[Xen-devel] Partial workaround for probs with 3ware Controller

["Sven Kretzschmar" <sven.kretzschmar@xxxxxx>]

Ok, I found a temporary workaround (not a good one though)
for the probs with the 3ware card.
If the option "ignorebiostables" is given as Xen kernel boot
option, then the 3ware card is initialized and configured
correctly with no problems. Also mounting and using
filesystems on the connected RAID array worked.

However, this is a very bad workaround, because it implies
"nosmp" which means that the second cpu in the server
is completely useless :-(

I also tried using only the Xen kernel boot option "noacpi" and/or
"nosmp", but that did not help with the 3ware driver.
Also the option "acpi=off" or "pci=noacpi" as XenLinux 2.6.7
boot option did not help.

Attached to this post is the bootlog from both booting with
(xendump-ibt.txt) and without (xendump-norm.txt) "ignorebiostables"
option set.

The Motherboard used is a Dual-Xeon Tyan S2721-533 V1.02
with 2 Xeon 2.6Ghz processors and 1 GIG RAM.
HT was disabled in the bios.

It seems there's still a bug or incompatibility with Xen concerning
Interrupts or Interrupt routing (?) because on vanilla 2.6.7 kernels,
the 3ware driver has no problems, even with high IRQ numbers
(like #72) assigned.

@Ian: I compiled Xen this time with "make clean", "debug=y make",
         "debug=y make install". However I could not see any more
         output from Xen than before as I compiled without "debug=y".
         Is this normal or did I make a mistake ? Does the bootlog
         in the attachment look as if the debug option was set ?

 HTH,
    Sven

P.S.: Thanks to Nuno Silva :) Although your hint was not really applicable, it
         at least led me in the correct direction, after I have browsed some
         reports about other 3ware controller probs in the internet.

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 13.08.2004 at 17:58 Ian Pratt wrote:

>>
>> >Doing a cat /proc/interrupts and seeing if you're getting any
>> >for the device would be interesting.
>> Yes, on both a vanilla 2.6.7 and Xen 2.6.7 its IRQ 72 (Phys-irq 3ware
>Storage Controller)
>> on my machine.
>
>It looks like you're only ever receiving one interrupt for the
>3ware card.... very suspicious.
>
>Can you try rmmod'ing the 3ware module and re-insmod'ing it. I
>want to see whether you get one interrupt per init attempt, or
>one ever.
>
>Also, please can you do a debug build of Xen (debug=y) and then
>post the output of the machine booting.
>
>Ian

xendump.xzip
Description: Zip archive