PC back.

[zotz]

Either it's something obscure relating to the CD writer, or I need a new SCSI card. Temporary relief (or perhaps semi-permanent if I don't get my arse into gear) came via swapping in an older card from my old and unused PC.

So, the next question - I've always gone with the NCR/Symbios/LSI/whoever owns them these days 800-series cards, and they've always worked fine for me. Anyone know what the current ones are like? I saw an article recently claiming that the linux drivers (it'll only really be used with Debian) aren't as good as the Adaptec drivers. Is this likely to be true?

Many thanks.

Comments

[yehoshua.livejournal.com]

It looks like there are recent (5 Sept.) changes committed to the master CVS repository for the 2.6.x kernels, so the cards probably have some support left. That said, because the product family has changed hands so many times, the work of getting stuff committed to the mainline kernel is probably more of a hack than those of Adaptec, who I know pay several hackers to write suitable code and submit it for Linus's approval.

[zotz]

LSI seem to like Linux too. I don't know how well these work in practice, but LSI seem to have released source for drivers for up-to-date cards. The problem is that I've heard that both are better, which may mean that they're about equal or that nobody really knows.

Ah well. If nobody has strong opinions, I'll just go with what I have to pay less for. Otherwise I'll have my Cheapskate card revoked.

[yehoshua.livejournal.com]

If there's support for it, go with the cheap stuff. I do. I end up replacing it all the damned time, but the cost is so low that I still manage to come out ahead, even with a 20% failure rate on some components.

Plus, that 20% failure rate keeps me employed. :)