[KLUG Members] New or Used SCSI Boards

[Bryan J. Smith]

Bruce Smith wrote:
> I used to respect your opinion on hardware, until I read that!   :-)

You gotta realize that I've got just about _any_ Adaptec card ever
produced.  From the 1542, to the VLB 2842 (which I attempted to fix
the Adaptec driver back in 1995 -- partially successful at it too)
to the 2940 and 3940s.  Anything wide, ultra or more than one
channel has always result in hangs.  I've got a few that work fine,
but many take issues with just about any driver I throw at it.

> I run Adaptec 2490 & 7895 controllers on about a dozen Linux servers
> and workstations and they ALL WORK GREAT!!!

The 7850/60 (AVA-2902/2906/2910) and similar "peripherial only"
fast/narrow cards are fine.  And even an old 1542 and fast/narrow
2940 works fairly good for me.  But the 2940s and most newer cards
are "iffy."  I've got a 50/50 chance the driver will work perfectly
or bomb when I especially don't need it to!

And forget multiple channels -- I've had more success with Symbios
Logic chipsets and multiple channels than Adaptec even outside of
Linux!

> In all fairness, there was one point in time in the 2.2.x kernel
> lifecycle where the driver was being rewritten (with Adaptec's help)
> where there were major problems with those controllers.  Since the
> rewrite, all the Adaptec controllers I've tried work great!

That has happened 6 times now over the past 5 years!  _That's_ why I
can*NOT* trust Adaptec!

When the kernel developers used to create their own drivers, they
worked great!  Then Adaptec finally started supporting Linux circa
97/98 -- and introduced "official" drivers, which the kernel
maintainers blindly took.  They sucked!  And since then I've gone
back and forth, back and forth with drivers and firmware updates
(usually by requesting a PROM, as older devices don't have flash) --
usually its a combo of a new driver *NOT* supporting an old
firmware/BIOS revision.  This seems to _still_ plague even the 2.4.x
kernel to a good extent.

RedHat has tried its best to keep its kernel RPMs in-sync with the
latest Adaptec releases, but even that seems to backfire half the
time.  And when it comes to the stock kernel -- forget it, at least
RedHat tests their RPMs for months before release.

Symbios Logic and Advansys cards are cheaper, faster and have more
stable drivers.  Advansys has been producing drivers for Linux
themselves since 1994/95 (the first SCSI vendor to do so), and
Symbios Logic is open with their technical details.  Hence why
you'll find Symbios Logic on non-Intel mainboards, whereas Adaptec
is largely a Wintel-only proposition.

Adaptec _continues_ to _withhold_ technical information from driver
developers.  They also _fail_ to produce Linux drivers for their
RAID cards (the only ones that have Linux drivers are the products
they acquired from DPT).  This is _very_sad_.  I _refuse_ to support
such a vendor.  Especially when superior products are available from
others.

People buy Adaptec for the "brand name."  People are even more
foolish to buy Promise for the "brand name."  Both of these vendors
are the _worst_ supporters of free OSes, and their products regulary
_lose_ on both benchmarks and price comparisons versus other vendors
products -- vendors who support Linux better.  No, Adaptec won't
ever get my money again -- given them $10K in sales over the years
and they fail me _way_too_much_.

-- TheBS
   Linux user since 1993

-- 
Bryan "TheBS" Smith  mailto:b.j.smith@ieee.org  chat:thebs413
SmithConcepts, Inc.              http://www.SmithConcepts.com
=============================================================
"Linux is ready for the desktop, but the desktop user is 
 nowhere near ready for Linux" -- Steve Kinney