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.\" @(#)uda.4 6.6 (Berkeley) 3/27/91
disk controller interface
.Cd "controller uda0 at uba0 csr 0172150 vector udaintr"
.Cd "disk ra0 at uda0 drive 0"
.Cd "options MSCP_PARANOIA"
disk controller and other
compatible controllers. The
communicates with the host through
a packet protocol known as the Mass Storage Control Protocol
for a detailed description of this protocol.
is a typical block-device disk driver; see
for a description of block
should be used to create the
special files; should a special
file need to be created by hand, consult
option enables runtime checking on all transfer completion responses
from the controller. This increases disk
be undesirable on slow machines, but is otherwise recommended.
The first sector of each disk contains both a first-stage bootstrap program
and a disk label containing geometry information and partition layouts (see
This sector is normally write-protected, and disk-to-disk copies should
avoid copying this sector.
The label may be updated with
which can also be used to write-enable and write-disable the sector.
The next 15 sectors contain a second-stage bootstrap program.
During autoconfiguration,
as well as when a drive is opened after all partitions are closed,
the first sector of the drive is examined for a disk label.
If a label is found, the geometry of the drive and the partition tables
the driver configures the type of each drive when it is first
encountered. A default partition table in the driver is used for each type
of disk when a pack is not labelled. The origin and size
(in sectors) of the default pseudo-disks on each
drive are shown below. Not all partitions begin on cylinder
boundaries, as on other drives, because previous drivers used one
partition table for all drive types. Variants of the partition tables
are common; check the driver and the file
Special file names begin with
for the block and character files respectively. The second
component of the name, a drive unit number in the range of zero to
seven, is represented by a
in the disk layouts below. The last component of the name is the
and which corresponds to a minor device number set: zero to seven,
eight to 15, 16 to 23 and so forth for drive zero, drive two and drive
The location and size (in sectors) of the partitions:
.Bl -column header diskx undefined length
ra?d 49324 82080 same as 4.2BSD ra?g
ra?e 131404 268772 same as 4.2BSD ra?h
ra?e 49324 193282 same as old Berkeley ra?g
ra?f 49324 82080 same as 4.2BSD ra?g
ra?h 131404 111202 same as 4.2BSD
.Tn RA81 No partitions with 4.2BSD-compatible partitions
ra?d 49324 82080 same as 4.2BSD ra?g
ra?e 131404 759668 same as 4.2BSD ra?h
ra?f 412490 478582 same as 4.2BSD ra?f
The ra?a partition is normally used for the root file system, the ra?b
partition as a paging area, and the ra?c partition for pack-pack
copying (it maps the entire disk).
.Bl -tag -width /dev/rra[0-9][a-f] -compact
.It Pa /dev/rra[0-9][a-f]
No command packets were available while the driver was looking
for disk drives. The controller is not extending enough credits
.It "uda%d: no response to Get Unit Status request"
A disk drive was found, but did not respond to a status request.
This is either a hardware problem or someone pulling unit number
.It "uda%d: unit %d off line"
While searching for drives, the controller found one that
seems to be manually disabled. It is ignored.
.It "uda%d: unable to get unit status"
Something went wrong while trying to determine the status of
a disk drive. This is followed by an error detail.
.It uda%d: unit %d, next %d
This probably never happens, but I wanted to know if it did. I
have no idea what one should do about it.
.It "uda%d: cannot handle unit number %d (max is %d)"
The controller found a drive whose unit number is too large.
Valid unit numbers are those in the range [0..7].
.It "ra%d: don't have a partition table for %s; using (s,t,c)=(%d,%d,%d)"
The controller found a drive whose media identifier (e.g. `RA 25')
does not have a default partition table. A temporary partition
table containing only an `a' partition has been created covering
the entire disk, which has the indicated numbers of sectors per
track (s), tracks per cylinder (t), and total cylinders (c).
Give the pack a label with the
.It "uda%d: uballoc map failed"
Unibus resource map allocation failed during initialisation. This
can only happen if you have 496 devices on a Unibus.
.It uda%d: timeout during init
The controller did not initialise within ten seconds. A hardware
problem, but it sometimes goes away if you try again.
.It uda%d: init failed, sa=%b
The controller refused to initalise.
.It uda%d: controller hung
The controller never finished initialisation. Retrying may sometimes
.It ra%d: drive will not come on line
The drive will not come on line, probably because it is spun down.
This should be preceded by a message giving details as to why the
When the controller hangs, the driver occasionally tries to reinitialise
it. This means it just tried, without success.
.It panic: udastart: bp==NULL
A bug in the driver has put an empty drive queue on a controller queue.
.It uda%d: command ring too small
you may see a performance improvement.
.Pa /sys/vaxuba/uda.c . )
A drive was found marked for status or on-line functions while performing
status or on-line functions. This indicates a bug in the driver.
.It "uda%d: controller error, sa=0%o (%s)"
The controller reported an error. The error code is printed in
octal, along with a short description if the code is known (see the
.%T UDA50 Maintenance Guide ,
If this occurs during normal
operation, the driver will reset it and retry pending
it occurs during configuration, the controller may be ignored.
The controller interrupted when it should have stayed quiet. The
interrupt has been ignored.
.It "uda%d: init step %d failed, sa=%b"
The controller reported an error during the named initialisation step.
The driver will retry initialisation later.
.It uda%d: version %d model %d
An informational message giving the revision level of the controller.
.It uda%d: DMA burst size set to %d
An informational message showing the
Indicates a bug in the generic
.It uda%d: driver bug, state %d
The driver has a bogus value for the controller state. Something
is quite wrong. This is immediately followed by a `panic: udastate'.
A benign message tracing BDP purges. I have been trying to figure
out what BDP purges are for. You might want to comment out this
call to log() in /sys/vaxuba/uda.c.
.It uda%d: SETCTLRC failed: `detail'
The Set Controller Characteristics command (the last part of the
controller initialisation sequence) failed. The
.It "uda%d: attempt to bring ra%d on line failed: `detail'"
The drive could not be brought on line. The
.It uda%d: ra%d: unknown type %d
The type index of the named drive is not known to the driver, so the
.It "ra%d: changed types! was %d now %d"
A drive somehow changed from one kind to another, e.g., from an
The numbers printed are the encoded media identifiers (see
The driver believes the new type.
.It "ra%d: uda%d, unit %d, size = %d sectors"
The named drive is on the indicated controller as the given unit,
and has that many sectors of user-file area. This is printed
.It "uda%d: attempt to get status for ra%d failed: `detail'"
A status request failed. The
.It ra%d: bad block report: %d
The drive has reported the given block as bad. If there are multiple
bad blocks, the drive will report only the first; in this case this
message will be followed by `+ others'. Get
.It ra%d: serious exception reported
I have no idea what this really means.
The controller reported completion of a
The controller reported completion of bad block related
driver never issues any such, so something is wrong.
.It uda%d: lost interrupt
The controller has gone out to lunch, and is being reset to try to bring
.It panic: mscp_go: AEB_MAX_BP too small
.It "uda%d: unit %d: unknown message type 0x%x ignored"
The controller responded with a mysterious message type. See
for a list of known message types. This is probably
a controller hardware problem.
.It "uda%d: unit %d out of range"
The disk drive unit number (the unit plug) is higher than the
maximum number the driver allows (currently 7).
.It "uda%d: unit %d not configured, message ignored"
The named disk drive has announced its presence to the controller,
but was not, or cannot now be, configured into the running system.
is one of `available attention' (an `I am here' message) or
`stray response op 0x%x status 0x%x' (anything else).
The drive has reported an invalid command error, probably due to an
invalid block number. If the lbn value is very much greater than the
size reported by the drive, this is the problem. It is probably due to
an improperly configured partition table. Other invalid commands
indicate a bug in the driver, or hardware trouble.
.It ra%d: duplicate ONLINE ignored
The drive has come on-line while already on-line. This condition
can probably be ignored (and has been).
.It ra%d: io done, but no buffer?
Hardware trouble, or a bug; the drive has finished an
but the response has an invalid (zero) command reference number.
.It "Emulex SC41/MS screwup: uda%d, got %d correct, then changed 0x%x to 0x%x"
and the driver successfully
avoided the bug. The number of correctly-handled requests is
reported, along with the expected and actual values relating to
.It panic: unrecoverable Emulex screwup
but Emulex was too clever and
avoided the avoidance. Try turning on
.It uda%d: bad response packet ignored
and the driver caught the controller in
a lie. The lie has been ignored, and the controller will soon be
reset (after a `lost' interrupt). This is followed by a hex dump of
.It ra%d: bogus REPLACE end
The drive has reported finishing a bad sector replacement, but the
driver never issues bad sector replacement commands. The report
is ignored. This is likely a hardware problem.
.It "ra%d: unknown opcode 0x%x status 0x%x ignored"
The drive has reported something that the driver cannot understand.
has been inventive, or perhaps your hardware is ill.
This is followed by a hex dump of the offending packet.
.It "ra%d%c: hard error %sing fsbn %d [of %d-%d] (ra%d bn %d cn %d tn %d sn %d)."
An unrecoverable error occurred during transfer of the specified
filesystem block number(s),
which are logical block numbers on the indicated partition.
If the transfer involved multiple blocks, the block range is printed as well.
The parenthesized fields list the actual disk sector number
relative to the beginning of the drive,
as well as the cylinder, track and sector number of the block.
.It uda%d: %s error datagram
The controller has reported some kind of error, either `hard'
(unrecoverable) or `soft' (recoverable). If the controller is going on
(attempting to fix the problem), this message includes the remark
`(continuing)'. Emulex controllers wrongly claim that all soft errors
are hard errors. This message may be followed by
one of the following 5 messages, depending on its type, and will always
be followed by a failure detail message (also listed below).
.Bd -filled -offset indent
A host memory access error; this is the address that could not be
.It "unit %d: level %d retry %d, %s %d"
A typical disk error; the retry count and error recovery levels are
printed, along with the block type (`lbn', or logical block; or `rbn',
or replacement block) and number. If the string is something else,
has been clever, or your hardware has gone to Australia for vacation
(unless you live there; then it might be in New Zealand, or Brazil).
Also a disk error, but an `SDI' error, whatever that is. (I doubt
it has anything to do with Ronald Reagan.) This lists the block
type (`lbn' or `rbn') and number. This is followed by a second
message indicating a microprocessor error code and a front panel
code. These latter codes are drive-specific, and are intended to
be used by field service as an aid in locating failing hardware.
The codes for RA81s can be found in the
.%T RA81 Maintenance Guide ,
DEC order number AA-M879A-TC, in appendices E and F.
.It "unit %d: small disk error, cyl %d"
Yet another kind of disk error, but for small disks. (`That's what
it says, guv'nor. Dunnask me what it means.')
.It "unit %d: unknown error, format 0x%x"
A mysterious error: the given format code is not known.
The detail messages are as follows:
.Bd -filled -offset indent
.It success (%s) (code 0, subcode %d)
Everything worked, but the controller thought it would let you know
that something went wrong. No matter what subcode, this can probably
.It "invalid command (%s) (code 1, subcode %d)"
This probably cannot occur unless the hardware is out; %s should be
`invalid msg length', meaning some command was too short or too long.
.It "command aborted (unknown subcode) (code 2, subcode %d)"
This should never occur, as the driver never aborts commands.
.It "unit offline (%s) (code 3, subcode %d)"
The drive is offline, either because it is not around (`unknown
drive'), stopped (`not mounted'), out of order (`inoperative'), has the
same unit number as some other drive (`duplicate'), or has been
disabled for diagnostics (`in diagnosis').
.It "unit available (unknown subcode) (code 4, subcode %d)"
The controller has decided to report a perfectly normal event as
.It "media format error (%s) (code 5, subcode %d)"
The drive cannot be used without reformatting. The Format Control
Table cannot be read (`fct unread - edc'), there is a bad sector
header (`invalid sector header'), the drive is not set for 512-byte
sectors (`not 512 sectors'), the drive is not formatted (`not formatted'),
.It "write protected (%s) (code 6, subcode %d)"
The drive is write protected, either by the front panel switch
(`hardware') or via the driver (`software'). The driver never
sets software write protect.
.It "compare error (unknown subcode) (code 7, subcode %d)"
A compare operation showed some sort of difference. The driver
never uses compare operations.
.It "data error (%s) (code 7, subcode %d)"
Something went wrong reading or writing a data sector. A `forced
error' is a software-asserted error used to mark a sector that contains
suspect data. Rewriting the sector will clear the forced error. This
is normally set only during bad block replacment, and the driver does
no bad block replacement, so these should not occur. A `header
compare' error probably means the block is shot. A `sync timeout'
presumably has something to do with sector synchronisation.
An `uncorrectable ecc' error is an ordinary data error that cannot
logic. A `%d symbol ecc' error is a data error
that can be (and presumably has been) corrected by the
It might indicate a sector that is imperfect but usable, or that
is starting to go bad. If any of these errors recur, the sector
.It "host buffer access error (%s) (code %d, subcode %d)"
Something went wrong while trying to copy data to or from the host
(Vax). The subcode is one of `odd xfer addr', `odd xfer count',
`non-exist. memory', or `memory parity'. The first two could be a
software glitch; the last two indicate hardware problems.
.It controller error (%s) (code %d, subcode %d)
The controller has detected a hardware error in itself. A
`serdes overrun' is a serialiser / deserialiser overrun; `edc'
probably stands for `error detection code'; and `inconsistent
internal data struct' is obvious.
.It "drive error (%s) (code %d, subcode %d)"
Either the controller or the drive has detected a hardware error
in the drive. I am not sure what an `sdi command timeout' is, but
these seem to occur benignly on occasion. A `ctlr detected protocol'
error means that the controller and drive do not agree on a protocol;
this could be a cabling problem, or a version mismatch. A `positioner'
error means the drive seek hardware is ailing; `lost rd/wr ready'
means the drive read/write logic is sick; and `drive clock dropout'
means that the drive clock logic is bad, or the media is hopelessly
scrambled. I have no idea what `lost recvr ready' means. A `drive
detected error' is a catch-all for drive hardware trouble; `ctlr
detected pulse or parity' errors are often caused by cabling problems.
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