🚀 go-pugleaf

I recently installed Slackware 2.1 on my new Pentium-90 box. The Slackware
SCSI boot disk detected the card and hard disk perfectly, and the install
went well. But the scsi kernel that comes with Slackware will not go beyond
attempting to mount the root partition before it seizes up with the message:

scsi0: existing issue queue

Since I can boot from the floppy and mount the root partition via
LILO commands I have used the machine to compile several kernels, all which
fail with the same problem. Where they fail seems to vary randomly,
sometimes it fails just after describing the partition table, other times it
gets all the way to the login prompt, plus all stages in-between. I have
tried this with kernel versions 1.1.52, 1.1.59, 1.1.67 and 1.1.72, and all
exhibit the same problem. The working Slackware boot disk is version 1.1.59.
I have tried stripping both the machine and the kernels down to the bare
essentials in case any hardware and/or drivers are clashing.

I have found that the kernel that does boot will eventually fail under
sustained disk activity. The file system benchmark program "bonnie" will
induce this if run several times in a row. Normal usage of of the system
takes a lot longer. No messages appear on the console, and it looks like any
program using disk i/o just hangs.

I have tried the FreeBSD 2.0 boot disk and it can see the controller and run
fdisk with no problems, which would indicate to me that the hardware is set
up correctly.

The hardware I am using is:

GA-586IP Motherboard, with Pentium-90 and 16MB of RAM.
GA-410 PCI 53c810 SCSI controller.
Connor 540MB SCSI-2 hard drive.

I really would like to get this machine working with Linux, as when it is
working the performance is excellent. I'll also do some experiments with the
FreeBSD boot disk. Any suggestions would be appreciated!

Thanks in advance,

Duncan Robertson