otts@spp3.UUCP (Chuck Otts) (03/17/87)
Need some help to bring up 4.2bsd, 4.3bsd or System V on a VAX 11/785.
The problem seems to be hardware related but not sure.
After extraction of distribution mini-root we get a segmentation fault,
trap 8 with the system crashing. We never get to the root prompt with
the current configuration. What I am looking for is anybody running UNIX
on a VAX 11/785 and possible ideas or floppy configuration (defboo, boot,...)
that might help out in this situation (or do I really have a hardware problem).
Thanks for any help.
- chuck -
{...} trwrb!trwspp!spp3!otts
Configuration:
VAX 11/785 (64K memory)
SI 9700 Tri-density tape drive
SI 9751 Eagle disk drive
SI 9900 Controller
SI Massbuss adapter
SI=System Industriesrbj@icst-cmr.arpa (03/24/87)
From: Chuck Otts <otts@spp3.uucp>
Date: 16 Mar 87 23:29:29 GMT
Need some help to bring up 4.2bsd, 4.3bsd or System V on a VAX 11/785.
The problem seems to be hardware related but not sure.
After extraction of distribution mini-root we get a segmentation fault,
trap 8 with the system crashing. We never get to the root prompt with
the current configuration. What I am looking for is anybody running UNIX
on a VAX 11/785 and possible ideas or floppy configuration
(defboo, boot,...) that might help out in this situation
(or do I really have a hardware problem).
Thanks for any help.
- chuck -
{...} trwrb!trwspp!spp3!otts
Configuration:
VAX 11/785 (64K memory)
^^^^^^^^^^ Can thatpossibly be right?
SI 9700 Tri-density tape drive
SI 9751 Eagle disk drive
SI 9900 Controller
SI Massbuss adapter
What, no DEC disks? I think you are up the creek. BSD 4.[23] needs
patches to the hp driver, which SI usually installs on a VMS pack
for you. They also give you a tape and manual set to patch BSD.
The problem seems to be that SI's report bad blocks differently. If your
eagle is perfect (at least in the first two partitions), you may be
able to bring up the mini-root and adb that (is adb *in* the mini-root?)
to change your partition tables (eagle_sizes) to a clean area on disk.
Or, worse yet, there may be other problems I don't know about. We have
a 750, I don't know too much about 780/785's. Then again there is the
boot floppys that have to be updated somehow. Perhaps SI knows.
I would get a DEC disk drive to use for the root + usr file system
anyway, since that way you can build multiple system packs.
I don't see how you can do this without a "normal" disk, altho one
guy around here runs a 780 with *only* SI controllers and 9766/9751's.
I hope that pinpoints the problem, if not the solution. However,
I am guessing based on my Vax 750/SI 9900/CDC 9766/Eagle experience.
(Root Boy) Jim "Just Say Yes" Cottrell <rbj@icst-cmr.arpa>
While my BRAINPAN is being refused service in BURGER KING,
Jesuit priests are DATING CAREER DIPLOMATS!!mangler@cit-vax.UUCP (04/02/87)
In article <5472@brl-adm.ARPA>, rbj@icst-cmr.arpa (Root Boy Jim) writes: > The problem seems to be that SI's report bad blocks differently. MBA's have two 16-bit byte counters (in one 32-bit register) to aid in determining which block got the error. One tallies the bytes transferred to/from memory, the other tallies bytes to/from the disk. The former is what matters when reading, and the latter when writing. Unfortunately, the SI 9900 only implements the former, and has enough buffering that the distinction is critical. When a write encounters a bad sector, the bytes are counted even though they don't make it onto the disk. There is an "SI ECC BUG" fix floating around which looks at the disk address register instead. This can lose bytes on large reads that end with an error. (We've used this patch a long time, and I'm amazed at how well it works in practice). The correct way to do this is to look at the disk address register and both byte counters, take the minimum of the three, and continue the transfer from there (with fudging for DCK and SKI). This works on SI 9900 and Emulex SC7000 (even with Rev. B proms, which are incredibly buggy). > I don't see how you can do this without a "normal" disk, altho one > guy around here runs a 780 with *only* SI controllers and 9766/9751's. So does the 780 I'm posting on. I think we get away with it simply by having few bad blocks. The pack on the 9766 was bought error-free and we use that as the root disk. Don Speck speck@vlsi.caltech.edu {seismo,rutgers,ames}!cit-vax!speck