Re: Problem with 2.0.24 SCSI change

Keith Rohrer (kwrohrer@uiuc.edu)
Thu, 31 Oct 1996 00:03:39 -0600


Linus Torvalds wrote:
> There is no really good way to order different host adapters. There are many
> different ways it can be done, and none of them are the RightWay(tm). You can
> do it by adapter type, by card position on the bus (where known) or by
> position in IO space, and none of the ways are very good. They all fail
> sometimes (moving the card around or just switching cards), but the kind
> of failure you see in 2.0.24 is just plain stupid (when it changes just
> because the kernel looks in a different order).
Having just used a similar trick to divvy up my parallel ports between
plip and lp, I can suggest making the driver for the first SCSI
controller be the only one linked into the kernel. You can use /etc/rc*
to insmod the extra controller drivers in the right order, and you can
even do it before / gets mounted rw. The only drawback is you'll need
to make sure to keep your kernel modules up to date on your emergency
root floppy, as well as updating your emergency boot disk. You do keep
up-to-date rescue disks, right? With your backups?

Keith (CONFIG_MODVERSIONS: the old SCSI driver you load may run your
backup device!)

-- 
"It moved faster.  I swear, they are evolving right before my eyes.  If 
you see something this big, with eight legs coming your way, let me 
know; I have to kill it before it develops language skills." 
	--- Ambassador Londo Mollari, in 'Sic Transit Vir' (Babylon 5)