*BSD News Article 7082


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Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd
Path: sserve!manuel.anu.edu.au!munnari.oz.au!uunet!charon.amdahl.com!pacbell.com!ames!decwrl!decwrl!netcomsv!netcom.com!alm
From: alm@netcom.com (Andrew Moore)
Subject: Cheap ethernet cards (was Re: Cheap motherboards, SCSI and 386BSD: Caveat Emptor)
Message-ID: <1992Oct26.211350.16688@netcom.com>
Organization: Netcom - Online Communication Services  (408 241-9760 guest) 
References: <1992Oct22.062740.9025@netcom.com>
Date: Mon, 26 Oct 1992 21:13:50 GMT
Lines: 34


In article <1992Oct22.062740.9025@netcom.com> I (Andrew Moore) write:
>I have spent the last three afternoons at my local computer store
>trying to run 386BSD on several brands of cheap 386/40 motherboards
>with an Adaptec 1542B SCSI controller.  But as previously reported in
>the case of some 50 MHz systems, there are caching problems which
>result in corrupted files and file systems.  Disabling cache seems to
>eliminate corruption.  In addition, caching does not seem to be a
>problem  with a SCSI controller under DOS.  Nor does corruption seem to
>occur if an IDE controller (and disk) is used instead of a SCSI when
>running 386BSD.
>
>If a cheap motherboard is not accompanied by a testing report showing
>compatibility with at least SCO and SCSI, then buyer beware!

After a little more investigation, the problems described above have
traced (in my case) to a WD 8013 clone (Danpex).  I have yet to try a
real SMC (WD) on board, so I cannot entirely rule out the motherboard
as the source of the problem (though it is not a simple case of the
Danpex grabbing the SCSI interrupts, or such - as might be the case
with older motherboards).  

Since the Danpex 2016 is a 16-bit card, I have tried it will all WD
patches from the patchkit installed (Thanks Terry!:) patch00020,
patch00043, patch00047 and the appropriate options in config.  The io
buffer is set to 16K in the config, so I don't think the Danpex is
walking over memory.  Needless to say I have tried variations,
including  8-bit configuration.

Since others seem to be using SMC 16-bit cards without incident (some
with SCSI controllers and RAM caching enabled, I presume?), the burden
of the doubt seems to rest on Danpex.   All comments are welcomed.
Thanks.
-Andrew Moore <alm@netcom.com>