Bizzare SCSI mount errors

[mikebw at bilow.bilow.uu.ids.net (Mike Bilow)]

Chuck Noyes wrote in a message to Mike Bilow:

 CN> I have recently run across a problem that has me stumped. 
 CN> I've been running a Slackware 2.0.25 kernel for a few months
 CN> and I've always been able mount my SCSI devices without any
 CN> problem (I boot from an IDE drive). Recently, however,
 CN> whenever I try to mount any SCSI device (disk, CD-ROM, ZIP
 CN> disk, etc.) I receive the following error:

 CN> "The kernel does not recognize /dev/sdan as a block device",
 CN> where n = the scsi device number.  I've run the utility
 CN> /dev/MAKEDEV sda and I still can't mount any SCSI device. 
 CN> I've been running the same kernel for about 3 months.

When you look in the /dev tree with "ls -l sd*" is the 'b' flag showing?  Are
the major and minor numbers correct?  Have you tried doing this manually with
the "mknod" command instead of the "MAKEDEV" script?

 CN> Does anyone have any suggestions on how I can fix this???

You neglect to mention the key issue: what make and model of SCSI controller?
If you are running on an advanced Adaptec controller or chipset, you will need
a test patch for very recent (2.0.24+ or 2.1.5+) kernels:

   ftp://ftp.pcnet.com/users/eischen/Linux/aic7xxx-2.1.23-Feb01.tgz
   ftp://ftp.dialnet.net/pub/linux/aic7xxx/pcnet.com/aic7xxx-2.1.23-Feb01.tgz

 CN> P.S.  Has anyone been able to get the Creative Labs 
 CN> SoundBlaster32 (PnP) card to work in any version of Linux?? 
 CN> It works fine in Windows95...:( 

Disable PnP on the card and use it as a regular SoundBlaster, assuming you are
interested in it for multimedia purposes rather than exotic stuff such as the
soundmodem driver.
 
-- Mike