SCSI Pains - GVP 030 HDDs and SCSI2SD

[Irl]

I have spent the last couple weeks attempting to get my SCSI setup working.

My system:
A2000
DF0 = Gotek with Cortex
DF1 = Chinon 3.5" Floppy
2MB MegaChip
Kickstart 3.x build 45.064
Amiga Forever Classic Support Workbench 3.1 (Contains cloanto updates for large drive support)
X-Surf 100 w/o rapid road
GVP G-Force 030 25Mhz with 1+8MB RAM (Rev 4)
- Flashed with 4.15 ROM
- Controller terminator is in-place
- No external SCSI devices present
Original Drives:
- 121MB Conner SCSI drive
- 121MB Maxtor Drive
New Option:
- SCSI2SD V6 with 16GB Class 10 SanDisk SD Card. Defined as 2GB and 10GB drives.


Story:
I was attempting to install Roadshow, but the original partition scheme was barely enough space on DH0: for WB, so I could not fit Roadshow on DH0: I attempted to copy all data off of the Connor (Play to the second partition on the Maxtor (Work. This went well until Work: was over 95% full, then I started receiving errors for read/write and unexpected status code $40/$00. I did my best to complete the copy operation, then I formatted the Conner. When i tried to backup the Maxtor's data to it, it would have have read/write errors, block used twice, and unexpected status $40/$00 errors. In the end, the conner became unreadable and I had to format it again and again.

I noted that neither of my drives had their terminating resistor packs, so I ordered some from Mouser and also ordered the SCSI2SD V6 hoping that improper termination was my issue.

The SCSI2SD arrived first and I went to work on setting it up with various configurations.

- Using HDInstTools from Aminet, I am able to partition the 10GB virtual drive, but I can only format the first partition and only if it is less than 4GB. All other partitions return error "Object Not Found".
- Unexpected Status $48/$46 followed by read/write errors leading to 'Device has bad block' errors. After a couple of these errors, even previously written data becomes inaccessible. Even if this error is occurring on another drive or partition, the impact is that all drives/partitions will start to report errors.
- Errors are more likely with larger files, or when copying many files or a folder of items.
- Most of the time, the problem will start after 10Mb has been written to a partition.

Thinking this may be something with the new hardware, and having just received my resistor packs, I went back to the platter drives. I experience the same behavior as I had with the SCSI2SD virtual drives. The only change was the unexpected status code returned to $40/$00 when using the platter drives.

Other notes:
- I have tried using SFS with no difference in behavior
- SCSI2SD is setup with Terminator enabled and Respond to short pulses. I don't see a particular difference when using SCSI2 mode. I have tried it both ways, and eventually encountered the same issues.

At this point I feel like the Combo030 is the real root cause, not the drives. I would really love some suggestions/assistance.

[mark_k]

Which filesystem were you using? gvpscsi.device doesn't support accesses beyond 4GB, unless the filesystem uses SCSI-direct access (e.g. PFS3).

Also, the format program you use has to be large-disk-aware. The standard Format command isn't. Attempting to format a partition which lies all or partly beyond 4GB will fail (and probably overwrite parts of other under-4GB partitions).

[Irl]

I tried using FFS 45.15 (https://www.amigaforever.com/kb/16-120) and also the latest SFS (v1.277) from Aminet.

In my most recent failed attempt, I was using the SCSI2SD configured to present only a 2GB drive. I calculated it exactly out to 2147483648 bytes if that matters.

I thought that gvpscsi.device version 4.15 did support >4GB (http://babel.de/amiga.html)

<Edit> For format, I was using HDInstTool v6.9 with "Quick" option </edit>

[mark_k]

Nope, gvpscsi.device doesn't support 64-bit commands. A 2GB drive (or even a 4GB one) should work OK; in that case you should be able to create partitions with HDToolBox, format (Format QUICK) and use them with no problems.

Both FFS 45.15 and SFS need the device driver to support 64-bit commands (NSD or TD64) to access data above 4GB. NSD for FFS, either NSD or TD64 for SFS.

You could use NSDPatch to patch gvpscsi.device to support NSD then (in theory) be able to access partitions above 4GB with those filesystems. Probably better to see if you can get PFS3 working first though since that shouldn't require messing with NSDPatch.

[Irl]

OK, I will see about getting PFS3 going to setup the large partition I was hoping for.

I still have the unexpected status code errors to worry about as well. Those were occurring with the old 120Mb drives as well as with the SCSI2SD on small partitions and I cannot seem to find a good answer. One forum thread suggested that the $40/$00 was likely incorrect termination, but i cannot find references at all to $46/$48. I know I have termination in-place, and my SCSI2SD will not even be detected unless terminated (either by self or by placing the Maxtor drive with resistor packs at end of chain).

[Irl]

I wasn't able to install PFS3 as it seems it installs to HD, but I did tell HDInstTool to use the filesystem file from PFS3. I setup the SCSI2SD again as only a 2GB drive and performed quick format using HDInstTool. I was able to get about as far as last time. I installed the full WB3.1, rebooted fine. Installed DeluxPaintV, X-Surf-100, and Roadshow then rebooted fine. Encountered "Unexpected status code $46/$48, followed by 3 block error dialogs" when attempting to install Video Toaster. After that, on reboot the OS would no longer boot and instead showed me a workbench title bar and a read errors dialog. If I click 'retry' repeatedly, it will eventually stop saying read error but never loads the rest of the way in.

If I boot from the workbench floppy, I am able to see contents on DH0: but the longer it is browsed, the more errors occur. Finally culminating in getting read errors and device not validated errors. This state persists through reboots and makes DH0: unusable until formatted again.

I am trying to do baby steps with this, so I am not even going to consider a large drive install until I can get a normal small drive setup to work. The first error I encounter is always an unexpected status code. Usually that error does not appear again, but is replaced by a slew of other read/write errors.

[Irl]

Oh, and the Used space on DH0: at point of fail was about 12Mb

[Pat the Cat]

Is it the V5 or the V6 SCSI2SD?

Reason I ask is, somebody reported success with a V6 recently, partly by using active rather than passive terminators (some SCSI controllers have issues switching to active termination but you DO have an external 25 pin SCSI connector to factor in);-

http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=71744

Your SCSI controller is one of these, right?

http://amiga.resource.cx/exp/gforce2030

Might look nicer if you can get the right graphics card hooked up, I guess. Some versions could do that, maybe yours does?

[Irl]

Originally Posted by Pat the Cat

Is it the V5 or the V6 SCSI2SD?

Reason I ask is, somebody reported success with a V6 recently, partly by using active rather than passive terminators (some SCSI controllers have issues switching to active termination but you DO have an external 25 pin SCSI connector to factor in);-

Yes, it is the V6 board. I started off by updating to the latest firmware from http://www.codesrc.com/files/scsi2sd-v6/latest/

If I am reading the manual correctly, the terminators on the G-Force 030 are installed because the 25 Pin SCSI is not in use. It says that to use external devices and internal, that those resistor packs must be removed. I checked to be sure, and those terminators are installed. They appear to be the same type that one of the platter drives uses, so I could try trading them out or testing them with a DMM.

http://www.amiga.org/forums/showthread.php?t=71744

Originally Posted by Pat the Cat

Your SCSI controller is one of these, right?

Yes, it is the GVP G-Force 030 25Mhz Combo Impact II Rev 4.

It is one with a single-chip ROM and it is a UVEPROM so I can try other gvpscsi.device versions if need be. It started with 3 point something, but I upgraded it to 4.15 from Babel. Upgrade consisted of UV treatment for 20 minutes, burned with Willem 4x4. I wrote the binary with doublewrite enabled and followed instructions to burn it to the lower registers and again to the upper registers.

http://amiga.resource.cx/exp/gforce2030

Originally Posted by Pat the Cat

Might look nicer if you can get the right graphics card hooked up, I guess. Some versions could do that, maybe yours does?

Yes, the one I have does have headers for the EGS 110/24. I spent a lot of time trying to find a decent graphics card for a reasonable price but decided that was unlikely to work out. For now, I have an Indivision ECS installed and I pre-ordered from batch 2 of the VA2000 + VA2000CX from MNTMN

[Irl]

Just read the post you linked. I will need to purchase a 25 pin active terminator before I can try that. The only device I have with active termination is the SCSI2SD.

Can someone confirm if these are the correct items I need?
https://www.amazon.com/Active-Intern.../dp/B016S7PMD8
https://www.monoprice.com/product?p_id=814

I may as well have one of each type on-hand


For now, I will resume attempts with the original Conner HDD that came with the system. I was experiencing the same error with it, but it obviously used to work with passive termination (for platter drives) or the original owner would never have managed to install all of the software (came with Video Toaster, Deluxe Paint V, and a large library of Video Toaster extras.)

[Irl]

Hello again. I have a lot of progress to update with, but I am going to make a specific post for it all so others can easily find and benefit from it. I will link-back to it from this thread in a moment.

Thank you for the assistance with this. Mixing active and passive termination does appear to have been the issue. I was also able to get PFS3 figured out, too. While this didn't really effect the issue at hand; I really like its performance and appreciate you getting me to take another stab at it

[Irl]

Post to full summary of configuration: http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?p=1149965