bill@bilver.UUCP (Bill Vermillion) (03/11/90)
I went to a potential client site the other day to install some serial drivers and talk about what software he needed for a system he had purchased from his mini/mainframe vendor (the min/mf is a Burroughs and the Xenix box is an Acer). This was my second attempt. The first time I tried to install SCO Xenix and found that the Future Domain controller requires a kernel to be built on the machine after installing a 506/Esdi drive, and gen'ing a bootable SCSI kernel and then removing that drive and replacing with the SCSI controller/drive. Since the people who sold this to him didn't install the Xenix, I tried by building a kernel on an AT machine and had problems. The machine is then taken back to the dealer who installs the Xenix but not the serial drivers for a digiboard and returns the machine. I tried to build a new kernel, and got sector not found errors from the system, and had a non-bootable kernel. I booted with the old kernel and it started to come up, then error after error during the time it tries to run rc.d. The hard drive is a Miniscribe and the controller is the Future Domain 860. The computer is an Acer 386 box with 5 megs of memory. Since I normally don't work around clone type machines I have a general question. Is this combination, which appears to have been bought with low dollar in mind, a viable system. My gut reaction says the Future Domain controller and Miniscribe SCSI are the heart of the problem. I did a badtrack to force a read/write and force the SCSI to remap bad tracks, and it took 1.5 hours to complete. It seems to creep compared to others I have seen. Any/all comments would be appreciated, by posting or mail, whichever you feel is more appropriate. For mail use the address in the sig. Thanks -- Bill Vermillion - UUCP: uunet!tarpit!bilver!bill : bill@bilver.UUCP
wain@seac.UUCP (Wain Dobson) (03/12/90)
In article <526@bilver.UUCP> bill@bilver.UUCP (Bill Vermillion) writes: > >The hard drive is a Miniscribe and the controller is the Future Domain >860. The computer is an Acer 386 box with 5 megs of memory. > Tried this combination last August. Needless to I cannned it after a couple of weeks and one very frustrated person (Remember, jtc). Settled on a reasonable explanation: the Future Domain setup was just plain frustrating (if i remember, correctly, they seem to have the AT & GT versions of their software, but don't quote me.); the Miniscribe was not exactly deligthful, either, with respect to the Future Domain. As well, at the time we had an early version of the ACER motherboard that had patches, many. -- Wain Dobson, Vancouver, B.C. ...!{uunet,ubc-cs}!van-bc!seac!wain
jim@bahamut.fsc.com (James O'Connor) (03/14/90)
In article <5594@seac.UUCP>, wain@seac.UUCP (Wain Dobson) writes: > In article <526@bilver.UUCP> bill@bilver.UUCP (Bill Vermillion) writes: > > > >The hard drive is a Miniscribe and the controller is the Future Domain > >860. The computer is an Acer 386 box with 5 megs of memory. > > > AT & GT versions of their software, but don't quote me.); the > Miniscribe was not exactly deligthful, either, with respect to We tried to use a Miniscribe 3150S with the Adaptec SCSI host adapter and had no luck under either DOS or SCO Xenix GT. I think the Miniscribe are engineered according to Apple's interpretation of SCSI. ------------- James B. O'Connor Work: jim@tiamat.fsc.com Data Processing Manager Play: jim@bahamut.fsc.com Ahlstrom Filtration, Inc. UUCP: uunet!tiamat!jim
chip@tct.uucp (Chip Salzenberg) (03/15/90)
According to bill@bilver.UUCP (Bill Vermillion): >This was my second attempt. The first time I tried to install SCO >Xenix and found that the Future Domain controller requires a kernel to >be built on the machine after installing a 506/Esdi drive, and gen'ing >a bootable SCSI kernel and then removing that drive and replacing with >the SCSI controller/drive. Such would be the case with any hard disk controller not directly supported by Xenix. >Is this combination, which appears to have been >bought with low dollar in mind, a viable system. My not so humble opinion: Future Domain SCSI should AVOIDED at all costs. Under no circumstances would I ever buy anything from Future Domain. I was once forced by the decision of some marketdroid to use the Future Domain TMC-830 and -870 for a time. They are embarrassingly slow. Things were so bad that my editor would stop echoing keystrokes during the periodic buffer sync. If you want speed, go with the Adaptec SCSI controller, which is supported directly by SCO Xenix 2.3GT, or with one of the register-compatible alternatives, which will work with any SCO release. -- Chip Salzenberg at ComDev/TCT <chip%tct@ateng.com>, <uunet!ateng!tct!chip> "The Usenet, in a very real sense, does not exist."