rk(4)rk(4)Namerk - RK711/RK07 disk interface
Syntax
controller hk0 at uba? csr 0177440 vector rkintr
disk rk0 at hk0 drive 0
Description
Files with minor device numbers 0 through 7 refer to various portions
of drive 0; minor devices 8 through 15 refer to drive 1, and so forth.
The standard device names begin with ``hk'' followed by the drive num‐
ber and then a letter, a through h, for partitions 0 through 7. The
question mark (?) character stands here for a drive number in the range
0 through 7.
The block files access the disk using the system's normal buffering
mechanism and can be read and written, without regard to physical disk
records. There is also a raw interface that provides for direct
transmission between the disk and the user's read or write buffer. A
single read or write call results in exactly one I/O operation. There‐
fore, raw I/O is considerably more efficient when many words are trans‐
mitted. The names of the raw files conventionally begin with an addi‐
tional letter r, for example,
In raw I/O, counts should be multiples of 512 bytes (a disk sector).
In the same way, calls should specify a multiple of 512 bytes.
The origin and size (in sectors) of the pseudodisks on each drive are
as follows:
RK07 partitions:
disk start length cyl
rk?a 0 15884 0-240
rk?b 15906 10032 241-392
rk?c 0 53790 0-814
rk?g 26004 27786 393-813
Restrictions
In raw I/O, and functions truncate file offsets to 512-byte block
boundaries; overwrites the tail of incomplete blocks. Thus, in pro‐
grams that are likely to access raw devices, and should always deal in
512-byte multiples.
Diagnostics
The following messages are printed at the console:
rk%d%c: hard error sn%d
An unrecoverable error occurred during transfer of the specified sector
of the specified disk partition. Either the error was unrecoverable,
or a large number of retry attempts (including offset positioning and
drive recalibration) could not recover the error. Additional register
information can be gathered from the system error log file,
/usr/adm/syserr/syserr.<hostname>.
rk%d: write locked
The write protect switch was set on the drive when a write was
attempted. The write operation is not recoverable.
rk%d: not ready
The drive was spun down or off line when it was accessed. The I/O
operation is not recoverable.
rk%d: not ready (came back!)
The drive was not ready. But, after printing this message (which takes
a fraction of a second), it was ready. The operation is recovered, if
no further errors occur.
hk%d: lost interrupt
A timer watching the controller detected no interrupt for an extended
period while an operation was outstanding. This indicates a hardware
or software failure. Spinning down drives while they are being
accessed causes this error to occur. The error causes a UNIBUS reset
and retry of the pending operations. If the controller continues to
lose interrupts, this error will recur a few seconds later.
rk%d%c: soft ecc sn%d
This message is written to the system error log file only. A recover‐
able ECC error occurred on the specified sector in the specified disk
partition. This happens normally a few times a week. If it happens
more frequently than this, the sectors where the errors are occurring
should be checked to see if the same physical location on the disk pack
is causing the error. Errors in the same area on the disk pack indi‐
cate the pack is going bad. Random errors can be caused by a pack
going bad or a pending hardware problem.
FilesSee Alsodkio(4), nbuf(4), MAKEDEV(8), uerf(8)
VAX rk(4)
