kimmel@umvlsi.ECS.UMASS.EDU (Mathew Kimmel) (11/12/88)
I've heard that the current version of Minix ST will not talk to Supra hard disks. However, I've also seen a message from someone who says he uses a Supra hard disk with Minix ST and has no problems. I'm not sure what to believe, but I'd like to know the answer before I buy Minix. Can the current version of Minix ST talk to a Supra hard disk? If not, is there a patch available that I could apply to the operating system to fix this? Thanks, -Matt -- Matt Kimmel University of Massachusetts Amherst, Mass. Internet: kimmel@umvlsi.ecs.umass.edu Bitnet: KIMMEL@UMAECS FidoNet: 1:321/112
trb@stag.UUCP ( Todd Burkey ) (11/14/88)
In article <28@umvlsi.ECS.UMASS.EDU> kimmel@umvlsi.ECS.UMASS.EDU (Mathew Kimmel) writes: >I've heard that the current version of Minix ST will not talk to Supra >hard disks. However, I've also seen a message from someone who says he >uses a Supra hard disk with Minix ST and has no problems. I'm not sure >what to believe, but I'd like to know the answer before I buy Minix. >Can the current version of Minix ST talk to a Supra hard disk? If not, >is there a patch available that I could apply to the operating system to >fix this? A friend just bought his second 30MB Supra recently and discovered that the newer one works fine under Minix, but the older (8 months old) Supra doesn't. He is using the same format/utility software for each, and the only obvious difference is that the drive types were different (I think he said the new one was Seagate and the old was Miniscribe). The drive type shouldn't affect operation, so there must have been other changes in the ST-SCSI adapter as well. I hear that Supra is working on the problem, so hopefully there will be a software fix for the older drives. -Todd Burkey trb@stag.UUCP
johan@nlgvax.UUCP (Johan Stevenson) (11/14/88)
In article <28@umvlsi.ECS.UMASS.EDU> kimmel@umvlsi.ECS.UMASS.EDU (Mathew Kimmel) writes: >I've heard that the current version of Minix ST will not talk to Supra >hard disks. However, I've also seen a message from someone who says he >uses a Supra hard disk with Minix ST and has no problems. I'm not sure >what to believe, but I'd like to know the answer before I buy Minix. >Can the current version of Minix ST talk to a Supra hard disk? If not, >is there a patch available that I could apply to the operating system to >fix this? I have been called by one of the developers of Supra (W. Brown), who mentioned problems reported by some of his customers. He himself had no MINIX-ST and I have no Supra disk. Has someone on the net a combination of these two ingredients at hand, with some time and willingness to look into this problem? I would very much like to have MINIX-ST run on the Supra drive, since they are quite popular. -- Johan W. Stevenson johan@pcg.philips.nl Philips Research
dclemans.falcon@mntgfx.mentor.com (Dave Clemans) (11/15/88)
From article <28@umvlsi.ECS.UMASS.EDU>, by kimmel@umvlsi.ECS.UMASS.EDU (Mathew Kimmel): > I've heard that the current version of Minix ST will not talk to Supra > hard disks. However, I've also seen a message from someone who says he > uses a Supra hard disk with Minix ST and has no problems. I'm not sure > what to believe, but I'd like to know the answer before I buy Minix. > Can the current version of Minix ST talk to a Supra hard disk? If not, > is there a patch available that I could apply to the operating system to > fix this? > Could this be a situation similar to what the PC-Ditto people just issued a patch for? PC-Ditto (the IBM PC emulator for the ST) has its own drivers for hard disks. Apparently some versions of ST DMA port adaptor boards are slower at responding to commands than others; in particular the PC-Ditto note talked about older Supra boards. PC-Ditto recently issued a patch that changed timing parameters in their driver to make it work on Supra's. dgc
hyc@math.lsa.umich.edu (Howard Chu) (11/17/88)
In article <154@nlgvax.UUCP> johan@nlgvax.UUCP (Johan Stevenson) writes: >I have been called by one of the developers of Supra (W. Brown), who >mentioned problems reported by some of his customers. He himself had >no MINIX-ST and I have no Supra disk. Has someone on the net a >combination of these two ingredients at hand, with some time and >willingness to look into this problem? >I would very much like to have MINIX-ST run on the Supra drive, since >they are quite popular. >-- >Johan W. Stevenson johan@pcg.philips.nl Philips Research I have (had?) a Supra 20MB drive that originally did not work with Minix. This drive was attached with a version 2 Supra host adapter card. Given this and version 2.01 formatting software, Minix would not use this drive. I now have the version 5 host adaptor (I think it's #5, it has the pass-thru DMA connector as well as the onboard clock) and version 3.2 formatting software with the same drive mechanism, and this combination does work. Unfortunately I can't verify if the new formatter and old host adaptor will work, since the old one is quite thoroughly fried. I am now using Minix on a 40MB Miniscribe 8051S, with the 20MB Miniscribe 8425S attached as a GEMDOS only drive, with the new Supra host adaptor. -- / /_ , ,_. Howard Chu / /(_/(__ University of Michigan / Computing Center College of LS&A ' Unix Project Information Systems