quarrie@cds001.cebaf.gov (David Quarrie) (12/06/90)
This is my first attempt at posting to a newsgroup, so apologies in advance for any stupidities... The NeXTcube I ordered from Businessland arrived yesterday, as did a Fujitsu 680MB hard drive from Mac!Direct! configured (supposedly) for the NeXT. After getting the system to boot from the OD and playing for a bit (I'm a brand new NeXT user - we use DECstations at work) I decided to try getting the system to boot from the Fujitsu, following a recipe I got from Benson Wu (bmwu@athena.mit.edu) using some earlier postings. This included the /etc/disktab entries and notes on internal jumper settings. After flailing around a bit due to a bad SCSI connector (luckily I had a spare cable) and delving inside the disk to remove two jumpers as per the recipe (which I'll add to the end of this posting) I finally got "scsimodes" to recognise the disk. I should add that I discovered the cable problem after removing the jumpers and so don't know what effect they had. After adding the relevant /etc/disktab entries I was able to build a system on the disk using BuildDisk. I then modified the /etc/fstab entry on the disk to only mount the single partition (since that was how I did the disktab entry). However, on attempting to boot from the disk I got a flashing "SCSI Error" message. On going to the ROM monitor and trying a "b" it appears to access the correct drive but then issues an error: No bootfile on path On rebooting from the OD and mounting the hard disk, I discovered that BuildDisk had only copied /odmach to the hard drive and not /sdmach (any idea why not??). I copied this by hand and tried rebooting again, but it still fails with the same error. So..... HELP!!! If anyone can point me at the appropriate manual to RTFM or has encountered anything like this I'd be very grateful. The recipe I got follows (quite long). ------------------------------------------------------------------------- Article 5908 of comp.sys.next: Path: uhccux!ames!bionet!agate!usenet From: izumi@mindseye.berkeley.edu (Izumi Ohzawa) Newsgroups: comp.sys.next Subject: FUJITSU M2263S SCSI Disk for NeXT -- Answers Message-ID: <1990Jul18.080412.19027@agate.berkeley.edu> Date: 18 Jul 90 08:04:12 GMT Sender: usenet@agate.berkeley.edu (USENET Administrator;;;;ZU44) Organization: University of California, Berkeley Lines: 218 The 660MB Fujitsu SCSI drive now boots fine, thanks to a help from Helene Young-Myers and Eugene D. Myers. The problem I described in an earlier posting was due to incorrect jumper settings on the drive. The drive has about the same capacity as Maxtor XT-8760S, and can be had for a little more than $2000. The drive is, however, substantially louder during seeks than Maxtor (see below). In any case, since some of you sent me mail asking for the summary report, here it is: ---------------------------------------------------------------------- *** Installing FUJITSU M2263S SCSI disk (660MB) as NeXT boot disk **** [1] Jumper settings on the drive (a) SCSI target# can be set by jumber block "CN9" located right next to the SCSI bus connector of the drive. Three jumpers closest to the SCSI connector encode the target number in binary. View from the back of the drive, with the drive UP-SIDE DOWN. |-----------| |----------------------------| ....... | power con.| | 50 pin SCSI connector | CN9 ....... |-----------| |----------------------------| \-/ ID For SCSI target# 0, remove the three left-most jumpers on CN9. For SCSI target# 1, keep the left-most one, and remove the second and third jumper from left. (b) Remove two jumpers at both ends of the jumper block "CNH2". Locate the jumper block "CNH2" betweeen two surface-mount VSLI's whose labels are obscured by capacitors ( 1cm square blocks colored blue on my drive, with two leads). There are 8 jumpers in this block. On Jumper Block "CNH2" remove: [1-2] INQUIRY DATA [15-16] Synchronous Mode Transfer If you can't figure out the numbers on the block, [1-2] is at one end and indicated by a little triangle mark, and [15-16] is at the other end (8-th position from the triangle). [ This information was kindly provided by Helene Young-Myers, helene@secd.cs.umd.edu, and her husband Eugene D. Myers. Thank you! ] [2] Remove the 40MB swap disk and install M2263S. Connect the power cable to the drive, and SCSI flat cable. [3] Boot from OD, and login as root. Use command "scsimodes" as below to get basic formatting information, e.g., bytes per sector, etc. If "scsimodes" does not work, the most likely cause is improper cable connections. localhost# scsimodes /dev/rsd0a SCSI information for /dev/rsd0a Drive type: FUJITSU M2263S-512 512 bytes per sector 53 sectors per track 15 tracks per cylinder 1658 cylinder per volume (including spare cylinders) 3 spare sectors per cylinder 15 alternate tracks per volume 1312343 usable sectors on volume [4] Add the following entry to the end of "/etc/disktab". If the parameters shown by "scsimodes" are different from those above, you cannot use the entry below. If you want the modified disktab to appear also in the SCSI disk's /etc/disktab after BuildDisk, copy /etc/disktab to /usr/template/client/etc/disktab, too. ( BuildDisk will copy /usr/template/client/etc/* onto a newly built disk as /private/etc/* ) Be sure to make backup copies of the unmodified disktab in each directory. Write permission may have to be set to edit these files. ----- cut here and append to /etc/disktab ----------------------------------- # FUJITSU M2263S-512 with 3 spare sectors/cylinder and 512 byte sectors # localhost# scsimodes /dev/rsd0a # SCSI information for /dev/rsd0a # Drive type: FUJITSU M2263S-512 # 512 bytes per sector # 53 sectors per track # 15 tracks per cylinder # 1658 cylinder per volume (including spare cylinders) # 3 spare sectors per cylinder # 15 alternate tracks per volume # 1312343 usable sectors on volume # M2263S-512|FUJITSU M2263S-512|Fujitsu 760MB w/512 byte sectors as 1 partition:\ :ty=fixed_rw_scsi:nc#1658:nt#15:ns#26:ss#1024:rm#3600:\ :fp#160:bp#0:ng#0:gs#0:ga#0:ao#0:\ :os=sdmach:z0#32:z1#96:ro=a:\ :pa#0:sa#646230:ba#8192:fa#1024:ca#32:da#4096:ra#10:oa=time:\ :ia:ta=4.3BSD: # # Fujitsu M2263-512, divided into two partitions, sd0a and sd0b. # This entry has not been tested. It may not work. # (To use this entry, uncomment lines below, and comment out lines above) # # M2263S-512|FUJITSU M2263S-512|Fujitsu 760MB w/512 byte sectors, 2 partitions:\ # :ty=fixed_rw_scsi:nc#1658:nt#15:ns#26:ss#1024:rm#3600:\ # :fp#160:bp#0:ng#0:gs#0:ga#0:ao#0:\ # :os=sdmach:z0#32:z1#96:ro=a:\ # :pa#0:sa#426230:ba#8192:fa#1024:ca#32:da#4096:ra#10:oa=time:\ # :ia:ta=4.3BSD: # :pb#426230:sb#220000:bb#8192:fb#1024:cb#32:db#4096:rb#10:ob=time:\ # :ib:tb=4.3BSD: # ------ cut here --- end of disktab for M2263S -------------------------------- [5] Check if the modified /etc/disktab is valid by; localhost# disk /dev/rsd0a disk name: FUJITSU M2263S-512 disk type: fixed_rw_scsi Disk utility disk> quit (quit this program) localhost# If the "disk" command does not recognize the drive, you have made a mistake in adding the disktab entry in step [4]. Check /etc/disktab again. [6] Launch "BuildDisk" and run it. [7] If you are using the first disktab entry (the whole disk as one large partition), you must edit "/etc/fstab" on the SCSI disk before you attempt to boot from it. If you are using the second entry (for two partions), skip this step. mount /dev/sd0a /mnt chmod 644 /mnt/etc/fstab ... Edit /mnt/etc/fstab, and comment out or remove the line: /dev/sd0b /clients 4.3 rw,noquota 0 2 umount /dev/sd0a [8] Shutdown and boot from the SCSI disk. If the ROM monitor complains: SCSI unexpeced msg:1 sc: Unexpected msg .... repeated many times... Then, you must have not set the jumpers correctly in step [1](b). =========================================================================== Additional information of interest [9] Transfer Rate localhost# disk /dev/rsd0a disk name: FUJITSU M2263S-512 disk type: fixed_rw_scsi Disk utility disk> read starting block? 0 # sectors per transfer? 16 number of transfers? 1000 sector increment? 16 16384000 bytes in 21243 ms = 771374 bytes/s disk> read starting block? 0 # sectors per transfer? 16 number of transfers? 1000 sector increment? 16 16384000 bytes in 21242 ms = 771374 bytes/s For comparison, according to Ronald Antony & Axel Merk (the authors of "TheFormatter" for Wren drives), CDC Wren VI (CDC 94191-15) gives 520000 - 560000 bytes/sec for 512 bytes/sector drive without cache, and 900000 - 980000 bytes/sec with on-drive cache. [10] Seek Noise The drive is quite noisy during seek. My subjective impression is that the drive is as noisy as the current opical drive, although the nature of the noises is quite different. You will certainly hear seek noise every time a Browser opens a directory or when someone does an rlogin, etc. By comparison, Maxtor XT-8760S, the NeXT's official 660MB drive, is dead quiet. Perhaps, the drive may not be suitable if you need a quiet environment. But the 5-year manufacturer warranty is, for me, quite soothing :-) I don't know how Fujitsu compares with CDC Wren drives with respect to seek noise. [11] As always, use the information above at your own risk. I am not responsible for any damage to the SCSI drive or to the NeXT cube itself (voiding the warranty) caused directly or indirectly by the use of the information provided above. Izumi Ohzawa, izumi@violet.berkeley.edu -- ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- whelan@ (uhunix.uhcc.hawaii.edu || uhunix.BITNET || nextsrv.wslab.hawaii.edu) -- David Quarrie CEBAF Physics Division quarrie@cds001.cebaf.gov