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From: ritz@onyx.interactive.net (Chris Mauritz)
Subject: Re: BSDi + AHA2944W + Eclipse RAID
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Date: Tue, 19 Nov 1996 04:52:48 GMT
Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc:5306 comp.os.linux.misc:142488
In comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc Anthony Talltree <aad@nwnet.net> wrote:
:) >> >-) The adaptec cards are not the main target which is supportet by BSDi.
:) >> > Read the hardware compatibilty lists
:) >> Both BSDI's published list and what they told me in response to a support
:) >> ticket are inaccurate.
:) > Eh? As far as I can tell the documentation has correctly described the
:) >support at the time each release has been shipped. BusLogic support has
:) >always been better than Adaptec support, though lots of the Adaptec boards
:) >are now supported. I still like the BusLogic products, though.
:) > You're not still talking about the wide-mode support (the "wide control-
:) >lers are only supported in narrow mode" paragraph), are you?
:) Yes, partially. The 2.1 book says that about the Adaptec boards, but doesn't
:) list the wide or differential Buslogic boards at all. support@bsdi.com told
:) me explicitly that no wide and no differential Buslogic boards would at all.
:) You did indeed give me the information that showed that they were wrong. Even
:) now I can't get multiple BT946C's to stay up for more than a week (90MHz CPU)
:) or more than a day (133 or 150 MHz).
I haven't had any problems with Buslogic cards here. I've been helping
Terry test the new driver and I haven't had any problems. As a matter
of fact, I use dual 956 fast wide cards on my (busy) 2.1 news server running
a rather full feed. I think you'll like the new driver when it's released.
Note the improved reporting Terry mentioned:
bha0 at isa0 iobase 0x330 irq 9: BusLogic BT-956C rev 4.28A (32-bit)
Delaying for SCSI bus reset and device self tests
bha0: sync, parity, wide
tg0 at bha0 target 0: sync rate 20.00 MB/s, period 100 ns, offset 14, wide, tag queued
sd0 at tg0 unit 0: disk: SEAGATE ST15150W rev 0023 (SCSI-2) 8388315*512
tg1 at bha0 target 1: sync rate 20.00 MB/s, period 100 ns, offset 14, wide, tag queued
sd1 at tg1 unit 0: disk: SEAGATE ST15150W rev 0023 (SCSI-2) 8388315*512
bha1 at isa0 iobase 0x334 irq 11: BusLogic BT-956C rev 4.28A (32-bit)
Delaying for SCSI bus reset and device self tests
bha1: sync, parity, wide
tg2 at bha1 target 2: sync rate 20.00 MB/s, period 100 ns, offset 14, wide, tag queued
sd2 at tg2 unit 0: disk: SEAGATE ST15150W rev 0023 (SCSI-2) 8388315*512
tg3 at bha1 target 3: sync rate 20.00 MB/s, period 100 ns, offset 14, wide, tag queued
sd3 at tg3 unit 0: disk: SEAGATE ST15150W rev 0023 (SCSI-2) 8388315*512
fpa0 at pci0 irq 10 maddr 0xe0010000-0xe001007f: DEC DEFPA PCI FDDI SAS
Also note, the box also has a PCI DEC FDDI card and everyone gets along
nicely on a Tomcat I motherboard and P166.
:) I bought a Tyan Tomcat II to make sure, though the supplied manual doesn't
:) seem to directly address the issue.
The Tomcat II's had some problems. The single cpu Tomcat I's are nice
and I've heard good things about the Tomcat III boards.
:) > The only problem I can see is that the newer BusLogic cards only offer the
:) >"primary" (330) and "alternate" (334) address settings for "ISA compatible
:) >port" in their setup menu
:) Are these settings really important for PCI cards on BSDI machine, though?
:) The description in the manual seems to imply that it's only for software that
:) doesn't know about the PCI interface. Is this something that would prevent
:) the card from working reliably, or just prevent it from showing up? After
:) adding the requisite kernel config lines for bha2, I haven't had any problems
:) getting them to show up, modulo the usual absurdity that the IRQ has to be
:) set in both the card and the motherboard.
Dunno. I have my PCI settings for "auto" and it correctly assigns IRQs
to all 3 PCI devices. BSDI found them all without any tweaking.
:) > You seem to doubt that 3.0 will ship
:) No, I'm sure it'll ship some year to somebody. I'm not so convinced that it'll
:) ship soon, or to us without us calling BSDI and asking for it.
Based on what I've seen, I have a feeling you're mistaken. 8-)
:) >I've heard of several controller-based products
:) >which have drivers for BSD/OS (I think DPT is one)
:) Their products are very expensive, though, and neither DPT nor the local
:) distributor will lend me a demo unit to see if it'd work for me. I'd hate to
:) drop >$1000 just to see if it'll work.
*shrug* Speed costs money. How fast do you want to go? 8-)
:) >The patch situation has gotten better since the 1.0 days
:) I *really* would have hated to have been there.
At the time, it was still much better than any of the alternatives.
Keep in mind that this was 3-4 years ago.
Regards,
Chris
p.s. I've also tested dual 946's in Tomcat I motherboards and they've
not given me any problems either. I suspect you might benefit from
some high quality cables and/or FPT terminators. Back in the dark
ages (g), I had a lot of problems with SCSI reliability. Switching
to high-end cables made a huge difference. The $30 made-in-Taiwan
specials just don't cut the mustard (especially for fast/wide use).
--
Christopher Mauritz | For info on internet access:
ritz@interactive.net | finger/mail info@interactive.net OR
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