KILLED IT DEAD - was Re: [plug] Re: new kernels don't like scsi controller

[Gavin Chester]

On Tue, 2008-04-01 at 18:02 +0800, Paul Antoine wrote:
>You're on the right path re persistent storage names.
>I also find that 
> using UUID's for both software RAID devices in mdadm.conf and filesystem 
> partitions in /etc/fstab gets around much heartache when you forget 
> which sata/scsi positions you used on setup :-)

I was getting somewhere with this approach and followed suse's instructions to remove persistent storage names, but then ...

> In other instances I have had cards play badly with various 
> motherboards.  In particular some cards seem very slot-position 
> dependent or unhappy with other cards installed at all! In such cases I 
> have found upgrading the BIOS on the RAID/SATA etc. card in question 
> works wonders. 

I went back to the Dell website and found there was a firmware upgrade
for this lsi scsi card (because usually supplied as standard with most
Precision450s). I followed the instructions to the letter, but now all
I have is a dead brick :-( This is my post to Dell forums, for which I 
have no useful reply yet:

Quoting self on other forum:
"I have a Dell Precision 450 running Linux, with adaptec u160 pci scsi
card and lsi u320 pci-x scsi card installed - the latter driving two
u320 scsi drives. I downloaded and flashed the MB bios with no trouble,
but had been having issues with the lsi scsi card so downloaded Dell's
firmware update for that (LSI Logic Ultra 320 SCSI Adapter Non-RAID).
This went through the steps as required, with the system rebooting by
floppy to finish flashing the lsi card firmware. 

After that, it didn't reboot as cleanly since it was trying to boot off
cdrom I'd accidently left in drive. I rebooted again after removing
cdrom and floppy but all I get from now on is blank screen and NO drive
activity. 

I can't try to reflash MB bios from floppy as advised elsewhere because
NONE of the removable drives are accessed - it's as if POST does not
even commence. 

Is it possible that Dell's software flashed my bios instead of scsi card
firmware? How can I possibly hope to recover this system? BTW: I have
one other identical Precision 450 on hand that is working fine if I need
to scavenge parts, but I can't see a removable bios chip to follow that
line of thinking."

AND:

"also followed the recommended procedure given on faq for my model:
[Locate the PSWD and the RTCRST jumper on the system board.
Remove the plug from the PSWD jumper and place it on both pins of the
RTCRST jumper. Move the plug back to the PSWD jumper]
But my system is still dead."

AND:

"I looked further and now understand the use of the diagnostic led codes
on the Precision 450. On mine with this fault, it shows "c" as on all
the time yellow. According to manual this means "A possible system board
failure has occured." What! I followed Dell's own procedure to upgrade
scsi card firmware using their software!"

So,there you have it. I will just go off into a quiet place and shoot
myself, rise from the dead and shoot every Dell computer for revenge.

Gavin.