*BSD News Article 49966


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From: ggrant@crl.com (Gary E. Grant)
Newsgroups: comp.periphs.scsi,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: PCI 2940 Config (and NCR)
Date: 2 Sep 1995 12:36:03 -0700
Organization: CRL Network Services      (415) 705-6060  [Login: guest]
Lines: 33
Message-ID: <42abn3$mkv@crl.crl.com>
References: <4298im$h4@trauma.rn.com>
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Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.periphs.scsi:36405 comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:5220

In article <4298im$h4@trauma.rn.com>, Larry Snyder <larry@rn.com> wrote:
>I recently installed a 2940 Host Adapter in my machine and am using
>the default settings including "Extended DOS translation for drives
>greater than 1 Gig = Enabled".  I have a 2 gig SCSI drive with a 400
>meg partition (the first partiion) as DOS, a 1400 meg BSD partition
>(FreeBSD 2.0.5) and the 3rd partition is FreeBSD swap.
>
>The motherboard is an Opti Chipset P100 with 32 megs of RAM.  The
>2940 Bios is 1.11.
>
>Shouldn't I be able to install the NCR host adapter by just plugging it
>in the PCI slot on the MB?  The machine won't boot completely and acts
>like it's having problems with sector translation.  How does the NCR
>handle drives larger than 1 gig?  This isn't mentioned anywhere in
>the documentation.
>
>larry
>

I suspect that that problem is: Adaptec & NCR use slightly different 
low=level format programs and the boot block format is not the same. What 
that means that you need to dump the disk to tape, re-fdisk the disk and 
the reload from the tape. I too have 2940 as well as NCR 810/825 controllers.

NCR 810 wont boot from disk when it was FDISK'ed with 2940 and vice versa..

Future Data Controllers will boot from disks fdisked by either,,

just my $.02 worth....  I dont no how to fix this problem, I just 
understand what it is...

Gary :-)