gt3408a@prism.gatech.EDU (DYKES,DAVID PRESTON) (06/06/91)
Greetings-
The thread about att's unix running on third party hardware
raises a question for me that maybe one of ya'll can answer. Does this imply
that att unix would not work on on an esdi configuration. I would think
that it would since obviously att supports at type drives (ie st506), and
I thought that esdi, while using a faster protocall to talk at the disk, looked
just like an st506 controller to the machine.
Does any one have att sysv r4 running on an esdi system?, am I all wrong
about esdi (if so, give me a break it is after all exam time:).
-Thanks in Advance
-Dave
--
DYKES,DAVID PRESTON
Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta Georgia, 30332
uucp: ...!{allegra,amd,hplabs,seismo,ut-ngp}!gatech!prism!gt3408a
ARPA: gt3408a@prism.gatech.eduglenm@bnr.ca (Glen Martin) (06/07/91)
In article <30675@hydra.gatech.EDU>, gt3408a@prism.gatech.EDU (DYKES,DAVID PRESTON) writes: |> The thread about att's unix running on third party hardware |> raises a question for me that maybe one of ya'll can answer. Does this imply |> that att unix would not work on on an esdi configuration. I would think |> that it would since obviously att supports at type drives (ie st506), and |> I thought that esdi, while using a faster protocall to talk at the disk, looked |> just like an st506 controller to the machine. Actually, there are two kinds of ESDI controllers (at least): one looks just like an ST506 controller, the other doesn't. The non-ST506 one is suposed to be faster, but that's just a rumour ... |> -- |> DYKES,DAVID PRESTON |> Georgia Institute of Technology, Atlanta Georgia, 30332 |> uucp: ...!{allegra,amd,hplabs,seismo,ut-ngp}!gatech!prism!gt3408a |> ARPA: gt3408a@prism.gatech.edu glen glenm@bnr.ca
debra@wsinfo11.info.win.tue.nl (Paul De Bra) (06/12/91)
In article <30675@hydra.gatech.EDU> gt3408a@prism.gatech.EDU (DYKES,DAVID PRESTON) writes: > The thread about att's unix running on third party hardware >raises a question for me that maybe one of ya'll can answer. Does this imply >that att unix would not work on on an esdi configuration... > Does any one have att sysv r4 running on an esdi system? This is a confusion that keeps coming up regularly. AT&T Unix sVr3.1, 3.2 and 4.0 are only *supported* on AT&T hardware, and not even on all AT&T hardware. (4.0 for instance does not yet support the older intelligent AT&T ethernet controller) This support has nothing to do with what hardware AT&T Unix runs on. If you are willing to pay full price for AT&T Unix without getting the (included) support, you can go with non AT&T hardware. A number of things may not work, or nothing may work, or everything may work just fine, but you're on your own (even if you work for AT&T, as I did when i tried calling support...). In particular, AT&T Unix (including 4.0) happens to run on most generic AT386 boxes. ESDI is no problem. Some SCSI controllers may be a problem and the strings for the supported disks and tapes are hardwired in the kernel somewhere (so i heard, i have never tried SCSI). Most of the problems are in the video and mouse arena. AT&T only supports the AT&T (aka Logitech) mouse, and will not work with other mice. Genius and Microsoft are among the mice reported not to work. VGA boards also cause problems. (only supported since 3.2 version 2.1) Only the AT&T VDC-600 can be used at higher than standard vga resolution. (it does 800x600 at 16 colors) That is if you want to use standard system calls to switch between graphics modes. I believe that up to now the AT&T VDC-900 is still not yet supported? The VDC-600 is pretty much a Paradise +16 board, and a small patch to the kernel (1 or 2 bytes) is sufficient to make the Paradise board work at 800x600, but again, without a patch, i.e. out of the box, it doesn't work. I have tried an ET-4000 board, and X386 (thanks to Roell) does work, but the standard system calls (to put the VDC-600 into 800x600 mode) has some unwanted side effects (leaves the screen in funny mode when switching back to text mode). Another problem area is the tape drive. Only Wangtek and compatibles (Everex comes to mind) are supported. This basically means that others will not work. (Archive for instance will not work.) Concluding: does it work on non AT&T hardware? Maybe yes, maybe not. it mostly depends on how compatible your hardware is with AT&T's. (some of that isn't hard to do as AT&T is merely a reseller for most components) will you get support? highly unlikely. (but you cannot choose not to pay for the support you don't get) Paul. (debra@win.tue.nl)