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kernel: 3w-9xxx: scsi0: WARNING: Character ioctl (0×108) timed out, resetting card.

while burning in a new machine with a 3ware 9560 adapter I got twice the following error messages:


kernel: 3w-9xxx: scsi0: WARNING Character ioctl (0x108) timed out, resetting card.
kernel: 3w-9xxx: scsi0: AEN: INFO Cache synchronization completed:unit=0.

Looking at the source it seems that 0×108 is TW_IOCTL_FIRMWARE_PASS_THROUGH

I had these errors only when smartd was configured to probe the drives on the 3ware card. This was under max load
during the burn in of the array. Not sure if there were any other errors etc. It seemed harmless enough, but then again
no errors are better than spurious warning etc. Once I have a couple of days of a clean running machine I probably will
turn smartd on again to see if the connection indeed exists.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, July 23rd, 2008 at 10:37 pm and is filed under linux. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.

5 Responses to “kernel: 3w-9xxx: scsi0: WARNING: Character ioctl (0×108) timed out, resetting card.”

  1. Kambiz Darabi Says:
    September 30th, 2008 at 10:48 am

    I would be very much interested to know the make and model of the hard disks which you are using with the constroller.

    Thank you.

  2. Andreas Wacker Says:
    October 5th, 2008 at 11:54 pm

    WD 1TB drives in this case. But the problem exists with different disk configurations as well.

  3. foxpl Says:
    January 11th, 2009 at 4:29 pm

    Hi mate, i have very similar problems on my 3ware and samsung disks. Do you have any further info what to do with following problem? Turning smartd off is not a solution. My disks break once a month ! smartd detects Offline_Uncorectable on them. Ive replaced dozens of them and the problem still exists.

  4. laurent Says:
    February 4th, 2009 at 3:48 am

    Hi there,
    This issue just happened here.
    the related kernel messages are :
    sd 0:0:0:0: WARNING: (0×06:0×002C): Command (0×28) timed out, resetting card.
    3w-9xxx: scsi0: WARNING: (0×06:0×0037): Character ioctl (0×108) timed out, reset
    ting card.

    this disk happens to be a samsung 1TB disk.
    the card is a 3w9550 with latest firmware/bootloader
    smartd is running and have been reporting one uncorectable error on the second samsung disk
    kernel is 2.6.18-6-xen-686

    Please keep me informed If you find out something.

  5. Bill Says:
    January 17th, 2011 at 2:12 pm

    Per 3ware the ioctl controller reset bug is fixed in the following beta firmware.

    http://kb.lsi.com/KnowledgebaseArticle16125.aspx?Keywords=0×108

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