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Xref: sserve comp.periphs.scsi:15474 comp.os.386bsd.questions:7001 comp.unix.osf.osf1:1441 Newsgroups: comp.periphs.scsi,comp.os.386bsd.questions,comp.unix.osf.osf1 Path: sserve!newshost.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!news.Hawaii.Edu!ames!agate!howland.reston.ans.net!EU.net!sun4nl!bsoatr!pphbau!paul From: paul@pphbau.atr.bso.nl (PPH Bauwens) Subject: Re: Driver for Adaptec 274xT Message-ID: <1993Nov18.234929.379@pphbau.atr.bso.nl> Followup-To: comp.periphs.scsi,comp.os.386bsd.questions,comp.unix.osf.osf1 Organization: Private Node X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL2] References: <CGDFu3.477@tfs.com> <2c09tq$mji@homer.cs.mcgill.ca> <CGEzD8.GJH@tsoft.net> <2ccjep$n5d@u.cc.utah.edu> Date: Thu, 18 Nov 1993 23:49:29 GMT Lines: 59 A Wizard of Earth C (terry@cs.weber.edu) wrote: : In article <CGEzD8.GJH@tsoft.net> tedm@tsoft.net (Ted Matsumura) writes: : [ ... Re: Adaptec technical support ... ] : > Not that I want to argue about Adaptec tech support but... : To date and to my knowledge, the *BSD implementations are the only ones : which can install correctly on translated drives without a lot of hacking, It looks to me that your knowledge here is fairly cumbersome. The way to disable the translation on Adaptec boards is to disable the Adatec BIOS, which you don't use under UNIX anyway. You will have to figure out another way of booting than through INT13/19 though... : and it's still very cumbersome. Given the small number of UNIX and UNIX : like OS's that support mounting DOS FS's, I suspect even if you could : get installed on a translated drive, you would have a hell of a time : mounting DOS FS's other than the first partition, and then you'd have to : be lucky anyway and hit a translated/untranslated cylinder boundry (ever : wonder why so many people recommend 0 and 1 as offsets?).. There is no problem whatsoever with using 'translated drives' since it is transparent to the OS. Just use the 'translated' parameters and the OS won't ever suspect there is a different disk underneath... Heck, if you are using zone-bit recorded SCSI drives the whole translation issue is moot anyway. Since both DOS and UNIX agree on the same disk translation parameters 64 heads / 32 sectors there is no problem with partitioning the disk between DOS and UNIX, at least with all Intel SVR3 / SVR4 versions that I am familiar with. The simplest way of getting things right is to create the DOS partition first using a MS-DOS boot disk, then install your UNIX. The PCFS filesystem driver in fsk-0.93 is able to mount any DOS partition on the hard disk under AT&T SVR4 UNIX thank you, provided the UNIX slice table (mkpart, /etc/partitions) is set up correctly. Translation and all. For the performance oriented, I once made a special UNIX boot disk with a corrected version of 'disksetup' that took great pains to get the UNIX disk partitions exactly aligned to physical head/sector/cylinder boundaries so I could create the UFS filesystems with the exact head/sector/cylinder parameters of the SCSI drive. Didn't make ANY difference in performance against the standard 'translated' setup. Since then I don't worry anymore! : Unless there is an obvious change of attitude, I *will not* be doing : buisness with Adaptec in the future, nor will anyone whose purchasing : decisions I can influence by recounting my experiences. Your choice. Other netters may want to make a more informed decision.... -- -------------------------------------------------------------------------- Paul Bauwens Email: paul@pphbau.atr.bso.nl Rietkerkweg 364 paul@pphbau.hobby.nl 3066VL Rotterdam Nederland Phone: +31-10-4211858