Kernel 2.6, SCSI, 64-bit

[Robert E. Raymond]

Hi all,

I just installed an Athlon 64 with an Asus board.  Everything else from 
my previous system stayed the same, and this would include 2 SCSI disks, 
one for Lin (sda1,2,3) one for Win (sdb1).

Windows works as well as Windows can work.

Linux on the other hand wouldn't boot with a 2.6.0-test9 kernel or with 
a 2.6.0 final kernel.  It did boot from the Gentoo Amd64 LiveCD, where I 
found one of my problems with why it wouldn't boot to be that I compiled 
the 2.6.0 kernel in 32bit mode but the processor wanted to be in 64bit 
mode.  The kernel wouldn't recompile because I hadn't recompiled glibc, 
gcc, etc. to be 64bit, so I went to do that, and started getting reams 
of SCSI read/write and I/O errors, on both sda2 (XFS) and sda1 (ext3, 
boot partition).  Running xfs_repair doesn't work on sda2 because during 
stage 1, I get enough read/write errors for it to halt.

Question is:  Are there any known 64-bit issues with SCSI and the 2.6 
kernel?

other question:  The cable seems to be a little on the 'frayed' side.. 
all the wires appear to be intact, but it's one of those ones with 
twisted wires wrapped in celophane, and a lot of the wires are just 
hanging loose.  Does this mean it should be replaced?  Is this possibly 
the culprit? It certainly worked fine with the Athlon XP...  Forgive my 
ignorance about SCSI

Thanks all

Bob Raymond