neese@adaptx1.UUCP (05/07/91)
>/* ---------- "Adaptec 1542 with no disks or SCSI" ---------- */ >I have a 15MHz ESDI disk and controller in my system and I just got >a brand new Adaptec 1542B SCSI host and Archive 2150S tape drive >for backup. The Adaptec BIOS gets upset at boot time because there's >no disks connected to it and won't allow me to boot without pressing >F1 to continue -- this means that the machine won't boot after a >power failure without someone being present to press the key which is >a bit of an annoyance. I tried disabling the BIOS, but the driver >that comes with my Interactive Unix system must make use of it since >it then crashes during the Unix boot. > >One possibility is to get a SCSI / ESDI cross controller and move my >600MB ESDI disk from its WD1007V-SE2 controller (which I could then >remove from my machine) to the cross. Of course, there are a number >of problems with this approach. Firstly, does anyone (or did anyone) >make a cross controller that supports 15MHz ESDI? If so, anyone have >any idea of where I can get one? I believe ISC has corrected the problem with the BIOS being disabled on the 1542 adapter. What occurs is; The BIOS setups the DMA channel for cascade mode during part of its initialization. When you disable the BIOS, it is up to the driver to do this. If the channel is not setup in cascade mode, the system will die on the first DMA access by the 1542. The original ISC driver did not setup the DMA channel. ISC is aware of this and, as I stated before, I believe they do have a new driver that corrects this problem. Roy Neese Adaptec Senior SCSI Applications Engineer UUCP @ neese@adaptex uunet!cs.utexas.edu!utacfd!merch!adaptex!neese