[comp.unix.sysv386] ESIX and RLL contollers

glenn@suphys.physics.su.OZ.AU (Glenn Geers) (10/11/90)

Hi,
	just a quick question for someone familiar with ESIX. After having a look
through the installation guide for supported disk controllers I am led to 
believe that it will *not* support the WD1006VSR2 RLL controller (it's not
listed - they list WD1003 and WD1007). Is this correct?

					Thanks in advance,
								Glenn

p.s. We've used Xenix for a while and that has no problem with RLL controllers.
We're just looking at cheaper alternatives.

glenn@qed.physics.su.oz.au

#include <std_disclaimer.h>


--
Glenn Geers                       | "So when it's over, we're back to people.
Department of Theoretical Physics |  Just to prove that human touch can have
The University of Sydney          |  no equal."
Sydney NSW 2006 Australia         |  - Basia Trzetrzelewska, 'Prime Time TV'

dt4100c@medtron.medtronic.com (Derek Terveer) (11/06/90)

In article <1990Oct10.232255.25221@metro.ucc.su.OZ.AU> glenn@suphys.physics.su.OZ.AU (Glenn Geers) writes:
> 
> 	just a quick question for someone familiar with ESIX. After having a look
> through the installation guide for supported disk controllers I am led to 
> believe that it will *not* support the WD1006VSR2 RLL controller (it's not
> listed - they list WD1003 and WD1007). Is this correct?

I have never been able to get rll controllers to work reliably with either rev c
or rev d of esix.

derek
-- 
Derek "Tigger" Terveer
Just the facts, ma'am:		det@medtronic.com

kaleb@thyme.jpl.nasa.gov (Kaleb Keithley ) (11/07/90)

In article <1990Nov6.002853.582@medtron.medtronic.com> dt4100c@medtron.medtronic.com (Derek Terveer) writes:
>In article <1990Oct10.232255.25221@metro.ucc.su.OZ.AU> glenn@suphys.physics.su.OZ.AU (Glenn Geers) writes:
>> 
>> 	just a quick question for someone familiar with ESIX. After having a look
>> through the installation guide for supported disk controllers I am led to 
>> believe that it will *not* support the WD1006VSR2 RLL controller (it's not
>> listed - they list WD1003 and WD1007). Is this correct?
>
>I have never been able to get rll controllers to work reliably with either rev c
>or rev d of esix.
>

I have *never* had a problem getting rev. c or rev. d of ESIX to work with my
WD1006 1:1 RLL controller.

-- 
Kaleb Keithley                      Jet Propulsion Labs
kaleb@thyme.jpl.nasa.gov

"So that's what an invisible barrier looks like!"

glenn@suphys.physics.su.OZ.AU (Glenn Geers) (11/07/90)

From article <1990Nov6.234606.5162@thyme.jpl.nasa.gov>, by kaleb@thyme.jpl.nasa.gov (Kaleb Keithley	):
> In article <1990Nov6.002853.582@medtron.medtronic.com> dt4100c@medtron.medtronic.com (Derek Terveer) writes:
>>In article <1990Oct10.232255.25221@metro.ucc.su.OZ.AU> glenn@suphys.physics.su.OZ.AU (Glenn Geers) writes:
>>> 
>>> 	just a quick question for someone familiar with ESIX. After having a look
>>> through the installation guide for supported disk controllers I am led to 
>>> believe that it will *not* support the WD1006VSR2 RLL controller (it's not
>>> listed - they list WD1003 and WD1007). Is this correct?
>>
>>I have never been able to get rll controllers to work reliably with either rev c
>>or rev d of esix.
>>
> 
> I have *never* had a problem getting rev. c or rev. d of ESIX to work with my
> WD1006 1:1 RLL controller.

I have had no trouble over the last few weeks with my WD1006vsr2 RLL controller.
I've just added a second drive (an old - from my XT clone - 20 Mb Miniscribe)
and this is now causing the main drive to lock up. I'm going to fiddle around
by changing the interleave on the drive from 1:1 to 2:1 (and maybe 3:1 - I
just want storage!) and up the numbers of kernel buffers from 400 to 550.
I'm also going to (perhaps) run the 1k filesystem instead of the Berkley ffs.
							Glenn

glenn@qed.physics.su.oz.au


--
Glenn Geers                       | "So when it's over, we're back to people.
Department of Theoretical Physics |  Just to prove that human touch can have
The University of Sydney          |  no equal."
Sydney NSW 2006 Australia         |  - Basia Trzetrzelewska, 'Prime Time TV'

rli@buster.irby.com (Buster Irby) (11/07/90)

dt4100c@medtron.medtronic.com (Derek Terveer) writes:

>In article <1990Oct10.232255.25221@metro.ucc.su.OZ.AU> glenn@suphys.physics.su.OZ.AU (Glenn Geers) writes:
>> through the installation guide for supported disk controllers I am led to 
>> believe that it will *not* support the WD1006VSR2 RLL controller

>I have never been able to get rll controllers to work reliably with either rev c
>or rev d of esix.

Well, I have had no trouble at all.  I am running a WD1006SR2 and
a Maxtor XT-1140 drive.  To make it work, you must use the WD
bios on the controller and select the drive parameters there.  In
spoofing mode the controller will override the standard bios drive
parameters.  This causes the Maxtor to be 190MB instead of 115MB.
You should also do your formatting through the controller instead of
through unix.  I ran it like that under Esix rev C for 9 months and 
am currently running ISC Unix 2.2 with no problems.
-- 
Buster Irby  buster!rli

john@karnak.cactus.org (John B. Meaders Jr.) (11/07/90)

In article <1990Nov6.002853.582@medtron.medtronic.com> dt4100c@medtron.medtronic.com (Derek Terveer) writes:
>
>I have never been able to get rll controllers to work reliably with either rev c
>or rev d of esix.

I have one running under Rev D (2 floppy, 2 disks Western Digital plain jane
16 bit type).  My AMI 386 BIOS does let me define my own drive type though
so I can set it to ST-251 with 26 sectors instead of 17 sectors.
-- 
2LT John B. Meaders, Jr.  510 Manchester Ct., Hopewell, VA  23860
Voice:  804-458-2983  Net: john@karnak.cactus.org or john@karnak.sigma.com
Uucp: ...!{sequoia,letni,ditka}!karnak!john        "Cowabunga dude" - TMNT
Disclaimer:  These are my opinions, not those of DA or DOD.

davidsen@sixhub.UUCP (Wm E. Davidsen Jr) (11/08/90)

In article <1990Nov7.032130.23769@metro.ucc.su.OZ.AU> glenn@suphys.physics.su.OZ.AU (Glenn Geers) writes:

| I have had no trouble over the last few weeks with my WD1006vsr2 RLL controller.
| I've just added a second drive (an old - from my XT clone - 20 Mb Miniscribe)
| and this is now causing the main drive to lock up. 

  SCO has this same problem, and released a fix for it (although they
labeled it for 1007). I haven't had a lockup in months, so I call it
fixed. Call the vendor and tell them that the setup will run with SCO.
The problem was (reported to me) that when the o/s started a seek on one
drive and a read on the other, that when the interrupt came back the
kernel got confused about which operation was complete.
-- 
bill davidsen - davidsen@sixhub.uucp (uunet!crdgw1!sixhub!davidsen)
    sysop *IX BBS and Public Access UNIX
    moderator of comp.binaries.ibm.pc and 80386 mailing list
"Stupidity, like virtue, is its own reward" -me