rlin@cs.ubc.ca (Robert Lin) (09/12/90)
Here's my horror story on trying to get a SCSI system to work with ISC 2.0.2. I have an Adaptec 2732B RLL controller, which I am quite happy with. I needed to add more disk storage, so I thought it would be a neat idea to grab that spare 330M Miniscribe 9380S and hook it up to an Adaptec 1540B. I got everything more or less working. By more or less, I mean whenever I boot into ISC on my RLL drive, it would take an awful long time before it would get past the "Booting Unix System...." prompt. Half the time, it wouldn't even boot at all. So I decided to kick out the RLL system, buy the 1542B, and use a SCSI only system. Again the same problem. I configured the IRQ to be 14, the interrupt channel select to be 14 also, and the installation disk wouldn't even boot. After trying many different things, I got it to boot on IRQ 15, interrupt select channel 14. After ISC got installed, it wouldn't boot again. Changing it back to IRQ 14, select 14 seemed to work. But only sporadically. The boot procedure, when it does work, is unbearably slow. It takes its sweet time, and half the time it aborts in midst of boot saying srmount - unable to mount root Attempting to dump 1024 pages 1 page dumped Any key to reboot And of course, TFM only says "Refer to Release Notes on the Adaptec SCSI controller", and the release notes only say "we support the Adaptec 154xB controller". So after spending some good money for the SCSI controller and drive, I am back where I started. Oh yes, some where during all the shenanigan both my RLL drives got totally wiped, how I don't know. Has any one else had any luck with AHA-1542B (only boot device) and ISC 2.0.2? If so, what's the trick?? -Robert Lin <rlin@cs.ubc.ca>
cws@janus.Quotron.com (Craig W. Shaver) (09/13/90)
In article <9524@ubc-cs.UUCP>, rlin@cs.ubc.ca (Robert Lin) writes: > Here's my horror story on trying to get a SCSI system to work with > ISC 2.0.2. > > I have an Adaptec 2732B RLL controller, which I am quite happy with. > I needed to add more disk storage, so I thought it would be a neat > idea to grab that spare 330M Miniscribe 9380S and hook it up to > an Adaptec 1540B. ... > > Has any one else had any luck with AHA-1542B (only boot device) and > ISC 2.0.2? If so, what's the trick?? > > -Robert Lin <rlin@cs.ubc.ca> I have tried the 1542b with a 1684-7 micropolis under ix-2.2. It worked great. It was slow coming up, but only because of the ffs init sequence. The 1542 used int 11 as the default. Maybe the drive is the problem, try to get ahold of Roy Neese of adaptec (seen around these parts recently). Craig W. Shaver ================================================================ Quotron Systems Inc. | Phone: (213) 302-4247 5454 Beethoven Street | uucp: hacgate!janus!cws Post Office Box 66914 | craig@tradr2.quotron.com Los Angeles, CA 90066 | ================================================================
loc@tmsoft.UUCP (Leigh Clayton) (09/14/90)
In <9524@ubc-cs.UUCP> Robert Lin describes troubles with AHA1542: This message is coming to you from an Intel 302 (386/25) with an AHA1542A spinning a Priam disk (as well as a Sony MO disk). Both DOS and 386/ix (2.0.2) seem to work perfectly, and my boot (while not as fast as I would like :-) seems to drive the disk at a reasonable speed and never aborts as you describe. I'm not aware of any tricks involved -- it worked fine, as far as I can tell, even before I configured the HPDD to know I had an Adaptec card. In fact, of all the things I've got stuffed into that box, the AHA1542 is my pick for the 'trouble free installation and operation' award of the year. I seem to have it set to use IRQ 11 and DMA 5 (ignoring the floppy)(this is from my notes; I haven't opened the box to check that I wrote it down right); if this isn't the way you have it plugged you might try it again. To speed yourself up, you might try installing DOS on it; in the 1542-only configuration, once you get it to work with DOS I betcha it'll run 386ix just fine too. .../Leigh ----------------------------------------------------------- - Men argue, Nature acts /Voltaire - - - - ...for we never know what is enough, - - until we know what is more than enough. /Blake - - - - VPIX SUX /Me - ----------------------------------------------------------- loc@tmsoft.UUCP (Leigh Clayton) uunet!mnetor!tmsoft!loc