dawill@hubcap.clemson.edu (david williams) (11/30/89)
Recently, I picked up a used StarBoard II, which I am really happy with.
However, I also recently bought a stardrive to go in it. I was thinking -
'Hey, this is one of the cheapest SCSI controllers on the market, I can pick
it up now and use it untill I can afford a HardFrame or something...'
However, it won't work. When I try the supplied installation software,
I get a OpenDevice failure requestor that says it cannot open the
stardrive.device. Huh? I noticed that the device driver is one of the
expansion-directory types, where you have to issue the BindDrivers command
to load it. When I say binddrivers, though, the device does not appear to
load. (I checked with eps. All my other device drivers are there, this one
isn't.) Anybody with a starboard have a clue? Someone from Microbotics?
Help!
Dave Williams
dawill@hubcap.clemson.edulphillips@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca (Larry Phillips) (11/30/89)
In <7248@hubcap.clemson.edu>, dawill@hubcap.clemson.edu (david williams) writes: >I get a OpenDevice failure requestor that says it cannot open the >stardrive.device. Huh? I noticed that the device driver is one of the >expansion-directory types, where you have to issue the BindDrivers command >to load it. When I say binddrivers, though, the device does not appear to >load. (I checked with eps. All my other device drivers are there, this one >isn't.) Anybody with a starboard have a clue? Someone from Microbotics? Make sure you have an icon for the driver in the expansion direectory, and an icon.library in LIBS: -larry -- " All I ask of my body is that it carry around my head." - Thomas Alva Edison - +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | // Larry Phillips | | \X/ lphillips@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca -or- uunet!van-bc!lpami!lphillips | | COMPUSERVE: 76703,4322 -or- 76703.4322@compuserve.com | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
portuesi@tweezers.esd.sgi.com (Michael Portuesi) (12/01/89)
>>>>> On 30 Nov 89 04:05:55 GMT, dawill@hubcap.clemson.edu (david williams) said:
david> Recently, I picked up a used StarBoard II, which I am really happy with.
david> However, I also recently bought a stardrive to go in it. I was thinking -
david> 'Hey, this is one of the cheapest SCSI controllers on the market, I can pick
david> it up now and use it untill I can afford a HardFrame or something...'
david> However, it won't work. When I try the supplied installation software,
david> I get a OpenDevice failure requestor that says it cannot open the
david> stardrive.device.
Check the connections and configuration switches on your hard drive.
If the interface can't talk to the drive, you'll get this error.
david> Huh? I noticed that the device driver is one of the
david> expansion-directory types, where you have to issue the BindDrivers command
david> to load it. When I say binddrivers, though, the device does not appear to
david> load. (I checked with eps. All my other device drivers are there, this one
david> isn't.) Anybody with a starboard have a clue? Someone from Microbotics?
Make sure you have the icon.library around when you issue BindDrivers,
as well as the .info file for the Stardrive device driver in the
Expansion drawer. Otherwise the attempt will fail.
I really wish Microbotics had written documentation for their product.
Don't expect them to be helpful if you call them on the phone with a
question, either.
--M
--
__
\/ Michael Portuesi Silicon Graphics Computer Systems, Inc.
portuesi@SGI.COM Entry Systems Division -- Engineering
He says, "Take me to your leader" -- and I say, "Do you mean....George?"jea@merlin.cvs.rochester.edu (Joanne Albano) (12/02/89)
Reply to dawill@hubcap.clemson.edu and any other
soul trying to get their stardrive running.
First, I should say that I recommend the stardrive
as a cheap way to put a drive on a 1000 if you already
have a starboard. My rationale is that for less than
$100 investment you have a drive on your 1000 and save
your $$ until you make the big upgrade to the A3000. Then
you can afford to put more money into the drive, buy a bigger
and/or faster one and use it on your upgraded machine.
Second, I should also say that Microbotics does NOT have a
user friendly disk setup procedure.
We called them about this and they say they do plan an upgrade
soon and also recommended that we leave the first two cylinders
free since the upgraded version may use this space to be
"pseudo" autobooting ie one or two commands to get off the
floppies.
1) Do not use DHMount, use Mount to mount your drive!
2) The software they give you sets you up on a 1.2
operating system boot floppy. Make sure you set up your
boot floppy with 1.3 OS to use FFS.
3) Check your mountlist it should look something like this:
Note that our dh0: is not using FFS for no good reason but it
is small.
dh0: Device = StarDrive.device
Unit = 2
Flags = 0x30
Surfaces = 6
BlocksPerTrack = 37
Reserved = 2
Interleave = 0
LowCyl = 2
HighCyl = 10
Buffers = 17
BufMemType = 0
Mount = 1
Stacksize = 8000
#
dh1: Device = StarDrive.device
Unit = 2
Flags = 0x30
Surfaces = 6
BlocksPerTrack = 37
Reserved = 2
Interleave = 0
LowCyl = 11
HighCyl = 374
Buffers = 17
BufMemType = 0
Mount = 1
FileSystem = L:FastFileSystem
DosType = 0x444F5301
GlobVec = 1
Stacksize = 8000
#
dh2: Device = StarDrive.device
Unit = 2
Flags = 0x30
Surfaces = 6
BlocksPerTrack = 37
Reserved = 2
Interleave = 0
LowCyl = 375
HighCyl = 738
Buffers = 17
BufMemType = 0
Mount = 1
FileSystem = L:FastFileSystem
DosType = 0x444F5301
GlobVec = 1
Stacksize = 8000
#
Joanne Albano, Center for Visual Science (716) 275-3055
Room 256 Meliora Hall, Univ. of Rochester, Rochester NY 14627
UUCP: {rutgers,allegra,decvax}!rochester!ur-cvsvax!jea
INTERNET: jea@snipe.cvs.rochester.edudawill@hubcap.clemson.edu (david williams) (12/05/89)
In article <PORTUESI.89Dec1101249@tweezers.esd.sgi.com>, portuesi@tweezers.esd.sgi.com (Michael Portuesi) writes: > >>>>> On 30 Nov 89 04:05:55 GMT, dawill@hubcap.clemson.edu (david williams) said: > > > david> Recently, I picked up a used StarBoard II, which I am really happy with. > david> However, I also recently bought a stardrive to go in it. I was thinking - > david> 'Hey, this is one of the cheapest SCSI controllers on the market, I can pick > david> it up now and use it untill I can afford a HardFrame or something...' > david> However, it won't work. When I try the supplied installation software, > david> I get a OpenDevice failure requestor that says it cannot open the > david> stardrive.device. > > Check the connections and configuration switches on your hard drive. > If the interface can't talk to the drive, you'll get this error. > > I really wish Microbotics had written documentation for their product. > Don't expect them to be helpful if you call them on the phone with a > question, either. > I was fiddiling around this weedend and discovered my cable was wired wrong. Once that was fixed, the drive worked perfectly. Yeah! Success! You are wrong about microbotics, though. I called them and described my problem, and got yer basic 'duh. I dunno. Sounds like you got a problem' I *demanded* to talk to someone who knew what was going on, and suprisingly enough, I got him. He asked me questions about how the software was responding when I tried to format it. When we got to the point that the software could not mount the drive, he looked up the error code. This code turned out to be a response from the device driver, stating that it could not get the drive to respond. His advice: "Check your cable and LUN settings on the drive. Sounds like the drive is not getting the right signals." Sure enough, it was my cable. I would take the stardrive interface over the supra for the 1000 any day of the week. My drive is actually a MiniScribe 8425S that my roomate got out of his old Supra 4 X 4. We quit using that interface because it was very slow, and was generating random errors. /'''''\ | o o | Dave Williams dawill@hubcap.clemson.edu | m | PeopleLink: SillyDave | \___/ | 'You think I'd really tell you what I'm up to?' \__U__/ "Hah! Finally! A real .sig file!"
rchampe@hubcap.clemson.edu (Richard Champeaux) (12/05/89)
In article <7314@hubcap.clemson.edu>, dawill@hubcap.clemson.edu (david williams) writes: > I would take the stardrive interface over the supra for the 1000 any > day of the week. My drive is actually a MiniScribe 8425S that my roomate > got out of his old Supra 4 X 4. We quit using that interface because it > was very slow, and was generating random errors. Being Dave's roommate, I feel I should comment on his comments. First, the Supra wasn't any slower than the Microbotics, they both got about 140k/s. Second, it worked fine for about a year and a half before it started giving random errors. At that point I decided it was time for an Amiga 2000 and a DMA controller with an 80Meg drive. Now I get ~650k/s. Yeah! It was also one of the original Supras, although I had aquired the newer software. > > /'''''\ > | o o | Dave Williams dawill@hubcap.clemson.edu > | m | PeopleLink: SillyDave > | \___/ | 'You think I'd really tell you what I'm up to?' > \__U__/ "Hah! Finally! A real .sig file!" ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ Hah! Dave's trying to put one over on all you nice people. This isn't a real .signature, it's a fake one inserted by his terminal program. We haven't figured out how to get the mailer to tack on a signature yet. Of course, Dave's going to kill me now. :-) Rich Champeaux (rchampe@hubcap.clemson.edu)
lphillips@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca (Larry Phillips) (12/09/89)
In <7387@hubcap.clemson.edu>, dawill@hubcap.clemson.edu (david williams) writes: >stupid mailer won't let me post unless I include more text than the previous >posting. Does this reek of idiocy, or what? Yes, it does. Remember, you said it, not me. -larry -- " All I ask of my body is that it carry around my head." - Thomas Alva Edison - +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+ | // Larry Phillips | | \X/ lphillips@lpami.wimsey.bc.ca -or- uunet!van-bc!lpami!lphillips | | COMPUSERVE: 76703,4322 -or- 76703.4322@compuserve.com | +-----------------------------------------------------------------------+
dawill@hubcap.clemson.edu (david williams) (12/09/89)
In article <7320@hubcap.clemson.edu>, rchampe@hubcap.clemson.edu (Richard Champeaux) writes: > In article <7314@hubcap.clemson.edu>, dawill@hubcap.clemson.edu (david williams) writes: > > I would take the stardrive interface over the supra for the 1000 any > > day of the week. My drive is actually a MiniScribe 8425S that my roomate > > got out of his old Supra 4 X 4. We quit using that interface because it > > was very slow, and was generating random errors. > > Being Dave's roommate, I feel I should comment on his comments. First, > the Supra wasn't any slower than the Microbotics, they both got about > 140k/s. Second, it worked fine for about a year and a half before it > started giving random errors. At that point I decided it was time for an > Amiga 2000 and a DMA controller with an 80Meg drive. Now I get ~650k/s. Yeah! > It was also one of the original Supras, although I had aquired the newer > software. > > > > > /'''''\ > > | o o | Dave Williams dawill@hubcap.clemson.edu > > | m | PeopleLink: SillyDave > > | \___/ | 'You think I'd really tell you what I'm up to?' > > \__U__/ "Hah! Finally! A real .sig file!" > ^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^ > > Hah! Dave's trying to put one over on all you nice people. This isn't a > real .signature, it's a fake one inserted by his terminal program. We haven't > figured out how to get the mailer to tack on a signature yet. > > Of course, Dave's going to kill me now. :-) > > Rich Champeaux (rchampe@hubcap.clemson.edu) Hah! Shows what you know! That signature is a clever fake, typed by me at one of our local computer center's terminals. Here is the real one, via my TimeSaver. (Not my terminal program) ------------------------------------------------------ /'''''\ Dave Williams | o o | dawill@hubcap.clemson.edu | m | PeopleLink: SillyDave | \___/ | Huh? What? Could you repeat the question? \__U__/ "Ha! I finally got a reallyyyyy greattttt .sig file!" Anyway, I stand corrected on the supra interface. I dunno, I was never impressed with the supra, it seemed cheezy. Know what I mean? What kind of performance is the real world getting out of the *latest* version of the supra? Does it mount with AmigaDOS mount, or still need the SupraMount? see above for signature stupid mailer won't let me post unless I include more text than the previous posting. Does this reek of idiocy, or what?