*BSD News Article 33453


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From: burgess@cynjut.infonet.net (Dave Burgess)
Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.announce,comp.answers,news.answers
Subject: [comp.os.386bsd] BNR/2 derived BSD for PCs FAQ (Part 9 of 10)
Supersedes: <386bsd-faq-9-774161545@cynjut.infonet.net>
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Date: 27 Jul 1994 22:29:44 -0500
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Posted-By: auto-faq 3.1.1.2
Archive-name: 386bsd-faq/part9

Section 8.	("Supported" Hardware List)

Disclaimer: This list is NOT a commercial oriented effort.  It is not an 
	    attempt to promote brands of computer machinery; it merely 
	    reports "happy" customers.  The validity of information supplied 
	    is based solely on the validity of the statements made by the 
	    contributors.  If more information is needed on a particular 
	    product please contact the contributor directly via e-mail.


8.0	What hardware is 386BSD known to run on and support!

	The problem with this section of the FAQ is that software is 
	the only reason that every PC card on the planet does not work.

	EISA cards are not directly supported; when and if EISA
	is directly supported, they will give a significant performance
	advantage to EISA bus machines.  As it happens, user who desire 
	more than 16Meg of memory must use either VESA or EISA systems.
	Even with an EISA system, many users will not be able to use the
	address space above 16Meg unless their system uses only EISA 
	cards for those devices that need access to DMA.  The limitations
	are covered in another section of the FAQ.

	Many EISA cards operate in an ISA emulation mode.  Notably, the
	Ultrastore 24F SCSI controller operates in an IDE emulation mode 
	that allows the card to be used in the current system without 
	modification.  Most EISA cards that operate in ISA mode will 
	work with 386BSD, NetBSD, or FreeBSD.

	Like EISA, MCA is unsupported currently; unlike EISA, it can't
	work until it is supported, as it doesn't fall back to ISA
	operation.  If you want to work on this problem, I'm sure that
	many people will appreciate it; you will probably need an ISA or
	EISA machine to do the work, however.


8.1	System brand names
8.2	Motherboards

	Here is the list of compatible motherboards for 386bsd that I 
	managed to collect off the network. Thanks to all of you who 
	contributed to this effort. If some of you have knowledge of a 
	different motherboard and want to add it to the list please send 
	E-mail either Kostis Dryllerakis (kd@doc.ic.ac.uk) or Dave Burgess 
	(burgess@cynjut.infonet.net).

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Manufacturer		: Zeos
Country of origin	: USA
Architecture		: ISA (serial/parallel ports and controller on board)
Bus Slots		: 7 16-bit and 1 8-bit
Chipset			: 
Processor/Speed		: 486SLC/25
Processor Cache		: 8K(?)
BIOS			: Award w/ built-in setup (no password, though)
Max Memory		: 16 megs
Country of availability	:
Price estimate		: This machine was $1995. (out of production)
Points of attention	:
Other Information	: I would most likely not recommend this system, 
			  or any other system using a 486SLC...the 16 Meg limit
			  is a real pain. Also, the system has No processor 
			  upgrade options (unlike a real 486SX)...the 
			  motherboard itself would have to be replaced. :(
Contributor		: Matt Beal (publius@wam.umd.edu)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Manufacturer		: Micronics
Country of origin	: USA
Architecture		: ISA
Bus Slots		: 8 (all 16 bit :-)
Chipset			: Not Known
Processor/Speed		: 486/25MHz
Processor Cache		: 256K
BIOS			: Phoenix
Max Memory		: 16Meg
Country of availability	: Australia (at least)
Price estimate		: Not Known
Points of attention	: 
Other Information	: Needed "fixed" boot floppies otherwise system 
			  would not boot from hard disk.
Contributor		: Brett Lymn (blymn@awadi.com.au)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Manufacturer		: VOBIS / HIGHSCREEN
Country of origin	: Germany
Architecture		: ISA
Bus Slots		: 8
Chipset			: OPTI / uP INTEL
Processor/Speed		: INTEL 80486 DX 50 Mhz
Processor Cache		: 256 Kb
BIOS			: AMI 1992
Max Memory		: 32MB
Country of availability	: Europe
Price estimate		: 3000 US $ with the following configuration:
			  486/50 - 8 Mb RAM - HDD 210 Mb - 2 floppies - 
			  VGA card - 14" VGA Monitor - 
			  DOS/Windows/& other software.
Points of attention	: I paid 6000 US $ for the following configuration:
			  486/50 - 16 Mb RAM - SCSI card (Adaptec) 425 Mb 
			  SCSI disk - 2 floppies - 1 Mb VGA card (ET4000) - 
			  17" professional monitor etc. The hard drive alone 
			  costs 1250 US $, but it is from a third party. The 
			  monitor alone (PHILIPS, remarked as VOBIS) 
			  costs 1000 US $.
			  All prices are valid in Italy.
Other Information	: 
Contributor		: Piero Serini (piero@strider.st.dsi.unimi.it)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Manufacturer		: OPTI
Country of origin	:
Architecture		: ISA
Bus Slots		: 8
Chipset			: OPTI
Processor/Speed		: 486DX/33
Processor Cache		: 256K (can use from 64K - 512K)
BIOS			: AMI
Max Memory		: 32M
Country of availability	: USA, at least
Price estimate		: $850 (w/ 8M) ??
Points of attention	: Make sure cache-able region setting matches actual
			  size of RAM.  Probably don't want BIOS shadowing.
Other Information	:  Uses 1- or 4-Meg 80ns SIMMS, in sets of 4.  
			  (8 sockets).
Contributor		: Bill Warner (wtw@wpi.wpi.edu)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Manufacturer		: unknown (board is called PAT48SA)
Country of origin	: unknown
Architecture		: ISA
Bus Slots		: 6x 16bit, 1x 8bit
Chipset			: SIS
Processor/Speed		: 486 33MHz
Processor Cache		: 256 KByte
BIOS			: AMI BIOS
Max Memory		: 32 MByte
Country of availability : Germany (at least)
Price estimate		:
Points of attention	: none
Other Information	:
Contributor		: Jan Klier, Berlin - Germany (klier.cs.tu-berlin.de)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Manufacturer		: NICE USA
Country of origin	: U.S.A
Architecture		: ISA
Bus Slots		: 8
Chipset			:
Processor/Speed		: 486DX/50MHz
Processor Cache		: 256K
BIOS			: AMI
Max Memory		: 32MB
Country of availability	:
Price estimate		:
Points of attention	: 
Other Information	:
Contributor		: Tom Wye TJW00@charon.amdahl.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

		==== EISA MOTHERBOARDS ===

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Manufacturer		: A.I.R. (Advanced Integration Research, Inc.)	
Country of origin	: San Jose, CA USA
Architecture		: EISA/Local Bus
Bus Slots		: 8 Total - 5 EISA, 3 EISA/Local Bus
Chipset			: SIS
Processor/Speed		: 486DX33 (20-50mhz)
Processor Cache		: 256Kb (64-512KB)
BIOS			: AMI
Max Memory		: 256MB max using 16M X 36 SIMMS
Country of availability : U.S.A
Price estimate		: $475 US with 256KB cache, No processor or Memory
Points of attention	: 
Other Information	: Only tested with Tiny Kernel with Adaptec 1542B and
                   	  ET4000 video card.  EISA and Local Bus not tested 
                   	  yet.  Will post again with further results.
Contributor		: Joe Gervais joeg@Novell.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Manufacturer		: NICE
Country of origin	: USA
Architecture		: EISA/Local Bus
Bus Slots		: 8 total - 5 ISA + 2 EISA/VLB + 1 EISA
Chipset			: HiNT
Processor/Speed		: 486DX/50MHZ
Processor Cache		: 256K
BIOS			: AMI
Max Memory		: 128MB
Country of availability	: USA
Price estimate		: $950 + memory
Points of attention	: none
Other Information	: easy boot, mini AT footprint
			  easy boot, sudden death. first motherboard failed 
			  after one week due to temperature sensitive component.
Contributor		: duncan@zycad.com (Donald Duncan)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Manufacturer		: Partner (according to supplier - board is unlabeled)
Country of origin	: Taiwan
Architecture		: EISA
Bus Slots		: 8
Chipset			: Opti
Processor/Speed		: 486 DX2 66
Processor Cache		: 8k internal 256k on board
BIOS			: AMI
Max Memory		: 32Mb
Country of availability	: UK
Price estimate		: 599 ex VAT including (necessary) heat sink for 486.
Points of attention	: Board works with 386BSD straight out of the box
    			  with defaults.. When adding memory you must use 
			  the BIOS setup to make all of the new RAM cache-able.
Other Information	: This board is cheap and it works. I got mine from
    			  Jupiter Systems (081 570 1011). They do a fairly wide
			  range of boards and accessories. See Micro Mart for 
			  an advert.
Contributor		: David James (dwj@btcase.bt.co.uk dwj@doc.ic.ac.uk)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Manufacturer		: Synerco, Inc. Richardson Texas (214) 669-0023
Country of origin	: U.S.A.
Architecture		: EISA
Bus Slots		: 8
Chipset			: SOYO Motherboard
Processor/Speed		: Intel/486/66MHz
Processor Cache		: 256K
BIOS			: 1990 American Megatrends
Max Memory		: 32 MB
Country of availability	: Dallas, Texas, U.S.A.
Price estimate		: US 3,000
Points of attention	:
Other Information	: 1 IO card with /dev/com1=DB9 and /dev/com2=DB25
			  EtherCard PLUS "Elite16 Series" 
			  (io base=0x280, irq=2,iomem=0xd000)
					(jumper change to SOFT)
					(Do NOT use default setting, must use)
					(SMC SuperDisk a:ezsetup to adjust)
			  Logitech MouseMan Serial Mouse (M/N: M-CJ13 -9F) 
			  plug in /dev/com1
Contributor		: Jongjay Liou (jongjay@mistxt.oc.com)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Manufacturer		: Gateway2000
Country of origin	: U.S.A.
Architecture		: EISA
Bus Slots		: 8 (6 master and 2 slave?)
Chipset			: 
Processor/Speed		: 486DX2-66E
Processor Cache		: 8 k internal 128 k external
BIOS			: Award (?)
Max Memory		: 16MB
Country of availability : U.S.A. 
Price estimate		: $4750
Points of attention	: (Set Adaptec 1740 SCSI to "standard" mode)
Other Information	:
Contributor		: Daniel Ortmann <ortmann@plains.NoDak.edu>
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Manufacturer		: Micronics Model: 5050-00-ICP/E2/256 Revision: A-1, 
			  plus rework ECN E2A07 to fix CMOS/clock problem
Country of origin	: USA/Taiwan
Architecture		: EISA & Local Bus
Bus Slots		: 8 EISA. 6 are bus master capable, two are not. One of
			  the slots that can not be used for a bus master has 
			  a connector at the other end for a local bus card. 
			  So, for this slot you decide whether to plug in an
			  EISA card or a local bus card.
Chipset			: Intel 357, Intel 358, and a Micronics ASIC.
Processor/Speed		: 486DX50
Processor Cache		: 256 KB external secondary cache, 8 KB internal
BIOS			: Phoenix 80486/EISA, ROM BIOS PLUS version 1.01.23-2	
Max Memory		: 64MB
Country of availability	:
Price estimate		: $1700.00 US
Points of attention	:
Other Information	: built in floppy controller, 1 parallel port, and two
			  serial ports.
Contributor		: Chris Shaker (shaker@cisco.com)
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

8.3	Video cards

Card:
Manufacturer:
Price:
Bus:
Comments:

Card:	MGA
Manufacturer:	?
Price:		$10
Bus:		ISA 8/16
Comments:	Good if you want only text mode in one window, virtually 
		unusable in X.

Card:		TVGA
Manufacturer:	Trident
Price:		$30 - $70
Bus:		ISA
Comments:	Good for multiscreen consoles (pcvt, syscons), but sloooow
		for 'X'.  Some cards with this chipset have a bug preventing 
		them from being used with XFree86.

Card:		ET3000
Manufacturer:	Tseng Labs/Taiwan
Price:		$40 - $90
Bus:		ISA 8/16
Comments:	Good for text and 'X'.  A bit slow.

Card:		ET4000
Manufacturer:	Tseng Labs/Taiwan
Price:		$45 - $110
Bus:		ISA 8/16, VLB, EISA
Comments:	Good for text and 'X'.  The fastest 'dumb' (unaccelerated)
		card.  Avoid Diamond cards, because of their proprietary
		clock programming.  Diamond is unsupported under XFree.

Card:		ET4000/32
Manufacturer:	Tseng Labs/Taiwan, Hercules
Price:		$65 - $130
Bus:		ISA 16, VLB, EISA
Comments:	Good for text and 'X'.  Some of the early cards have a 
		hardware bug and don't work well with XFree86.  Avoid 
		Diamond cards, because of their proprietary clock programming.
		They are unsupported in XFree86.

Card:		S3/801, S3/805
Manufacturer:	?
Price:		$100 - $200
Bus:		ISA 16, VLB, EISA
Comments:	Good for 'X' and text.  Popular accelerated video cards.
		Available with 1 to 2 MB of RAM, VRAM, or DRAM.  If you 
		want hhigh resolution, get one that uses VRAM.

Card:		S3/928
Manufacturer:	Miro, ELSA
Price:		$250 - $500
Bus:		ISA 16, VLB, EISA
Comments:	Good for text and 'X'.  Popular accelerated video card. 
		Available with 1 to 4 MB or VRAM or DRAM.  For highest 
		resolutions, get VRAM.  Supports resolutions up to 
		1280x1024@60-70Hz.  It is twice as fast as the the S3/80x.
		It is about as fast as a Sparc II with GX adapters.  Support
		for 'low-end' VGA cards is typically poor.  Resolutions of
		less then 800x600 should be avoided.


8.4	Mice

	Mice are not supported, per se, in the Operating System.  They do
	make the GUI for 'X' a great deal less challenging.  The following
	mice are supported in 'X' and are therefore supported by the 
	free BSD systems:

		Microsoft mouse
		Mouse Systems mouse
		Logitech serial mouse
		PS/2 bus mouse requires a special driver that is included
		in the current source trees.


8.5	Serial Cards

	As a general rule, you should avoid a serial card that either does
	not use a 16550 UART, or does not have a chip that you can swap
	out to install one.  The 16550 will prevent many silo overflows that 
	can occur with high speed modems.  Other than that, virtually
	all serial cards are supported.

	
8.5.1	How do I configure multiport cards?  Is there a possibility of 
	using multiport serial boards?  How do you configure an AST/4 
	in the kernel?  It looks like the AST driver only supports 
	4-port cards, but it looks like it would be easy to add support 
	for 8 ports ... or am I wrong?

	From: "Martin Husemann" <martin@euterpe.owl.de> 
	All AST 8 port Cards I have seen simply were two AST-4-port on 
	one board. You would configure them like this:

	 master	ast0	at isa? port 0x1a0 tty irq 5 vector astintr
	 master	ast1	at isa? port 0x2a0 tty irq 7 vector astintr

	With that said, the discussion about these cards continues with
	how to make older versions of *BSD react correctly to your AST
	4 or 8 port cards.

	The AST/4 and its clone multiport cards can run on 386BSD using 
	patchkit 0.2.4 and later, NetBSD, and FreeBSD.  The only
	problems seem to be that the code in older versions of
	sioprobe() and sioattach() in sio.c needs to be hacked to get
	it to properly detect the ports and then recognize the type 
	of UARTs installed (16550As).  The code segment that is causing 
	the problem is included below:

	The test in the sio.c driver (in the sioattach() routine) that 
	is causing it to *think* it is a 8250 is:


	
	scr = inb(iobase + com_scr);
	outb(iobase + com_scr, 0xa5);
	scr1 = inb(iobase + com_scr);
	outb(iobase + com_scr, 0x5a);
	scr2 = inb(iobase + com_scr);
	outb(iobase + com_scr, scr);
	if (scr1 != 0xa5 || scr2 != 0x5a)   <--- this is it!
		printf(" <8250>");


	This test seems to be depending upon the absence of the com_scr 
	register in the 8250 (iobase+7).  Unfortunately, the AST 4-port
	card uses this last register of the last UART for interrupt status
	(for the 4 UARTs), hence the last port of the 4 fails the test.  
	The easiest fix is to simply delete this test in your copy of 
	sio.c (If you *know* that you have no 8250s).

	The Bocaboard (BB1008) fails the same way on *all* 8 of its
	ports (the +7 address register is replicated for each port 
	according to the documentation).

	There are also some problems with another test in the if 
	statement:

	if (   inb(iobase + com_cfcr) != CFCR_8BITS
	    || inb(iobase + com_ier) != IER_ETXRDY
	    || inb(iobase + com_mcr) != MCR_IENABLE
	    || !isa_irq_pending(dev)              <--- this one fails!
	    || (inb(iobase + com_iir) & IIR_IMASK) != IIR_TXRDY
	    || isa_irq_pending(dev)
	    || (inb(iobase + com_iir) & IIR_IMASK) != IIR_NOPEND)
		result = 0;

	in the sioprobe() routine for a couple of the ports on the 
	4-port card.  Again, the fix is simply to remove that particular 
	test and everything seems to be okay.  These are admittedly
	pretty ugly hacks, but when you're in a pinch to the system back
	up...

	What you need in the config file is:

	sio0	-> COM1 
	sio1	-> COM2

	(both should be recognized and work just fine)

	sio2	@ 0x1a0	irq 9 flags 0x0501
	sio3	@ 0x1a8	irq 9 flags 0x0501
	sio4	@ 0x1b0 irq 9 flags 0x0501
	sio5	@ 0x1b8 irq 9 flags 0x0501

	Other folks have reported that their configuration looks very 
	similar to this, though they are using irq 5 for the 4-port card.

	(above paraphrased from Bob Willcox, et al)

	This is one of the areas where FreeBSD and NetBSD have
	diverged.  The actual semantics of the multiport boards have
	changed since this section was originally written (the flags
	are either no longer needed or are different in current NetBSD
	implementations, for example).


8.5.2	Now that I have FreeBSD 1.0 installed, how do I set up the 
	serial ports for bi-directional use?

	Thanks to Lyn Kennedy (lrk@k5qwb.lonestar.org) for the advice about 
	the cua devices and their minor numbers.  He worked out much of this 
	without docs.

	In order to get the comm ports working, I decided to run the sio 
	driver (heard it is faster and more capable than com).  In order to 
	get it set up, this is what I did.

	1. I have four com ports assigned to the addresses and interrupt
	lines that are standard for DOS COM1, COM2, COM3, and COM4.  I
	have the following lines in the file used to specify the config
	for the kernel build:

	device		sio0	at isa? port "IO_COM1" tty irq 4 vector siointr
	device		sio1	at isa? port "IO_COM2" tty irq 3 vector siointr
	device		sio2	at isa? port "IO_COM3" tty irq 5 vector siointr
	device		sio3	at isa? port "IO_COM4" tty irq 9 vector siointr

	I also enabled the use of com ports for either call in or call out
	by selecting the bi-directional option.  The following line in the
	config file causes the proper code to be compiled in the driver.

	options	   "COM_BIDIR"	#Bidirectional support in sys/isa/sio.c

	2. After building the kernel, I made sure the devices were 
	represented in /dev.  MAKEDEV should be used to create the
	tty0[0-3] special devices.  It will result in entries such as
	the following:

	   0 crw-------    1 root     wheel     28,   0 Nov  8 06:28 tty00
	   0 crw-------    1 root     wheel     28,   1 Nov  8 10:09 tty01
	   0 crw-------    1 root     wheel     28,   2 Nov  7 01:13 tty02
	   0 crw-------    1 root     wheel     28,   3 Nov  8 03:02 tty03

	Then mknod and chown should be used to create the following four 
	entries:

	   0 crw-rw-r--    1 uucp     dialer    28, 128 Nov  8 03:45 cua00
	   0 crw-rw-r--    1 uucp     dialer    28, 129 Nov  7 18:34 cua01
	   0 crw-rw-r--    1 uucp     dialer    28, 130 Nov  7 17:29 cua02
	   0 crw-rw-r--    1 uucp     dialer    28, 131 Nov  8 03:15 cua03

	The tty0[0-3] entries are used to receive calls on (with the 
	bidirectional code, this is signalled because the most significant 
	bit in the minor number is 0).  The cua0[0-3] entries represent the 
	same ports as the corresponding tty ports, but with the most 
	significant bit of the minor number turned on.  This indicates to 
	the driver that this port is a call out port.

	The reason for the ownership being set to uucp:dialer is because 
	I have all programs that use dialers (uucico, kermit, tip, etc.) 
	set to operate as set-uid with uucp as owner.  Also all of these 
	programs are set up as being in group dialer with group dialer 
	membership being required to execute them.

	3.  One further step needs to be done to allow proper use of the 
	ports.  In rc.local, the last few lines include the following:

	    comcontrol /dev/tty00 bidir
	    comcontrol /dev/tty01 bidir
	    comcontrol /dev/tty02 bidir
	    comcontrol /dev/tty03 bidir

	4. Now I set up getty to use the incoming ports with the following
	entries in /etc/ttys:

	    tty00	"/usr/libexec/getty std.19200"	unknown	on secure
	    tty01	"/usr/libexec/getty std.4800"	unknown	on secure
	    tty02	"/usr/libexec/getty std.4800"	unknown	on secure
	    tty03	"/usr/libexec/getty std.19200"	unknown	on secure

	5. I set up the port file for uucp, the remote file for tip, and 
	the .kermrc file for kermit to refer to the cua0[0-3] devices for 
	call out targets.

	6. Note that I have modems on cua/tty 00 and 03.  My modems are set 
	up to adjust the baud rate of the call (in or out) by negotiating 
	with the other modem in the call.  However the modems always retain 
	the same speed (19,200 Kb) for the rs-232 port.  In order to make 
	the modems use the proper speed, I have to send them an AT sequence 
	at the desired speed.  They will then retain that setting for 
	incoming calls.  So, to do this, I include the following at the 
	end of my rc.local script:

	    /usr/local/bin/initcua00 
	    /usr/local/bin/initcua03

	and in /usr/local/bin, I have the two scripts like (this is the one 
	for initcua00):

	#!/usr/local/bin/kermit
	set modem hayes
	set line /dev/cua00
	set speed 19200 dial XXXXXXX    <----------- it's own number to get busy
	quit


8.5.3	How do I get a serial console to work?

	This answer provided by Simon Ritter (sritter@novell.co.uk)

	I've seen a couple of posts requesting this info, so here it
	is. Maybe this should be added to the FAQ's.

	Edit the file /etc/conf/pack.d/sysmsg/space.c.  At the bottom 
	of this you will find the following lines:

	extern int kdputchar(), kdgetchar();
	extern int asyputchar(), asygetchar();
	extern int asyputchar2(), asygetchar2();

	struct conssw conssw =
	{
    	    kdputchar,
    	    0,
	    kdgetchar
	};

	Change all occurences of kdputchar and kdgetchar to asycputchar 
	and asycgetchar.  Rebuild your kernel and reboot, connecting a 
	terminal to the first serial port.  Behold, all messages on the 
	serial port.

	(Ed Note...  I don't even know if this exists in NetBSD or
	FreeBSD, but what the heck, it's an answer :-)...)



8.6	Disk Controller Problems

	There is no real list of supported wd-driver controllers.  The list
	would be far longer than I am willing to type.  Suffice it to say 
	that virtually every know IDE/ESDI/MFM/RLL hard drive controller
	available works.  There are occasional reports that the driver
	for this particular type of disk drive is "broken", but it is hard
	to substantiate this.  There are a few known "gotchas" with this
	particular controller, but they are fixed as soon as they are found.


8.6.1	IDE controller problems

	The code in the original 386BSD had some serious problems
	dealing with the wd controller.  In addition, changes to the
	controller code which have made improvements in other areas of
	the driver have made the wd driver (in 386BSD with the
	patchkit) even less trustworthy.  The wd driver in NetBSD 0.9
	is better but still has to deal with occasional hard drive bus
	hangs.  The wd driver in the -current code is much more
	reliable.  The FreeBSD code is also greatly improved, and
	likewise does not suffer from these bus hangs.

8.6.2	SCSI controller problems

	Every once on a great while, someone will post a problem with a
	SCSI controller.  Almost all of these are attributed to either
	a) bad cables (or out of spec cables), b) bad termination, or
	c) incorrect irq/drq setup.  Here is an excerpt of a message
	that provides some insight into one man's problems with the
	Adaptec controller, and one with the BusLogic 445.


	From: witr@rwwa.com (Robert Withrow)

	Problem: When the bus hangs, all devices have their access
	lights off, the AHA his its light on. 

	If anyone cares:

	Being in a hurry, I made several changes and the problem went
	away. Normally, I would change one thing at a time, but, like I
	said, I was in a hurry.  Below, I list the changes I made:

	  1) I replaced the AHA with an older one I keep as a spare.

	  2) I *inserted* the the ``synchronous negotiation'' jumper in 
	  the aha.

	  3) I removed the terminator power jumper from two of the hard
	  drives. 

	  4) I removed and reinserted all of connectors into all of the
	  drives. 

	If I had to guess, I bet #2 was the thing that fixed the
	problem. Perhaps this should be a FAQ answer? (Assuming this is 
	a requirement)...

	The system has compiled X11 three times as well as done all 
	sorts of other things including all of the drives (cdrom, disk, 
	and tape) for three days now without a single hang.

	 Robert Withrow, Tel: +1 617 598 4480, Fax: +1 617 598 4430
 	 R.W. Withrow Associates, 319 Lynnway, Lynn MA 01901 USA
	 Net: witr@rwwa.COM

	wjw@ebh.eb.ele.tue.nl (Willem Jan Withagen) writes:

	=>  =>  The BT kernel requires the controller to be configured 
	=>  =>  for IRQ 12.  That is a strange default.  The default for 
	=>  =>  the BT445S is 11, the same as for the 1542.  You probably 
	=>  =>  just need to reconfigure the controller.
	=>  
	=>  So I redid the switches and the BT kernel recognises it on 
	=>  int 12.  Either with or without EISA DMA (switch 2-10)
	=>  
	=>  it no longer generates the strayintr 7.
	=>  But it still doesn't boot after the message 
	=>  	'changing root device to fd0d'
	=>  
	=>  So what's going on here. Is there anyway to find out more?
	=>  Or should I go to one of the FreeBSD lists and discuss it there?

	I was browsing thru the hardware manual of the BT 445S and there 
	it was on the next page :-( I was just misguided by the nice 
	switches on the card edge. 

	To set the interrupts not only the dip-switches need to be changed.
	More important is the actual and physical connection of intr 12 to
	the ISA bus connector.

	After taking the board out, and really connecting intr 12, the 
	system booted the BT kernel without a glitch.  I'm now compiling a 
	new kernel with all our options set as we'd like them to be. 

	The current config:
		16 Mb
		BT 445S with intr 12 and switch 2-10 in default state, 
		giving dma on channel 5.

	Things I'm going to test:
		toggling the 2-10 switch
		adding 16 MB more.


8.7	SCSI Controllers

	The list of "supported" hard drive controllers is very short.
	Basically, it is any hard drive controller that emulates a
	standard IDE/ESDI/MFM controller and a few SCSI controllers.  
	The short list is included below:

		Adaptec 1540[ABC]	ISA	SCSI	No Floppy
		Adaptec 1542[ABC]	ISA	SCSI
		Adaptec 1742		EISA	SCSI
		Ultrastore 14F		ISA	SCSI
		Ultrastore 24F		EISA	SCSI	Supported in IDE mode
		Ultrastore 34F		VLB	SCSI
		Buslogic BT542		ISA	SCSI	
		Buslogic BT545		ISA	SCSI	(Old ones only)
		Buslogic BT742A		EISA	SCSI
		Buslogic BT747A		EISA	SCSI	(modified 742 driver)
		Buslogin BT445S		VLB	SCSI

	Note that the Ultrastore 24F is supported with an experimental
	driver or in IDE emulation mode only.  Any controller that
	purports to be a clone of one of the cards listed above will
	usually work as well.

	In addition, there is a special note for Buslogic card users.

	The card should be configures to use ioaddr 0x330 and IRQ 12.
	There are two places the IRQ needs to be set.  The first is a
	bank of dip switches, and te next is a jumper.  See your hard
	drive controller documentation for the exact settings.

	Once you've got the controller on the right settings.  As it
	says in the README.INSTALL file, after all:

	BT742 SCSI Cntlr.       0x330   12               [kcopy-bt-floppy]

	So I can only conclude that you've probably not configured the
	card for EISA DMA!  From the /usr/src/KNOWNBUGS file:

	/sys/1/isa/bt742a.c
            The Bt445S and Bt747 controllers can cause problems when
	    ISA DMA is selected as an option.  With the EISA controller
	    the remedy is easy - simply turn it off using your EISA 
	    configuration utility.  With the Bt445S, which is a VLB
	    card, you must switch the undocumented "SW10" on "SB2" to
	    the off position.  Also note that certain revisions of the
	    Buslogic board (Revision C or earlier, firmware revision
	    <3.37) will cause DATA CORRUPTION with systems containing
	    more than 16MB of memory.  If you find this to be the case, 
	    temporarily remove your extra memory and contact Buslogic
	    for an upgrade!

		
8.8	Network Cards

	Common misconception number 1: First of all, does BSD still
	support such a small selection of network cards?

	Depends on what you mean by `small'.

	* WD and SMC 8390-based cards (basically all of them)
	* 3C503, 3C509 (and probably 3C507, but I can't actually test it)
	* NE1000, NE2000, NE2100
	* AT&T StarLAN (82586-based cards)
	* BICC Isolan

	These are all in NetBSD, and FreeBSD (by inference)

   	Common question number 2: I have a 3Com 3c509 - is it supported?

	The 3C509 works well under NetBSD-current, and has been clocked
	at full ethernet speed.

	Of course, anyone that wants to go to the trouble of writing a
	driver for any of the other 'unsupported' cards certainly can.
	The Crynwyr (I think) drivers are all out in source form.  That
	should give you the details you need, and the source for the
	driver itself is available in the system.  Go for it.


8.9	Printers
	
	In the original 386bsd system, there were problem with the
	interrupt driven parallel printer driver.  These problems were
	solved by the use of a work around called the interruptless
	printer driver (worked on the theory that once it knew how your
	printer reacted to printing it could configure itself to your
	printer).

	This code has also been deprecated through the use of a new
	printer driver in the {Free,Net}BSD systems that use the same
	source code for either 'interrupt' or 'polled' operation.  The
	closest thing to a 'common' question about printers involves
	questions about CR+LF emulation on some laser printers and some
	questions about some of the filters that 'lpd' talks about, but
	do not seem to be avaiable normally.

	The first is easy.  Set up your printer so that it uses the
	'LF' code as its CR+LF (End of line) character.  If you use
	your machine for operations in more than one OS (like some of
	us that HAVE to use DOS :-( ) then you can include a control
	sequence in the 'ff' control in your /etc/printcap file.


8.10	TAPE Drives

	Editor's note:  

	This tapedrive list is maintained by the original authors.  If you
	have additions, corrections, changes, or deletions, please be sure
	to contact the folks listed in the next paragraph.

SCSI news:

julian@tfs.com writes:
>FreeBSD 1.1 had a rewritten SCSI system.
>
>In fact the method of using the tape modes was almost completely
>rewritten.
>
>If you are a user of tapes, and have had experience with the new method
>(using a control device), please let me know what you think about the
>new system.  I'm particularly interested in hearing from anyone that has
>used the control device from the rc files to set up the system default
>modes for their device on bootup (that's what it was designed for). 
>
>if you have used the tapes in 386BSD or freeBSD-1.0
>and didn't notice that they have changed for 1.1,
>then see the man pages st(4) st(1) scsi(1) scsi(4)

and also...

>as for NetBSD..
>they have integrated the new code into the -current tree
>and it will probably be in the next 'release'


*** Administrivia:

If anyone else aspires to the position of "co-editor of the tape FAQ",
please send me mail.  Until then, I'll use the "Royal We" in the tape
FAQ so I don't have to change all the text.  I'd especially like to hear
from people who are using something other than SCSI tape drives, since I
know almost nothing about non-SCSI tapes, and this is reflected in the
FAQ. 

The tape FAQ will be sent out bimonthly, rather than monthly.
 - Andrew Jr.
------------------------------------------------------------------------

These tape drives have been reported as working (or not working)
on 386BSD, NetBSD or FreeBSD, either in articles on USENET or in
response to previous postings.  If you know any more details, want
to point out errors, know another tape drive works (or doesn't),
have any suggestions for additions/changes to the FAQ, or anything
else useful, please send your reports to:

          andrew@noware.ocunix.on.ca (Andrew Cornwall)

PLEASE HELP TO UPDATE THIS LIST BY PROVIDING COMMENTS AND NEW
INFO.  IN RETURN, WE WILL POST UPDATES AND TRY TO MAKE THE LIST
AVAILABLE TO ANYONE INTERESTED.

IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER:
        This list is not guaranteed to be 100% correct.
        We don't know much about tape drives as yet, so
        we are only collating information provided by others.
        By getting feedback on this list, we hope to improve
        it into an FAQ.

EVEN MORE IMPORTANT THANK-YOU:
        Thanks to everyone who's contributed to this list. Without
        your help, it wouldn't exist!

-------------------------------------------------------------------

Changes to:
    Archive 2525-S
    Wangtek 5150ES
    Wangtek 5525ES

Additions: 
    -none-

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

Format of each entry is as follows:
Name:           {name of the device; if you're reporting, please be as
                 specific as possible}
Capacity:       {Maximum size of the device}
Approx Cost:    {Roughly what you paid}
Interface:      {How it talks to the machine - SCSI, PC bus, etc}
Controllers:    {What controller you're using - Adaptec 1542B, etc}
Informant:      {Who says it works}
Comments:       {Anything good or bad you feel like saying}

*** Please state in the Comments field which operating system you
*** are using and which version.

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

MANUFACTURER CONTACTS:
        Archive is a Maynard company bought by Conner
                Sales:     +1 714 641 0279
                Technical: +1 800 227 6296
        [informant: mq8qc@qcunix.acc.qc.edu (KARAGEORGIOU ANGELOS)]

        Tandberg
                Technical? +1 805 495 8384
        [informant: raeburn@uk.ac.soton.ecs.cygnus.com (Ken Raeburn)]

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-

COMPATIBLE TAPE DRIVES:


Name:           Archive ???
Capacity:       60MB
Approx Cost:    
Interface:      QIC02/24
Controllers:    Archive SC499
Informant:      stark!gene@newsserv.cs.sunysb.edu (Gene Stark)
Comments:       I have been using the wt driver with an SC499
                controller for a few months.  I am sort of happy
                with the driver.  It streams the tape under dump
                and restore, as long as there is not much else
                going on in the system.  I haven't been able to
                get much streaming with tar.  I tried using dd
                with large block sizes and caused at least one
                system crash, so I don't do that at the moment. 
                The error recovery of the driver is not very good. 
                If you try to read at the wrong density, you have
                to execute a successful rewind or control command
                before you can then read at the correct density. 


Name:           Archive 2060
Capacity:       60MB
Approx Cost:    US$200
Interface:      SCSI
Controllers:    Adaptec 1542b, Adaptec 1742a
Informant:      duncan@zycad.com
Comments:       no observed problems when used with julian's drivers.
                works fine with 1542b/1742a


Name:           Archive 2150
Capacity:       250Mb
Approx cost:    US$350-500
Interface:      SCSI
Controllers:    Adaptec 1542b, Adaptec 1742a
Informant:      ejh@slustl.slu.edu (Eric J. Haug)
                admerlev@cip.e-technik.uni-erlangen.de (me 8-))
                duncan@zycad.com
                jfieber@sophia.smith.edu
Comments:       works well with both the driver in the distribution
                kernel and julians' SCSI drivers.   [ejh]

                nice device!!!, works like a charm, tar w/ original
                scsi-driver plus variable block length patch, under DOS:
                GTAR, ASPIBIN (ASPI-TAR), PCTOOLS 8.0, COREL-SCSI
                works fine with julian's drivers and 1542b/1742a
                    [admerlev/duncan]
                and with Adaptec 1542C + Julian's SCSI drivers [jfieber]

                S version (SCSI?) runs under FreeBSD:CombsSF@Salem.GE.COM
                2150S also known as Viper 150


Name:           Archive 2150L
Capacity:       150 Mb, 120 Mb
Interface:      QIC-02
Controllers:    Archive Viper SC402
Informant:      vak@kiae.su (Serge Vakulenko)
Comments:       Works well, with new wt driver (by me and Sergey Ryzhkov).
                Supports 150Mb and 120 Mb formats on write and 150Mb, 120Mb
                and 60Mb formats on read.  It's possible to use mt command
                to rewind the tape, seek file forward etc.

                It's not a problem in the SCSI code. It's a firmware
                bug in (at least) the Archive Viper 150. Data can be
                appended only if the drive is ``totally sure'' that
                the tape is at end of recorded medium. This could be
                achieved by issuing a `space to end of recorded
                medium' command.  Unfortunately, the recent version of
                Julian's SCSI driver doesn't support this.  (Future
                versions might do.)

                As a workaround, it's possible to ``mt fsf'' after the
                last tape file, then issue another ``mt fsf'', which
                will result in an IO error (SCSI blank check, `no data
                found' appears on console), that should be ignored.
                At this point, the tape could be written to!
                 - joerg_wunsch@tcd-dresden.de


Name:           Archive 2525-S (Firmware Rev. 25462-007 - seems to be important [nbladt])
Capacity:       QIC-24, QIC-120, QIC-150, QIC-525
Approx Cost:    ca. 1000,- DM (about US$ 500)
Interface:      SCSI-1
Controllers:    Adaptec 1542B, Adaptec 1542C, Adaptec 1742A, Adaptec 1742B
Informant:      nbladt@autelca.ascom.ch (Norbert Bladt)
                hm@hcshh.hcs.de (Hellmuth Michaelis)
                loodvrij%cyb@fredbox.cts.com (Bruce J. Keeler)
                musashi@com.netcom (Irving Moy)
                rml@midnight.MV.COM (Roger M. Levasseur)
                andreas@knobel.knirsch.de (Andreas Klemm)
Comments:       In contrary to what my dealer told me, it can read and WRITE
                QIC-150 tapes. Didn't have a chance to try QIC-120, or QIC-60,
                etc. yet.
                I am using 386bsd-0.1 (still with the first patchkit and
                all updates from Julian for his fabulous SCSI-driver kit)
                Sorry, no experience with the original driver because
                that driver doesn't work with the 1742A. [nbladt]

                Worked with Julian's driver out of the box. [hm]

                Since putting in Julian's drivers, with Dave Tweten's mods,
                it seems to work just fine.  [loodvrij]

                The drive docs specify that it can r/w QIC-120, 150, and 525.
                It can read QIC-24 but not write it.  I have read QIC-24
                tapes with it.  This is with FreeBSD 1.0.2 +
                Adaptec-1542C  [rml]

                A few days ago I couldn't install netbsd-09
                because I couldn't read the distribution from
                tape.  That was the reason for me ro try
                FreeBSD-1.0.2 (which worked) 
                Model: VIPER 2525 25462  Rev: -007 [andreas] 


Name:           Archive 5945C drive 
Capacity:       45MB used with wr0b device on a 450ft tape
Approx Cost:    0 (from a scrapped Apollo 3000)
Interface:      QIC-02
Controllers:    Archive SC400S
Informant:      Jens Tingleff, Imperial College, London SW7 2BT,
                jensting@ic.ac.uk
Comments:       The `wt' driver from FreeBSD-1.0R works just fine. The
                only change to the controller hardware was to rejumper
                the I/O address selection (jumper pad going A9 A8 ..
                A3) to locate the controller at 0x300.
 
                Reads tapes written on a SUN3 shoebox. Tapes written
                to rwt0b device do *not* read on the SUN. Multiple tar
                archjives (using device nrwt0b) works just fine.
                Doesn't quite stream with tar, and I'm not sure what
                the max speed is, I'm seing 2.5 MB/Min write speed
                using `tar -b 512', I have seen 4MB/Min read when
                using `dd'. 
 
                [The TAR program archived as TAR313US.ZIP at
                garbo.uwasa.fi works fine under DOS with this
                hardware, reading tapes written on both FreeBSD and on
                a SUN3 shoebox]

Name:           ARCHIVE Python 25501 4mm DAT
Capacity:       >1 Gb
Approx Cost:    ~US$1100
Interface:      SCSI 2
Controllers:    Adaptec 1542B, 1742
Informant:      Rich@rice.edu
Comments:       It works great so far, but I haven't figured out how
                to turn on the hardware compression.  Rich         

Name:           Cipher Model 540
Capacity:       45M/60M (probably/hopefully)
Approx Cost:    Loaned to me in `vintage appearance' (Much dust) - No idea !
Interface:      SCSI 1
Controllers:    Adaptec 1542B
Informant:      Julian Stacey   <stacey@guug.de>
Comments:       Shows promise, Cant yet call it truly usefull though:
                The Good Bit:
                        I have seen it stream constantly on 386bsd.
                The Bad Bit:
                        I can't use it as a usefull drive because it keeps
                        dropping out with errors.
                        The fault does not lie in the media, & most probably
                        not with external power supply or scsi cable -
                        I'm working on it.


Name:           CIPHER MicroStreamer F880 (1600bpi, 9 track PERTEC interface)
Capacity:       ???
Approx Cost:    $5000 for the drive in 1985
                $1000 for protocol Converter 1992
Interface:      SCSI
Controllers:    Adaptec AHA-1542A to NCR ADP-53 to tape drive 
Informant:      mike@scrooge.uoregon.edu (Mike Hoffman)
Comments:       It is FAST, reads tape about the same speed as rewind.
                The SCSI controller runs the 9 track drive thru the
                converter and an Archive 2060S 60mb Cartridge tape
                drive directly.  After putting in the current
                patches and reading the PERTEC Specs it was almost
                "plug and play".  The ADP-53 is a protocol converter
                from/to SCSI/PERTEC, purchased from Laguna Data
                Systems (see Byte Magazine).

                Problems:
                mt does not seem to be of much use.  Forward spacing
                the 9 track tape is an iffy job (skipping the label
                on a labeled tape).  dd now does this (skip=1).

                I always get the error 'cannot prevent/allow'.  This
                is not a big deal (prevent or allow removal of
                tape).

                dd does not handle cr/lf at all well.  Could be all
                the protocol conversions or gnu dd just doesn't do
                it.  All files are read in as one line(no CR Lf
                etc).  The blocking and conversion options have no
                effect on line length.  Conversion from EBCDIC to
                ASCII works fine.  A small program to break up the
                file solves the long line problem.


Name:           Cipher ST-150F
Capacity:       150Mb
Approx cost:    US$300 (incl. interface)
Interface:      QIC-02
Controllers:    Cipher
Informant:      hideki@isl.rdc.toshiba.co.jp (YOSHIDA Hideki)
Comments:       works well with blocksize <= 4b


Name:           Cipher ST150-S
Capacity:       QIC-24(read only), QIC-120, QIC-150
Approx Cost:    1300,- DM (long ago ..)
Interface:      SCSI (better SCSI-I or CCS)
Controllers:    Adaptec 1542B, 1742
Informant:      Hellmuth Michaelis (hm@hcshh.hcs.de)
Comments:       This drive responds with empty strings if asked for
                for it's vendors name and model.
                It has a strange format of the mode sense/set command
                blocks.
                By default, it reports a soft error back to the host
                which makes it a bit hard to work with.
                Problems solved with next release of Julian Elischer's
                enhanced SCSI driver (currently beta, July '93).
                oyang@bruce.cs.monash.edu.au reports an upgrade
                which involves a new ROM and cutting some traces.
                The drive responds: CIPHER : Model ST150S2 Rev: 2.0
                ANSI SCSI rev: 01 when asked for it's vendors names
                and model.

Name:           COMTEK Gigatape 1200 4mm external DAT
Capacity:       1.2 Gb
Approx Cost:    US$800
Interface:      SCSI 1
Controllers:    Adaptec 1542B
Informant:      rich@id.slip.bcm.tmc.edu (Rich Murphey)
Comments:       You can remove the COMTEK drive because I gave up on it:
                the vendor offered to upgrade me to a different drive,
                the Archive Python 25501 4mm DAT.

Name:           Conner C250MQT
Capacity:       250 MB compressed, 125 not
Approx Cost:    approx $200
Interface:      Uses floppy disk controller on PC.
Controller:     ?
Informant:      tpw@ruth.ece.psu.edu (Tom Weldon)
Comments:       Maybe it works, but i couldnt get it to talk to 386BSD
                with GENERICISA kernel.


Name:           DEC TZ30
Capacity:       96 MB (uses 3M CompacTape cartridges)
Approx cost:
Interface:      SCSI
Controllers:    Adaptec 154xB
Informant:      davidb@otto.bf.rmit.oz.au (David Burren) May 1993
Comments:       Works with Julian's SCSI drivers.  Console reports "cannot
                prevent/allow" but this is not a problem.
                This is the native-SCSI half-height version of DEC's
                TK50Z drive.


Name:           DEC TZ857
Capacity:       18.2 GB (stacker unit with seven 2.6 GB CompacTape
                    III tapes)
Approx cost:    lots
Interface:      SCSI
Controllers:    Adaptec 154xB
Informant:      davidb@otto.bf.rmit.oz.au (David Burren) May 1993
Comments:       Works with Julian's SCSI drivers.  As with the TZ30,
                "cannot prevent/allow" is reported but operation
                continues.
                As 386bsd has no "mt online" yet, cartridge loading is
                done manually, but unloading/advancing is done through
                "mt offline" as under Ultrix.
                I don't really use this drive, but I had access to it
                for a day and tried it out...


Name:           Exabyte 8200 8mm
Capacity:       2.2 GB
Approx cost:
Interface:      SCSI
Controllers:    Adaptec 154xB
Informant:      davidb@otto.bf.rmit.oz.au (David Burren) May 1993
                todd@flex.eng.mcmaster.ca (Todd Pfaff) Nov 1993
Comments:       Works perfectly with Julian's SCSI drivers.
                I use it all the time for my system dumps and for
                exchanging files with other machines.
                Works  great with FreeBSD-1.0-RELEASE although
                'mt -status' doesn't work properly.



Name:           Hewlett-Packard HP35480A DAT drive
Capacity:       4 GB
Approx Cost:    $1400
Interface:      SCSI
Controllers:    Adaptec 1542B
Informant:      karl@neosoft.com
Comments:       Great drive, flawless performance.  Requires
                variable length tapedrive patches which should be
                in the patchkit, but I haven't checked.  (They were
                submitted around November of '92)



Name:           Sankyo ST525
Capacity:       525 Mbyte
Approx Cost:    6000 SEK (US$850), NZ$1400 (internal, Jan94)
Interface:      SCSI (SCSI-2)
Controllers:    Adaptec 1542B
Informant:      jonas@carmen.volvo.se (Jonas Lagerblad)
                nickg@nz.co.optimation (Nick Gridley)
Comments:       everything works allright except for one crash
                The SCSI bus seemed hang after running
                "dump 0uf - /dev/rsd0a | gzip --best |
                    dd of=/dev/rst0 bs=64k"
                for approx 1 hour. If I skip the compression
                everything works perfectly. (I am using Julian's
                SCSI driver) 386BSD-0.1 patchkit 0.2 patches 0-110.  [jonas]

                I have no problems with this drive and FreeBSD
                (GAMMA,EPSILON,1.0) I have a BusTek 542B controller but
                no other SCSI devices (yet..).  Further, I mix 150 &
                525 tapes, and read the occasional 60m.  [nickg]





Name:           Sony SDT-1000 DAT
Capacity:       2 GB  on a 90 meter tape
Approx. Cost:   about $600 now, $3500 when purchased 3 yrs ago
Interface:      SCSI  (SCSI-2 also)
Controllers:    Adaptec 1542B
Informant:      steve@molly.dny.rockwell.com
Comments:       I have used it under 386BSD 0.1 and NetBSD 0.8.
                Under 386BSD, it didn't support all of the ioctl functions,
                but works without a hitch under NetBSD. I use it to do tar
                data backups and restores as well as interchanging data
                with an H-P 9000/755 using the HPUX tar command.


Name:           Tandberg 3600 series
Capacity:
Approx cost:
Interface:
Controllers:
Informant:      fredriks@asiago.cs.wisc.edu (Lars Fredriksen),
                raeburn@uk.ac.soton.ecs.cygnus.com (Ken Raeburn)
Comments:       Tandberg SCSI driver work has been pulled into Julian's
                SCSI driver.
                So far I have not had any problems reading 30/60/150/250 Mb
                tapes, similarly no problems writing 150/250 Mb
                tapes.[fredriks]

                People can get firmware changes from Tandberg for the 3600
                and later drives which will make the drive act much like an
                Archive Viper 150MB drive (including identifying itself as
                such).  This is what Tandberg does for people who want to
                use the drives with Sun workstations. 

                With this replacement firmware, I was able to read and write
                tapes just fine with mostly stock NetBSD 0.9 (no
                scsi-related changes) and Linux, with an Adaptec 1542B
                controller. 
 
                Paul Rinaldi at Tandberg's east-coast office told me that
                people wanting to get this done should contact Bob Russell
                their factory at 805-495-8384 and ask for part # 966039,
                firmware revision B07:43.  The cost is about $40.  They
                recommend you send in your drive to get the replacement done
                by the factory, but you can probably get them to send you
                the replacement firmware, if you're into hacking hardware. 
 
> As I understood it, this firmware is intended for later-model tape
> drives than the 3600, but Paul and I tried it, and I've had no
> problems yet.



Name:           Tandberg 3660
Capacity:       250Mb
Approx cost:
Interface:
Controllers:
Informant:      Per Anders Olausson <pao@cd.chalmers.se>
                meidinge@isar.de(Thomas Meidinger)
Comments:       DC6250, DC6150 (not tested) and DC600A.
                Reads and writes DC-6120 as well. [pao]


Name:           Tandberg TDC-3800 5.25" SCSI-1 325MB TBU
Capacity:       up to 520Mb (depending on media) uncompressed
Approx cost:    Didn't buy it new.
Interface:      SCSI-1
Controllers:    AHA1542B
Informant:      vax@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (VaX#n8)
Comments:       Would not work with base 386bsd-0.1 kernel.
                After applying patch kit, everything worked fine.
                Only tested reads on 250MB, reads and writes on 325MB,
                and reads and writes on 525MB.  Works great.
                Also fine under NetBSD-0.9. Even got "aspitar" from
                wuarchive to read tars from DOS. Don't mix 525 and 325MB
                tapes though, causes heads to wear out fast. Coexists with
                SCSI-2 drives just fine. Wouldn't trade it for anything but a
                SCSI DAT or 8mm.Even then, I would have to think about it.


Name:           Tandberg 3820 5 1/4" HH internal QIC 525 SCSI streamer
Capacity:       up to 520Mb (depending on media) uncompressed
Approx cost:    (I bought mine two years ago--it wasn't cheap :-)
Interface:      SCSI-1/2
Controllers:    AHA1542B, 1742A, DTC3290
Informant:      tmh@first.gmd.de (Thomas M. Hoberg)
                stacey@guug.de (Julian Stacey)
                tomb@gator.bocaraton.ibm.com (Thomas Bagli)
Comments:       Works well with both the driver in the distribution kernel
                and julians' SCSI drivers. Reads all QIC media (tested
                QIC 40/60/120/150/525) Writes QIC 120/150/250/320/525
                (120/150/525 tested) Includes a 256k buffer. 2 rw
                speeds: 83k/s for QIC<320, 200k/sec for 320+
                Occasionally the file system can't keep up at
                200k/sec on backups (small files), somewhat more often
                on restores. The drive can directly seek to any block
                on the tape, so in theory at least with the
                appropriate device drive you could mount a file system
                on it (you better keep fragmentation low :-) As you
                can guess, I am EXTREMELY happy with it.
                [tmh]

                The Good Bit:
                It streams constantly without error (~40mins for 525M
                write @ 60K blocking).  Tape drive shares bus with 3
                SCSI-2 Seagate drives also OK with a SCSI-1 Micropolis 1684-7.
                The Bad Bit:
                We (several us of using these TDC3820s on different hardware)
                have undergone an eerom + eprom autodensity upgrade to allow
                150M writes (previously could only read 150M tapes +r&w 525M);
                this known as Revision 04908, Done 92 08 28.
                There is some kind of block size problem that prevents
                us reliably exchanging 525M tapes, 150M seems OK,
                problem is tape hardware oriented I believe,
                not 386BSD specific.
                Problem pre-existed the 150M write capability upgrade.
                A friend with same 386bsd + TDC3820 + 1542A can't read my tapes,
                neither can a PCS (M68000 based) computer with a TDC3820
                [stacey]

                We paid DM1000 (~$625) in early 1991.  This was a very
                special price, and I estimate that the actual cost would be
                (very) approximately 50% more (~$950).
                I've used it with an Adaptec 1742A, a DTC3290 (caching 1542B
                emulation), and a Mylex ?376? (caching, but only under DOS)
                SCSI controllers.  It doesn't just stream, it screams.  I've
                never seen a streamer that just streams without a pause,
                rewind or such.  This one does (not to say that the Tandberg
                is the sole reason for this).
                [tomb]


Name:           WangDAT 3200
Capacity:       2Gb (up to 8Gb w/compression) on a 90 meter tape
Approx cost:    US$1200-$1300 approx
Interface:      SCSI
Controllers:
Informant:      conklin@talisman.kaleida.com (J.T. Conklin)
                cgd@postgres.Berkeley.edu
Comments:       Works great with Julian's SCSI drivers and an Adaptec 1742...
                (I use it to do my dumps, and I've actually checked and made
                sure the restores work...  8-) [cgd]


Name:           Wangtek 5099EK
Capacity:       60M
Approx cost:
Interface:      PC/QIC-36
Controllers:
Informant:      robsch@robkaos.GUN.de (Robert Schien)
Comments:       The wt.c driver, which is delivered with FreeBSD-EPSILON,
                does not work with my Wangtek 5099EK (60 MB) tape drive.
                This drive has a PC/QIC-36 interface and it worked fine with
                ESIX 5.3.2D (For testing I tried SCO Xenix and ISC 2.2.1 and
                it worked with these OSs, too).  With the driver in
                386bsd-0.1, I could read tapes, but not write.  With the
                "improved" driver, I could neither read nor write (all minor
                devices tried). The solution was a driver from someone in
                Sweden (his name is Mikael Hybsch (sp?)), which worked for
                me already with 386bsd-0.1.



Name:           Wangtek 5099EN
Capacity:
Approx cost:
Interface:
Controllers:
Informant:      Original 386bsd.FAQ
Comments:


Name:           Wangtek 5099SC24, this is a QIC drive (same mechanical drive
                as 5099EN24) with a QIC24 to SCSI board by wangtek full height
Capacity:       60Mb w/DC600A, 100Mb w/DC6250
Approx cost:    Used as is drives US$25.00/each, refurbs ~US$100.00
Interface:      SCSI
Controllers:    Adaptec 1542B
Informant:      rgrimes@agora.rain.com
Comments:       works well with both the driver in the distribution
                kernel and julians' SCSI drivers.  Very old full height
                driver readily availiable in the surplus market.  I know
                where there are 50 or so of these for $25.00/each as is,
                they are pulls from old workstations.


Name:           Wangtek 5150EQ
Capacity:       250MB (QIC-150)
Approx cost:    400 UK pounds including software for DOS
Interface:      QIC-02
Controllers:    Wangtek QIC-02 included
Informant:      kd@doc.ic.ac.uk (K J Dryllerakis)
Comments:       Works with stock driver. Very very slow but reliable. Funny,
                it only seems to work if you use /dev/wt0 instead of /dev/rwt0.
                New driver in beta version by micke@dynas.se (Mikael Hybsch).



Name:           Wangtek 5150ES
Capacity:       250Mb
Approx cost:    $500 in Germany
Interface:      SCSI-1
Controllers:    Adaptec 1542B, Adaptec 1542CF
Informant:      berry@max.IN-Berlin.DE (Stefan Behrens)
                duncan@zycad.com (Don)
Comments:       [With original 0.1 SCSI ...] it streams constantly
                and works without any errors.  Works with original
                as.c driver and with newer drivers from Julian
                [eg in patchkit 0.2.4].  [berry]

                Does not work with the 1742a and 386bsd!!!!!
                SCSI driver compatibility problems.  [duncan, ~Jun'93]
                NOTE: with the latest patchkit Stefan Behrens [berry]
                has reported that Julian's SCSI now works with it.
                No update yet on 1742A behaviour.

                works without any problems on any version of FreeBSD
                with the Adaptec 1542B and the 1542CF (the CF requires
                an up to date version of the SCSI driver). Used to work
                on 386bsd with newer drivers from Julian. I've also used
                the drive with Linux, Solaris2.1/x86 and DOS (Adaptecs
                ASPI and GNU tar) with success. [berry]


Name:           Wangtek 5525ES
Capacity:       525M
Approx cost:    US$600, CDN$1000
Interface:      Adaptec 1542B, Adaptec 1742
Controllers:    SCSI-1
Informant:      bky@eco.twg.com (Brian Yasaki)
                andrew@noware.ocunix.on.ca (Andrew Cornwall)
                Jeffrey Lang <jlang@COM.NeoSoft.sugar>
Comments:       Writes QIC120, 150, 250, 525. Reads QIC24 as well
                (untested). Works with the distribution kernel.
                jlang@neosoft.com reports problems with the "REV1"
                drive.

                In theory a jumper on JP2 will select SCSI-2 instead
                of SCSI-1, but I stuck a jumper there and still boot
                up as SCSI-1 on NetBSD 0.9 [andrew]


Name:           Wangtek 6200-HS
Capacity:       2GB
Approx cost:    $600 (refurbished)
Interface:      SCSI (SCSI II if controller supports)
Controllers:    Adaptec 154x, 1742, ...
Informant:      brians@logrus.rain.com (Brian Smith)
Comments:       Averages 150 KBytes/sec throughput uncompressed, tested
                with FreeBSD 1.02 and Adaptec 1542B.


Name:           Wangtek QT60 (aka Tecmar QT60)
Capacity:       60M
Approx cost:
Interface:      QIC 02
Informant:      tcombs@pacific.urbana.mcd.mot.com (Tim Combs)
Comments:       It works although does not stream under 386BSD 0.1

END OF COMPATIBLE TAPE DRIVE LIST

=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-





8.11	QIC-40/80 tape drives

	Steve Gerakines has released a series of patches for FreeBSD that
	allow the use of the QIC-40/80 tape drives through the floppy
	controller.  Get them from ftp.gte.com:/pub/ft/dist0.3/dist0.3.tgz
	or a similar mirror site, if there are any.  Archie will be able
	to tell you for certain.

	I have been playing with Steve's patches for FreeBSD to get
	them hooked into NetBSD for the past year.  The best I
	have ever been able to get is a kernel that doesn't recognize
	any of my floppy drives.


8.12	CD-ROMs

	The Sony Multispin drives work well for Charles Hannum using NetBSD
	and an SCSI controller.

	The Sony CDU 561 works well, as do the Toshiba 401 and 4101.  The
	4101 is a double speed SCSI-2 device and allows 'grabbing' of
	music tracks.

	Many folks have announced that they had problems with Mitsumi
	CD-ROM drives.  It seems that there are nearly as many releases
	of the firmware as there were drives sold.  Many of the firmware
	versions were incompatible with each other.  A generic Mitsumi
	driver will be a hard act to accomplish, if it is possible at all.

	There are Mitsumi CD-ROM drivers for NetBSD and FreeBSD.  They are 
	available in the -current source tree of each, and should be 
	available in the next general release of both systems.  If your
	CD-ROM is not recognized by the kernel, and uses a Mitsumi
	controller, you will need to make changes to the mcd.c source
	file to change the behaviour of the first getreply() function.
	Instead of exitting immediately, the check for whether the
	getreply was successful should be commented out and assumed to
	be correct.  While this is a brute force method (it may find a
	CD-ROM that isn't even there) it will help many Mitsumi
	controllers probe correctly.  The brute force method is
	included below:

	The answer is to replace the probe code which was broken with
	an old version.  The old version will detect mcd0 even if it
	isn't there :-) Doesn't matter!  Warren Toomey (wkt@cs.adfa.oz.au)

	int mcd_probe(struct isa_device *dev)
	{
        	int port = dev->id_iobase;      
        	int unit = dev->id_unit;
        	int st;
	
        	mcd_data[unit].flags = MCDPROBING;
	
	#ifdef NOTDEF
        	
        	mcd_data[unit].config = irqs[dev->id_irq] 
				       ;
	#else
        	mcd_data[unit].config = 0;
	#endif
	
        	
        	outb(port+mcd_reset, MCD_CMDRESET);
        	mcd_delay(300000);
	
        	
        	st = mcd_getstat(unit,1);
        	mcd_data[unit].flags = 0;
	
        	return (st<0) ? 0 : 4;
	}


-- 
TSgt Dave Burgess           | Dave Burgess
NCOIC, USSTRATCOM/J6844     | *BSD FAQ Maintainer
Offutt AFB, NE              | Burgess@cynjut.infonet.net or ...@s069.infonet...