10 04 00 00
                   |     |           |     |
                   |     |           |      -- host ID
                   |     |           |
                   |     |            --Removable Media Support
                   |     |               0x00 = none
                   |     |               0x01 = Bootable Device
                   |     |               0x02 = All with Media
                   |     |
                   |      --flag bits 2
                   |        0x00000001= scan order hi->low
                   |            (default 0x00 - scan low->hi)
                    --flag bits 1
                       0x00000001 scam enable
                       0x00000010 parity enable
                       0x00000100 verbose boot msgs

remaining bytes unknown - they do not appear to change in my
current set up for any of the controllers.

default set up is identical for 53c810a and 53c875 NVRAM
(Removable Media added Symbios BIOS version 4.09)
-----------------------------------------------------------
boot configuration

boot order set by order of the devices in this table

04 00 0f 00 00 10 00 50 00 00 01 00 00 62 -- 1st controller
04 00 03 00 00 10 00 58 00 00 01 00 00 63    2nd controller
04 00 01 00 00 10 00 48 00 00 01 00 00 61    3rd controller
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00    4th controller
       |  |  |  |     |        |     |  |
       |  |  |  |     |        |      ---- PCI io port adr
       |  |  |  |     |         --0x01 init/scan at boot time
       |  |  |  |      --PCI device/function number (0xdddddfff)
       |  |   ----- ?? PCI vendor ID (lsb/msb)
        ----PCI device ID (lsb/msb)

?? use of this data is a guess but seems reasonable

remaining bytes unknown - they do not appear to change in my
current set up

default set up is identical for 53c810a and 53c875 NVRAM
-----------------------------------------------------------
device set up (up to 16 devices - includes controller)

0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00 - id 0
0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00 
0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00 
0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00 
0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00 
0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00 
0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00 
0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00 

0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00 
0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00 
0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00 
0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00 
0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00 
0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00 
0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00 
0f 00 08 08 64 00 0a 00 - id 15
 |     |  |  |     |  |
 |     |  |  |      ----timeout (lsb/msb)
 |     |  |   --synch period (0x?? 40 Mtrans/sec- fast 40) (probably 0x28)
 |     |  |                  (0x30 20 Mtrans/sec- fast 20)
 |     |  |                  (0x64 10 Mtrans/sec- fast )
 |     |  |                  (0xc8  5 Mtrans/sec)
 |     |  |                  (0x00  asynchronous)
 |     |   -- ?? max sync offset (0x08 in NVRAM on 53c810a) 
 |     |                         (0x10 in NVRAM on 53c875)
 |      --device bus width (0x08 narrow)
 |                         (0x10 16 bit wide)
  --flag bits
    0x00000001 - disconnect enabled
    0x00000010 - scan at boot time
    0x00000100 - scan luns
    0x00001000 - queue tags enabled

remaining bytes unknown - they do not appear to change in my
current set up

?? use of this data is a guess but seems reasonable 
(but it could be max bus width)

default set up for 53c810a NVRAM
default set up for 53c875 NVRAM - bus width     - 0x10
                                - sync offset ? - 0x10
                                - sync period   - 0x30
-----------------------------------------------------------
?? spare device space (32 bit bus ??)

00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00  (19x8bytes)
.
.
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

default set up is identical for 53c810a and 53c875 NVRAM
-----------------------------------------------------------
trailer

fe fe   - ? end marker ?
00 00
00 00

default set up is identical for 53c810a and 53c875 NVRAM
-----------------------------------------------------------



17.3 Tekram NVRAM layout

nvram 64x16 (1024 bit)

Drive settings

Drive ID 0-15 (addr 0x0yyyy0 = device setup, yyyy = ID)
              (addr 0x0yyyy1 = 0x0000)

    x x x x  x x x x  x x x x  x x x x
               | | |      | |  | | | |
               | | |      | |  | | |  ----- parity check   0 - off
               | | |      | |  | | |                       1 - on
               | | |      | |  | | |
               | | |      | |  | |  ------- sync neg       0 - off
               | | |      | |  | |                         1 - on
               | | |      | |  | |
               | | |      | |  |  --------- disconnect     0 - off
               | | |      | |  |                           1 - on
               | | |      | |  |
               | | |      | |   ----------- start cmd      0 - off
               | | |      | |                              1 - on
               | | |      | |
               | | |      |  -------------- tagged cmds    0 - off
               | | |      |                                1 - on
               | | |      | 
               | | |       ---------------- wide neg       0 - off
               | | |                                       1 - on
               | | |
                --------------------------- sync rate      0 - 10.0 Mtrans/sec
                                                           1 -  8.0
                                                           2 -  6.6
                                                           3 -  5.7
                                                           4 -  5.0
                                                           5 -  4.0
                                                           6 -  3.0
                                                           7 -  2.0
                                                           7 -  2.0
                                                           8 - 20.0
                                                           9 - 16.7
                                                           a - 13.9
                                                           b - 11.9

Global settings

Host flags 0 (addr 0x100000, 32) 

    x x x x  x x x x  x x x x  x x x x
    | | | |  | | | |           | | | |
    | | | |  | | | |            ----------- host ID    0x00 - 0x0f
    | | | |  | | | |
    | | | |  | | |  ----------------------- support for    0 - off
    | | | |  | | |                          > 2 drives     1 - on
    | | | |  | | | 
    | | | |  | |  ------------------------- support drives 0 - off
    | | | |  | |                            > 1Gbytes      1 - on
    | | | |  | |
    | | | |  |  --------------------------- bus reset on   0 - off
    | | | |  |                                power on     1 - on
    | | | |  |
    | | | |   ----------------------------- active neg     0 - off
    | | | |                                                1 - on
    | | | |
    | | |  -------------------------------- imm seek       0 - off
    | | |                                                  1 - on
    | | |
    | |  ---------------------------------- scan luns      0 - off
    | |                                                    1 - on
    | |
     -------------------------------------- removable      0 - disable
                                            as BIOS dev    1 - boot device
                                                           2 - all

Host flags 1 (addr 0x100001, 33)

    x x x x  x x x x  x x x x  x x x x
               | | |             | | | 
               | | |              --------- boot delay     0 -   3 sec
               | | |                                       1 -   5
               | | |                                       2 -  10
               | | |                                       3 -  20
               | | |                                       4 -  30
               | | |                                       5 -  60
               | | |                                       6 - 120
               | | |
                --------------------------- max tag cmds   0 -  2
                                                           1 -  4
                                                           2 -  8
                                                           3 - 16
                                                           4 - 32

Host flags 2 (addr 0x100010, 34)

    x x x x  x x x x  x x x x  x x x x
                                     |
                                      ----- F2/F6 enable   0 - off ???
                                                           1 - on  ???

checksum (addr 0x111111)

checksum = 0x1234 - (sum addr 0-63)

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

default nvram data:

0x0037 0x0000 0x0037 0x0000 0x0037 0x0000 0x0037 0x0000
0x0037 0x0000 0x0037 0x0000 0x0037 0x0000 0x0037 0x0000
0x0037 0x0000 0x0037 0x0000 0x0037 0x0000 0x0037 0x0000
0x0037 0x0000 0x0037 0x0000 0x0037 0x0000 0x0037 0x0000 

0x0f07 0x0400 0x0001 0x0000 0x0000 0x0000 0x0000 0x0000
0x0000 0x0000 0x0000 0x0000 0x0000 0x0000 0x0000 0x0000
0x0000 0x0000 0x0000 0x0000 0x0000 0x0000 0x0000 0x0000
0x0000 0x0000 0x0000 0x0000 0x0000 0x0000 0x0000 0xfbbc


===============================================================================
End of Linux SYM-2 driver documentation file
