Hey Everybody,

I've been tinkering with setting up OSR6 in VMWare Server (version
1.0.0 build 27828)...for the most part it works ok.

The two SCSI adapter options are Buslogic and LSI Logic...in 507 the
blc driver worked, but the LSI didn't. I haven't found a blc driver
for OSR6 (I tried the 507 one but it failed when the kernel relinked).
The LSI Logic driver is included in the install, but it gives the
following error message:

ProcessNonIOReply: Function=4 Action=0 IOCSTATUS=21 thisReply=C8382548
MFtabPtr=C83982A8ProcessNonIOReply: Function=4 Action=0 IOCSTATUS=21
thisReply=C8382588 MFtabPtr=C83982EC0:0,7,0: HBA : (mpt,1) LSI
Logic 1030 10329
0,0,0: DISK : VMware, VMware Virtual S1.0

Even though this msg appears at startup, the machine seems to be
working fine otherwise.
Anyone have any ideas on how to resolve this? Is there a better
version of the LSI driver that works, or a blc driver that works?


I realize the easy workaround would be to just use an IDE drive
instead, but that would take all of the fun out of it.

Also, I found I had *terrible* network performance (ping responses only
66%, couldn't even telnet or ssh because of lost packets) with the
standard AMD NIC. I added the following to the .vmx file to change it
to an Intel E1000 and it works great:

ethernet0.present= "true"
ethernet0.startConnected = "true"
ethernet0.virtualDev = "e1000"
ethernet0.connectionType = "bridged"


Thanks in advance,

Kevin

Kevin Fleming wrote:

> I've been tinkering with setting up OSR6 in VMWare Server (version
> 1.0.0 build 27828)...for the most part it works ok.
>
> The two SCSI adapter options are Buslogic and LSI Logic...in 507 the
> blc driver worked, but the LSI didn't. I haven't found a blc driver
> for OSR6 (I tried the 507 one but it failed when the kernel relinked).

OSR5 and OSR6 kernel drivers are not binary compatible.

UnixWare 7 supports a BusLogic driver, "blc" (same name different code).
I used that driver when I was fiddling with early OSR6 pre-beta releases
under VMware. I believe at that time I had to get it off of a UnixWare
7.1.3 install CD (I told the OSR6 installer I had a CD with drivers).

Things to try:

1. tell the installer you have an HBA CD, let it examine the OSR6
install CD itself

2. same, feeding it any other CDs that came with the OSR6 package

3. same, feeding it a UW713 or 714 boot CD

4. same, feeding it a UW713 or 714 HBA CD

> The LSI Logic driver is included in the install, but it gives the
> following error message:
>
> ProcessNonIOReply: Function=4 Action=0 IOCSTATUS=21 thisReply=C8382548
> MFtabPtr=C83982A8ProcessNonIOReply: Function=4 Action=0 IOCSTATUS=21
> thisReply=C8382588 MFtabPtr=C83982EC0:0,7,0: HBA : (mpt,1) LSI
> Logic 1030 10329
> 0,0,0: DISK : VMware, VMware Virtual S1.0
>
> Even though this msg appears at startup, the machine seems to be
> working fine otherwise.
> Anyone have any ideas on how to resolve this? Is there a better
> version of the LSI driver that works, or a blc driver that works?

That message comes from the UW7/OSR6 LSI Logic driver (i.e. not from
VMware). One thing you could do is ignore it, since it seems to be
working. The proper way to "ignore" such a message is to do some heavy
testing on a system that prints the message, and if you can't make it
fail, assume it's a no-fault message.

Another thing is to bring it up with SCO. They'll be able to see what
that message is about at the source level, maybe they can explain to you
why it's no problem (or on the other hand, why it's a big problem and
you shouldn't run that way).

> I realize the easy workaround would be to just use an IDE drive
> instead, but that would take all of the fun out of it.

Note that VMware ESX Server (VMware Server's big brother) doesn't offer
virtual IDE hard disk support. By using this "easy workaround" you
would void the possibility of moving to ESX later.

> Also, I found I had *terrible* network performance (ping responses only
> 66%, couldn't even telnet or ssh because of lost packets) with the
> standard AMD NIC. I added the following to the .vmx file to change it
> to an Intel E1000 and it works great:
>
> ethernet0.present= "true"
> ethernet0.startConnected = "true"
> ethernet0.virtualDev = "e1000"
> ethernet0.connectionType = "bridged"

That sounds like dropped interrupts; if OSR6 is similar to OSR5 in this
department, `netstat -i` and `netstat -s` may give helpful information.

I'd say you've done the right thing here. VMware's virtual device
support for E1000 is much newer than the AMD Lance virtual device. It
was added for a bunch of good reasons, broader compatibility being one
of them.

I'm pretty sure you could have accomplished the change from within the
VMware Server GUI, but editing the .vmx file is OK too. You probably
only needed to change the "virtualDev" setting.

(SCO has supplied me with OSR6 FCS media, I will eventually get around
to installing it and I'll be able to give slightly less hand-waving
responses. They'll be mostly ESX oriented, though. ESX and VMware
Server (and even Workstation and Player) have pretty similar emulation
characteristics, so that should generally be good enough...)

>Bela<

Bela Lubkin wrote:
> Kevin Fleming wrote:
> > ProcessNonIOReply: Function=4 Action=0 IOCSTATUS=21 thisReply=C8382548
> > MFtabPtr=C83982A8ProcessNonIOReply: Function=4 Action=0 IOCSTATUS=21
> > thisReply=C8382588 MFtabPtr=C83982EC0:0,7,0: HBA : (mpt,1) LSI
> > Logic 1030 10329
> > 0,0,0: DISK : VMware, VMware Virtual S1.0
> >
> > Even though this msg appears at startup, the machine seems to be
> > working fine otherwise.
> > Anyone have any ideas on how to resolve this? Is there a better
> > version of the LSI driver that works, or a blc driver that works?

With respect to OSR6/UW7, this is from the mpt driver as indicated by
the HBA sdiconfig output.

After some quick digging, the ProcessNonIOReply message is due to the
fact that the driver is trying to initialize and sends internal
firmware related commands that probably aren't emulated by the VMware
environment. My suggestion is to ignore since the driver doesn't
consider this to be fatal. I admit that it would have been better if
this was a debug only message but such is life.

If you want to really test your setup, run the PLT or hbacert tests
available on the SCO downloads website to validate your environment.

-aps

pisymbol@gmail.com wrote:
> Bela Lubkin wrote:
> > Kevin Fleming wrote:
> > > ProcessNonIOReply: Function=4 Action=0 IOCSTATUS=21 thisReply=C8382548
> > > MFtabPtr=C83982A8ProcessNonIOReply: Function=4 Action=0 IOCSTATUS=21
> > > thisReply=C8382588 MFtabPtr=C83982EC0:0,7,0: HBA : (mpt,1) LSI
> > > Logic 1030 10329
> > > 0,0,0: DISK : VMware, VMware Virtual S1.0
> > >
> > > Even though this msg appears at startup, the machine seems to be
> > > working fine otherwise.
> > > Anyone have any ideas on how to resolve this? Is there a better
> > > version of the LSI driver that works, or a blc driver that works?
>
> With respect to OSR6/UW7, this is from the mpt driver as indicated by
> the HBA sdiconfig output.
>
> After some quick digging, the ProcessNonIOReply message is due to the
> fact that the driver is trying to initialize and sends internal
> firmware related commands that probably aren't emulated by the VMware
> environment. My suggestion is to ignore since the driver doesn't
> consider this to be fatal. I admit that it would have been better if
> this was a debug only message but such is life.
>
> If you want to really test your setup, run the PLT or hbacert tests
> available on the SCO downloads website to validate your environment.
>
> -aps


Thanks Bela and aps...the plt disk test has been running for 14 hours
now without incident. I've been using this VM for about a week and I
haven't noticed anything that would lead me to believe it will be a
problem later.

Thanks again for your insights.

Kevin