failed to initialize adapter

Cause

Using an Adaptec AHA-154x Cx SCSI HBA during installation of Solaris 2.x x86, you may see the message during the mdb device probe that says failed to initialize adapter after the probe has correctly identified the card. There are a variety of reasons for this error, but in all cases the error is because of misconfiguring the card.

Action

To correct the problem, press Ctrl-a during boot of the computer to enter the 154x BIOS configuration utility. Choose the Configure/View Host Adapter Settings option, then press the F6 key to return the adapter to its factory default settings.

After doing this, reconfigure the adapter per the instructions contained in the x86 Device Configuration Guide or Driver Update Guide if applicable. It is especially important that the adapter be configured to use DMA 6. Note that it defaults to DMA 5 and must be changed.