On Mon, 9 Aug 2004 ragge@ludd.luth.se wrote:

> It may also be that rabads only want to speak with an UDA50 that has
> bad-block-handling in the controller.  The RQDX3 leaves the BB handling
> and remapping to software and may not understand the bad block commands.

I had assumed that the RQDX3 would require extra software to do the bad
block replacement because the RQDX3 might not have the firmware to do the
bad block replacement by itself.  That is why I was looking for some
extra software (not a whole OS), like RABADS/EVRLK/MDM, to do the
bad block replacement.  But my assumption here proved to be wrong:
	http://mail-index.netbsd.org/port-vax/1998/01/28/0024.html

Before booting NetBSD, on the microVAX, there were 57 replacement blocks
used.  After using dt (a dd clone http://www.ba23.org/page0100.html#dt) to
exercise the drive for a few hours, the replacement blocks used grew to 60.
So, the RQDX3 must be doing bad block replacement by itself -- no OS
support (or extra utilities) required.  But I would guess that a
specialized utility, with RQDX3 hardware support, could do the bad block
replacement diagnostics alot faster.  For now, I will just exercise the
disk and see what happens.

> -- Ragge
>
> > IIRC the bad blocks from the label of the drive needed to either be
> > manually entered into a bad block track, or you had to run a diagnostic to
> > test each sector and create the table for you. Then the drive should work.
> > I believe that rabads was only used on drives that developed bad blocks
> > while holding a "live" file system.

The pdp11 XXDP utility appears to test each sector and do some bad
block replacement.  But it didn't appear to find all the bad blocks.
I'm starting to think this ST-225 drive is too worn out to use :-)

I ignored the manufacturing bad block information, listed on the drive's
label.  I have no idea how to translate this info into something that
XXDP can use.  Does the manufacturer start counting at zero or one --
having a off-by-one error seems to be very possible.  For now, I will
have to hope that the bad block replacement diagnostics will find these
bad blocks and any new bad blocks that appeared in the last 15+ years.

> >
> > --Chuck
> >
> > At 09:58 AM 8/8/2004, Kirk Russell wrote:
> > >Hello,
> > >
> > >I found a ST-225 drive at a local hardware surplus.  First I initialized
> > >the drive with a RQDX3 controller:
> > >- changed the drive select from 1 to 3
> > >- put a PDP11/23+ in the BA23 enclosure
> > >- run XXDP's ZRQC??.BIN on the RD31 -- seemed to work okay
> > >
> > >I replaced the PDP11/23+ with a KA640-A, in the same BA23 enclosure.  And
> > >netbooted NetBSD 1.6.  There appears to be some bad blocks:
> > >
> > >ra0: drive 0 soft error datagram: unit 0: small disk error, cyl 35: data
> > >error (uncorrectable ecc) (code 8, subcode 7)
> > >ra0: drive 0 soft error datagram: unit 0: small disk error, cyl 39: data
> > >error (uncorrectable ecc) (code 8, subcode 7)
> > >ra0: drive 0 soft error datagram: unit 0: small disk error, cyl 41: data
> > >error (uncorrectable ecc) (code 8, subcode 7)
> > >ra0: drive 0 soft error datagram: unit 0: small disk error, cyl 563: data
> > >error (uncorrectable ecc) (code 8, subcode 7)
> > >
> > >I assume you have to run rabads to replace the blocks:
> > >- get rabads from
> > >
> > >http://highgate.comm.sfu.ca/pups/4BSD/Distributions/odds-ends/rabads.a.out
> > >- still using the same RQDX3 controller
> > >- netboot rabads
> > >
> > >I cannot get rabads to find the RQDX3 controller.  What am I missing?  TIA.
> > >
> > >KA640-A V4.1, VMB 2.5
> > >Performing normal system tests.
> > >41..40..39..38..37..36..35..34..33..32..31..30..29..28..27..26..
> > >25..24..23..22..21..20..19..18..17..16..15..14..13..
> > >
> > >?40 1 07 FF 00 0000
> > >12..11..10..
> > >09..08..07..06..05..04..03..
> > >Tests completed.
> > > >>>show qbus
> > >Scan of Qbus I/O Space
> > >-20001468 (772150) = FFFF (154) RQDX3/KDA50/RRD50/RQC25/KFQSA-DISK
> > >-2000146A (772152) = 0B40
> > >-20001900 (774400) = 0080 (160) RLV12
> > >-20001902 (774402) = 0000
> > >-20001904 (774404) = 0000
> > >-20001906 (774406) = 7FFF
> > >-20001F40 (777500) = 0020 (004) IPCR
> > >
> > >Scan of Qbus Memory Space
> > > >>>show UQSSP
> > >UQSSP Disk Controller 0 (772150)
> > >-DUA0 (RD31)
> > >-DUA1 (RX50)
> > >-DUA2 (RX50)
> > > >>>boot esa0:
> > >(BOOT/R5:0 ESA0)
> > >
> > >
> > >
> > >   2..
> > >-ESA0
> > >   1..0..
> > >
> > >
> > > >> NetBSD/vax boot [Nov 17 2000 07:23:42] <<
> > > >> Press any key to abort autoboot 4
> > >Press '?' for help
> > > > boot rabads
> > >Trying BOOTP
> > >Using IP address: 192.168.1.113
> > >myip: tinvax (192.168.1.113)
> > >root addr=192.168.1.201 path=/export/netboot/tinvax/root
> > >57308+0+0 total=0xdfe0
> > >
> > >
> > >ULTRIX DSA Disk Initialization Program
> > >
> > >rabads <help exit drives status table init replace>: init
> > >
> > >Enter UBA number ( 0 - 7 )  < 0 >: 0
> > >
> > >Enter controller CSR (in octal) < 172150 >: 772150
> > >CSR address too large!
> > >
> > >Enter controller CSR (in octal) < 172150 >: 172150
> > >
> > >Enter unit number ( 0 - 7 )  < 0 >: 0
> > >
> > >?12 DBL ERR2
> > >         PC = EF00FB14
> > > >>>
> > >
> > >--
> > >Kirk Russell                  http://www.employees.org/~kirk/
> >
> >
> >
>
>

-- 
Kirk Russell                              <kirk@ba23.org>
Bridlewood Software Testers Guild         http://www.ba23.org/