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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!munnari.OZ.AU!news.ecn.uoknor.edu!feed1.news.erols.com!howland.erols.net!news-peer.gsl.net!news.gsl.net!news-dc.gsl.net!news.gsl.net!news From: John Lucas <jlucas@jnet.vi> Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: Adaptec 2940UW works *but* ... Date: Mon, 09 Dec 1996 09:15:12 -0400 Organization: University of the Virgin Islands Lines: 43 Message-ID: <32AC10E0.41C67EA6@jnet.vi> NNTP-Posting-Host: backen.uvi.edu Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 2.01 (X11; I; FreeBSD 2.1.0-RELEASE i386) After much trial and error, I was able to get FreeBSD v2.1.5-RELEASE to work with the Adaptec 2940UW (PCI Ultra Wide) host adapter and the Seagate ST32155W (Hawk XL 2GB Ultra Wide drive). The secret is use the "dangerously dedicated" drive partitionining. Although I tried many things I was not able to get FreeBSD to install (and boot) properly any other way. Now I have a system with a theoretical transfer rate of 40MB/sec (!!). Other results of my trials showed that: - When attempting to install on second slice, I got CRC errors when writing the distribution. (Geometry translation 4MB/cyl). - When attempting to use default partitioning with FreeBSD using the entire disk, everything installed properly (no CRC errors), but I was unable to boot (with or without boot manager). The bootblocks don't seem to load.(Geometry translation 1MB/cyl). Luckily I have no need to share the drive with any other OS, so I am now happy with what I have, but; the behavior of this host-adapter/drive combination puzzles me. I have another system with the Adaptec 2940 (not Ultra, not Wide) connected to an ST32430N (another Hawk 2GB drive) with no problems (that system runs 2.1.0-RELEASE). Anyway I thought I would pass my experiences along so that others can compare them to theirs and perhaps save some time, and to see if anyone else out there can shed some light on this puzzle. My hardware: Gateway 2000 P5-200 (200Mhz Pentium) 32MB RAM with 512KB L2 Cache Adaptec 2940UW PCI SCSI host adapter (Ultra Wide) Seagate ST32155W (Hawk XL 2GB Ultra Wide) Mashita 8X SCSI CD-ROM (non-Ultra non-Wide) SMC EtherPower 10 PCI Ethernet adapter (8432 combo). HP 35470 Tape drive (non-Ultra non-Wide) (awaiting delivery). -- | John Lucas jlucas@jnet.vi | | Information Technology NIC Handle: JL423 | | University of the Virgin Islands (809) 693-1216 | | St. Thomas, VI 00802 http://www.jnet.vi/jlucas.html |