*BSD News Article 40374


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From: se@fileserv1.MI.Uni-Koeln.DE (Stefan Esser)
Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.questions
Subject: Re: PCI: unable to boot/install
Date: 2 Jan 1995 17:40:19 GMT
Organization: Institute for Mathematics, University of Cologne, Germany
Lines: 55
Distribution: world
Message-ID: <3e9dq3INN16ba@rs1.rrz.Uni-Koeln.DE>
References: <ROOT.95Jan1191135@gardano.tiac.net> <3e94s4$m0s@darum.uni-mannheim.de>
NNTP-Posting-Host: fileserv1.mi.uni-koeln.de

In article <3e94s4$m0s@darum.uni-mannheim.de>, andrew@wipux2.wifo.uni-mannheim.de (Andrew Wheadon) writes:
|> In article <ROOT.95Jan1191135@gardano.tiac.net>,
|> root <root@gardano.tiac.net> wrote:
|> >I just bought a US Logic P5/60 (Pentium) system with a PCI/VESA/ISA
|> >bus.
|> >The IDE controller is marked "UN-1082VL", and the PCI video card has
|> >an Avance Logic ALG3201 chip (a Hercules Stingray).
|> >When I try to boot off the floppy, I get a kernel panic, with an
|> >'unrecognized controller' (or something similar) message. If I need to
|> >supply more info, please let me know.
|> 
|> You fail to supply the OS-Name, so this is for "NetBSD-current (and
|> possibly 1.0)":
|> 	The only supported PCI-controllers are ones with an NCR-
|> 	Chip 53C810 on it.
|> You will have to use an ISA-IDE-Controller for your drives
|> and you will have to replace your PCI-video with an ISA-VGA compatible
|> card (like an et4000-svga or an s3-card)

NO!

The pci code in NetBSD is based on an early
version of that in FreeBSD, and there is no 
reason a PCI VGA board shouldn't work !!!

There is the DEC 21040 PCI Ethernet driver in 
FreeBSD, and it should port easy to NetBSD, if
it isn't already in current.

Since ISA devices often offer only very limited
configuartion options, most will work in a PCI 
system, too, without the need for special drivers.

But if you want to take advantage of the PCI 
plug'n'play features, then you need a special 
driver (eg. the NCR SCSI driver).

There are "not supported" messages at boot time,
if there is no driver for a particular PCI chip,
but that DOESN'T mean it won't work. If the PCI
version of a card emulates the ISA (or VLB) version,
or the BIOS does all the setup, then there really
is no need for special driver support (and the 
message is a bit misleading, I've got to admit).

I'm using a PCI system with no single ISA card
under FreeBSD-2.0, BTW ...

Regards, STefan
-- 
 Stefan Esser				Internet:	<se@ZPR.Uni-Koeln.DE>
 Zentrum fuer Paralleles Rechnen	Tel:		+49 221 4706010
 Universitaet zu Koeln			FAX:		+49 221 4705160
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 50931 Koeln