Re: Filesystem state: not clean with AHA2940W AIC7870

Stephen Ferrell (ferrell8@pandora.marshall.edu)
Wed, 13 Mar 1996 01:58:25 -0500 (EST)

I've been running 1.3.40 with a 2940W for about 3 months, it works fine.
>From my experence ide and scsi should be happy working together.
I have seen some strange errors with dos and linux partitions on the same
ide disk but never with scsi. If you are still running 1.3.20 you might
go to 1.3.40. It has been a very stable kernel from my experence. I use
it at home and it runs to machines I admin at school. It has never done
anything to strange. A note about processors. During christmas P-120s were
in short supply. I have heard that some vendors were overclocking 100s and or
using substandard chips. I had one of these chips and it caused me lots of
trouble. Another thing you might check is the drive termination, especally
if its an internal disk. Scsi disks have a te jumper. te is
termination. If its jumpered it is usually terminated. Improper termination
can cause very strange effects.

Stephen

On Tue, 12 Mar 1996, Steve Cahill wrote:

> Folks,
>
> I am running Linux kernel 1.3.20 (installed from the 5-CD Slackware 3.0
> set). I installed on a 2.1GB SCSI HDD (Conner) and Adaptec AHA2940W
> controller with AIC7870 chipset.
>
> I have now completed my seventh Linux installation since mid December.
> Finally everything seems stable, but...
>
> I was having crashes and hanging in both Linux and Windoze (which now
> resides on a separate IDE HDD with Motherboard controller) which was
> apparently due to my CPU (120MHz Pentium) fan not always starting with
> system power. The fan has been replaced and for the most part
> everything seems stable (as I now only power down when absolutely
> necessary) _but_ I still however have this one nagging issue:
>
> dumpe2fs --> says my Linux partitions (/dev/sda2 and /dev/sda3) are
> "not clean".
>
> I.E. --> Filesystem state: not clean
>
> on either partition (/dev/sda2=root and /dev/sda3=/usr) after login.
>
> During boot-up everything appears normal and Linux partitions are
> reported as "clean" so "no checking" is executed (perhaps I should
> force checking with boot parameters?).
>
> Only when I login and actually execute dumpe2fs do I get this report of
> unclean filesystem.
>
> I have alotted 1 partition for DOS (>=32) which is /dev/sda1. /dev/sda4
> is a 32M swap partition.
>
> One of my Linux colleagues suggested a reinstall with no DOS partitions
> on the drive (but should this matter with SCSI?). I thought it best to
> strobe a couple of newsgroups to see if anyone else might be
> experiencing anything similiar and if I could get some alternate
> suggestions. I think the drive is starting to wear out a little from
> being reformatted so many times :)
>
> A while back (before I physically looked at my controller) I was very
> concerned when I learned that the AIC7850 chipset which is _not_ fully
> supported yet, thinking this was my problem. It was a relief to find my
> chipset is the AIC7870. I was getting suggestions to update my kernel
> to 1.3.68 or greater. Is this necessary with the AIC7870 chipset
> AHA2940W?
>
> Is it safe to run e2fsck with Linux (active) partitions mounted?
>
> Are there ways to determine why my filesystem is not clean and what
> might be causing it?
>
> Am I needlessly worrying as everything appears stable with no crashes
> or hanging?
>
> Suggestions are welcomed with open arms and open mind.
>
> Regards and Thanks in advance,
>
> --Steve
>
> cahill@icd.teradyne.com
> smc@empire.net
>
> ps: Please reply directly to either of the above addresses as I am not
> sure whether I am currently subscribed to any of the newsgroups you
> might be reading this from.
>