det@hawkmoon.MN.ORG (Derek E. Terveer) (05/26/91)
I have finally gotten a motherboard that is acceptable to the 1542A bus- mastering test and am currently running with a WrenIV as the boot disk. I have a WrenIII that I would like to also hook up but the adaptec board does not seem to be able to see enough of it to verify the drive. Configuration: Esix 5.3.2-D NoName 386-33 motherboard aha-1542A Wren IV (94171-376MB) ID=0 Wren III (94161-156MB) ID=1 The Wren IV runs beautifully. If however, I replace the wren IV with the wren III and change nothing else i can use the 1542A's on board utilities to probe and format the drive successfully (or at least that is what it claims) but attempting to verify the drive immediately returns an "ERROR 520". I don't know what a 520 error is and the aha manual doesn't explain it. I can fdisk the drive in dos but i can't format it -- dos thinks that the media is bad. If I attempt to install Esix on it (no other drive in the system) it reports that "HA 0 has no TC's". I take this to mean that hardware (disk) adapter zero has no drives hooked up to it, meaning that esix can't see the drive. Indeed, later on the hard disk partitioning step fails in the fdisk command (can't open /dev/rdsk/0s0). And yes, the drive is terminated to the best of my knowledge. I say "best" here because the manual for the drive is incorrect, none of the jumpers are where they are supposed to be, and i can't physically see any terminators or terminator sockets. (Cdc will not officially acknowledge that my drive exists) I believe that the terminators are inside the drive somewhere, out of reach. The drive behaves as if it is terminated because I can successfully use it with an st-01 card running unix. Since it was (mere hours ago) running successfully with unix and the st-01 driver and i was using it for well over a year with nary a glitch (with the same st-01 driver) i have to assume that the drive media is ok. It must be something to do with the command set or something like that. I have eliminated cabling problems because i used the exact same cable as for the WrenIV (which is what i'm running on now). Is the 1542A incompatible with the WrenIII? Will getting a 1542B fix the problem or will i have to sell the drive and get a different drive? In any event, I have cabled it a number of different ways; by itself and in conjunction with the WrenIV, assuming that it is terminated (at the end of the chain with the WrenIV terminators removed) and assuming that it is not terminated (in the middle of the chain with the WrenIV terminators installed) to no avail. Has anyone else gotten this combination to work? Do i have a bastardized disk from cdc (since cdc claims that my disk doesn't exist) that simply won't work and i'm SOL? Any help would be appreciated, derek -- Derek "Tigger" Terveer det@hawkmoon.MN.ORG -- U of MN Women's Lax I am the way and the truth and the light, I know all the answers; don't need your advice. -- "I am the way and the truth and the light" -- The Legendary Pink Dots
ats@first.gmd.de (Andreas Schulz) (05/27/91)
det@hawkmoon.MN.ORG (Derek E. Terveer) writes: >I have a WrenIII that I would like to also hook up but the adaptec board >does not seem to be able to see enough of it to verify the drive. Ok, i will give the jumpers, it's from a WREN III HH disk drive Manual Model 94211 (SCSI): The Termination Resistors are SIP Modules plugged into SIP sockets on the Main PWA, accessable through a hole in the PWA behind the DC power cable connector. ---------------- | | ---------------------- 4 2 1 P | | B T A * T G M | | ------------------------------------- P is the Parity Jumper. 4,2,1 are the SCSI-Id Jumpers Jumper between M-G enables Motor Start option, drive wait until host adapter starts the Motor, no jumper drive spin up as soon as power is applied. Jumper between T-G means Test seek option, no normal operation. Jumper between A-T means terminator power from WREN III power connector, B-T means terminator power from SCSI cable, pin 26. If unit is not to be terminated, remove the terminator packs. Removal of terminator power source select jumper does not !!! disconnect the terminator resistors from the circuit. Happy Playing, don't loose the jumpers :-) -- ATS ( ats@gmdtub.UUCP )
gsteckel@vergil.East.Sun.COM (Geoff Steckel - Sun BOS Hardware CONTRACTOR) (05/28/91)
In article <1991May25.230247.542@hawkmoon.MN.ORG> det@hawkmoon.MN.ORG (Derek E. Terveer) writes:
-I have a WrenIII that I would like to also hook up but the adaptec board
-does not seem to be able to see enough of it to verify the drive.
-
-Configuration:
-
- Esix 5.3.2-D
- NoName 386-33 motherboard
- aha-1542A
- Wren IV (94171-376MB) ID=0
- Wren III (94161-156MB) ID=1
-
-The Wren IV runs beautifully. If however, I replace the wren IV with
-the wren III and change nothing else i can use the 1542A's on board
-utilities to probe and format the drive successfully (or at least that
-is what it claims) but attempting to verify the drive immediately
-returns an "ERROR 520". I don't know what a 520 error is and the aha
-manual doesn't explain it. I can fdisk the drive in dos but i can't
-format it -- dos thinks that the media is bad. If I attempt to install
-Esix on it (no other drive in the system) it reports that "HA 0 has no
-TC's". I take this to mean that hardware (disk) adapter zero has no
-drives hooked up to it, meaning that esix can't see the drive. Indeed,
-later on the hard disk partitioning step fails in the fdisk command
-(can't open /dev/rdsk/0s0). [rest of description of symptoms deleted]
I have an (older) Wren III drive and have had similar, but not identical
problems with it. Once past them, however, it has worked perfectly.
It appears that some of the lower-capacity ( < 300 MB ) and/or older
Wren SCSI drives do not fully support the SCSI Common Command Set, or
at least that part that the Adaptec uses. They DO support enough to
do normal read/write activity. Does anyone have a list of what
commands Adaptec DOES use?
My solution: use a homebrew format utility to hard format and spare,
remap, etc., then use DD on a unix system to copy a partition table
onto the drive. Once there's ANY sort-of-valid-looking partition
table on the drive, you can FDISK it, etc. I used a system which
doesn't use DOS partition tables (a 68000 system) to do the format
and DD. You can then use ADB (under Unix) or Norton Utilities
under Messy-DOS to patch the partition table.
You can't use Messy-DOS FORMAT on it, ever. Won't work (I assume the verify
track commands in the FORMAT program use something that CDC didn't
supply). You can't use a 386 Unix format program on it either, but
you shouldn't have to unless blocks go bad and the automatic sparing
system fails. Unix mkfs/newfs/whatever doesn't do a hard format and
should work properly.
I am willing to release my SCSI utility program, but someone else
would have to port it to the ASPI (Advanced SCSI Programming Interface)
for Messy-DOS. It is complementary to Roy Neese's programs, as it
does a bunch of things his don't, and vice versa.
I've got negative time available, and I LOATHE Messy-DOS.
Any volunteers?
good luck,
geoff steckel (gwes@wjh12.harvard.EDU)
(...!husc6!wjh12!omnivore!gws)
Disclaimer: I am not affiliated with Sun Microsystems, despite the From: line.
This posting is entirely the author's responsibility.neese@adaptx1.UUCP (05/28/91)
>/* ---------- "1542A & WrenIII" ---------- */ >I have finally gotten a motherboard that is acceptable to the 1542A bus- >mastering test and am currently running with a WrenIV as the boot disk. >I have a WrenIII that I would like to also hook up but the adaptec board >does not seem to be able to see enough of it to verify the drive. > >Configuration: > > Esix 5.3.2-D > NoName 386-33 motherboard > aha-1542A > Wren IV (94171-376MB) ID=0 > Wren III (94161-156MB) ID=1 > >The Wren IV runs beautifully. If however, I replace the wren IV with >the wren III and change nothing else i can use the 1542A's on board >utilities to probe and format the drive successfully (or at least that >is what it claims) but attempting to verify the drive immediately >returns an "ERROR 520". I don't know what a 520 error is and the aha >manual doesn't explain it. Sense key 5, error code 20. Basically, the Wren II does not support the SCSI Verify command. This was(is?) an optional command. Not all devices support it. >STUFF DELETED< >In any event, I have cabled it a number of different ways; by itself and >in conjunction with the WrenIV, assuming that it is terminated (at the >end of the chain with the WrenIV terminators removed) and assuming that >it is not terminated (in the middle of the chain with the WrenIV >terminators installed) to no avail. > >Has anyone else gotten this combination to work? Do i have a bastardized >disk from cdc (since cdc claims that my disk doesn't exist) that simply >won't work and i'm SOL? Do you have the sync jumper installed on the 1542A? If you do, take it off. This may not be all that is wrong. The WrenIII does have a timing issue concerning disconnect/reconnect. This was corrected in all the later versions of the Wren series. I doubt the 1542B will help. Roy Neese Adaptec Senior SCSI Applications Engineer UUCP @ neese@adaptex uunet!cs.utexas.edu!utacfd!merch!adaptex!neese
det@hawkmoon.MN.ORG (Derek E. Terveer) (06/01/91)
neese@adaptx1.UUCP writes: >Sense key 5, error code 20. Basically, the Wren II does not support the >SCSI Verify command. This was(is?) an optional command. Not all devices >support it. >Do you have the sync jumper installed on the 1542A? If you do, take it >off. This may not be all that is wrong. The WrenIII does have a timing >issue concerning disconnect/reconnect. This was corrected in all the later >versions of the Wren series. I doubt the 1542B will help. I tried both with and without the sync jumper. No dice either way. And you are right, the 1542B didn't help. I borrowed a friend's 1542B. I have the drive running on an st-01 controller card right now, but it only seems to work at 16MHz, which is a rather unsatisfactory way to use my 33MHz machine... Sigh. (:-( If i put the machine in hi-speed i get "can not read block #" errors on the fsck. sloooooly, derek -- Derek "Tigger" Terveer det@hawkmoon.MN.ORG -- U of MN Women's Lax I am the way and the truth and the light, I know all the answers; don't need your advice. -- "I am the way and the truth and the light" -- The Legendary Pink Dots