mike@bria.UUCP (Michael Stefanik) (04/27/91)
Over the past year or so, we have been installing systems with SCO XENIX with the WD7000-FAST controller, and VP/ix. We (thankfully) have a small number of clients with this configuration, but the ones that are out there are having a rather consistent problem: accessing the floppy (which is on the WD) from within VP/ix will _sometimes_ causes a trap, panic, and instant death. Note that the XENIX DOS tools (ala doscp, etc.) do not cause this problem, and as noted above, it is not consistent (although, it does _seem_ to happen more frequently when formatting a floppy from within VP/ix, rather than just moving data on and off the diskette). I have heard mumblings that WD had problems with the floppy, but has since corrected them. SCO has said that it was indicative of a memory problem, but had no real answers or suggestions. Of course, I would prefer to see 'em all dump this DOS garbage in the trash where it belongs, but until I own the company ... :-) Any suggestions? -- Michael Stefanik, MGI Inc, Los Angeles | Opinions stated are never realistic Title of the week: Systems Engineer | UUCP: ...!uunet!bria!mike ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- If MS-DOS didn't exist, who would UNIX programmers have to make fun of?
root@crash.cts.com (Bill Blue) (04/28/91)
In <221@bria.UUCP> mike@bria.UUCP (Michael Stefanik) writes: }Over the past year or so, we have been installing systems with SCO XENIX }with the WD7000-FAST controller, and VP/ix. We (thankfully) have a }small number of clients with this configuration, but the ones that are }out there are having a rather consistent problem: accessing the floppy }(which is on the WD) from within VP/ix will _sometimes_ causes a trap, }panic, and instant death. Note that the XENIX DOS tools (ala doscp, etc.) }do not cause this problem, and as noted above, it is not consistent }(although, it does _seem_ to happen more frequently when formatting a }floppy from within VP/ix, rather than just moving data on and off the }diskette). } }I have heard mumblings that WD had problems with the floppy, but has }since corrected them. SCO has said that it was indicative of a memory }problem, but had no real answers or suggestions. Of course, I would }prefer to see 'em all dump this DOS garbage in the trash where it belongs, }but until I own the company ... :-) I have this problem too. This is with DTC 6280 tx15 controllers (2) on ESDI drives (4). It shows up most frequently when a DOS copy (with the copy program) is used to copy files from floppy to hard drive. If, during that copy, there is a fair amount of activity on drives on the second controller, the system will just freeze never to recover. The Multiscreens are 'alive' as far as switching and echo to the screen is concerned, but that's all. Hard reset is the only way out. The same copy done within an application program works ok every time. I've also noticed that I can usually DOS format a drive in a: with no problem, but any attempt to try same on drive b: (1.44mb) is an almost immmediate system panic: Double panic Divide Error and it's dead in the water. NONE of this behavior started until after I installed VPIX 1.1. The previous version had been in place and working for months under the same hardware configuration. I really don't think it's a memory problem since it worked fine until 1.1. Anyone have any more insight to this? Specifically, will 1.2 fix the problem, or do I have to go back to 1.0 and put up with its other, er, peculiarities? --Bill