Re: port-alpha/40604: AlphaServer DS20E loses HDs and other Drives when adding 1 GB more RAM

[Marco Poli <polimarco%gmail.com@localhost>]

The following reply was made to PR port-alpha/40604; it has been noted by GNATS.

From: Marco Poli <polimarco%gmail.com@localhost>
To: gnats-bugs%netbsd.org@localhost
Cc: 
Subject: Re: port-alpha/40604: AlphaServer DS20E loses HDs and other Drives 
        when adding 1 GB more RAM
Date: Thu, 12 Feb 2009 21:36:33 -0200

 Hello Havard!
 
 I just switched Bank 0 with the 4 memory boards that used to be in
 Bank 1. NetBSD booted fine.
 
 I installed and ran sysutils/memtester, no errors reported.
 
 
 ---
 
 
 
 
 
 On Wed, Feb 11, 2009 at 12:50 PM, Havard Eidnes <he%netbsd.org@localhost> 
wrote:
 > The following reply was made to PR port-alpha/40604; it has been noted by 
 > GNATS.
 >
 > From: Havard Eidnes <he%NetBSD.org@localhost>
 > To: gnats-bugs%NetBSD.org@localhost, polimarco%gmail.com@localhost
 > Cc: port-alpha-maintainer%netbsd.org@localhost, 
 > netbsd-bugs%netbsd.org@localhost
 > Subject: Re: port-alpha/40604: AlphaServer DS20E loses HDs and other Drives
 >  when adding 1 GB more RAM
 > Date: Wed, 11 Feb 2009 15:45:18 +0100 (CET)
 >
 >  > Ok, that's one of the weirdest bugs I have ever faced.
 >  >
 >  > I recently got a AlphaServer DS20E with 2 833 MHz CPUs, 5 Hard
 >  > Drives and 3 Power Sources. Nice server.
 >  >
 >  > The machine came with 1 GB RAM, 4x256 MB DIMM boards placed in Bank 0=
 >  .=
 >
 >  >
 >  > I installed NetBSD 4.0.1 without any issues and immediately got
 >  > the 5 Hard Drives in a RAID configuration, with root and swap
 >  > under RAID1 and /usr under a RAID5. All working very nicely.
 >  >
 >  > One day I received 8 more of that 256 MB memories, and hurried
 >  > to upgrade the server. I installed the boards in Banks 1 and 2.
 >  >
 >  > What wasn't my surprise in the next boot, when I was faced with a mys=
 >  terious
 >  >
 >  > -----
 >  > probe(esiop0:0:0:0): request sense for a request sense ?
 >  > probe(esiop0:0:0:0): request sense failed with error 22
 >  > probe(esiop0:0:0:0): generic HBA error
 >  > -----
 >  > and that 3 messages repeat for each of my other 4 Hard Drives.
 >  >
 >  > and then everything closes with the misterious:
 >  > -----
 >  > WARNING: can't figure out what device matches "SCSI 1 7 0 0 0 0 0"
 >  > -----
 >  > That should be my boot and root device, dka0.
 >
 >  I experienced some similar weirdness on an Alpha DP264 box I
 >  currently have in operation.  I think my conclusion was that this
 >  was due to some of the memory being bad.  You could try to see if
 >  this is the case by trying out the internal memory tester in the
 >  SRM firmware, or the more brute-force approach of trying to run
 >  the machine with only the new memory in bank 0, and see if it
 >  then behaves any better (or worse).
 >
 >  However, your statement that it works fine with 2 or 3GB total
 >  memory (presumably the same memory tested above) with no issues
 >  while running Linux 2.6 makes this maybe implausible as an
 >  explanation.  Did you try to push the VM system while it ran
 >  Linux?  You could try pkgsrc/sysutils/memtester to excercise the
 >  system a bit, even though it's not a "real" memory tester (when
 >  you run it on a virtual memory system).  You may need to adjust
 >  the per-process memory limit up, and run sufficiently many
 >  instances to put strain on larger portions of your memory.
 >
 >  Myself?  I yanked out 1GB, so my DP264 box now runs with 1GB
 >  memory.  Admittedly not ideal if this is indeed a bug in NetBSD,
 >  and not a hardware problem...
 >
 >  Regards,
 >
 >  - H=E5vard
 >
 >