Re: question for friend

[TMatsumu@example.com]

Form: Reply
Text: (14 lines follow)

{Aside to Ted:  are you convinced yet that I know the difference
between my ass and a 10BaseT jack?}

Definitely.  You know your linux and scsi.

BTW, my friend Vernon at support@example.com tells me that Gary may want to 
try BIOS 3.20 (bios files are free, but you need eprom burner) as he feels 
this may be the version that the linux drivers were based upon, however he 
also gives the disclaimer that linux is not officially supported.  I hope 
this changes sometime...

Ted

Original text: (89 lines follow)
>From owner-tlug@example.com, on 5/23/96 11:13 PM:
>>>>> "Ted" == Ted Matsumura <tedm@example.com> writes:

    Ted> Hi, I was wondering if any of you gurus could help out a
    Ted> friend, please cc: him as he's not yet on the list, but

    Ted> From: "Gary A. Hildebrand" <gah@example.com>

    Ted> I'm trying to run Slackware 2.3.0 (based on Linux 1.2.8 circa
    Ted> 5/7/95) on an AST 486DX33 PC with 16MB of RAM and ISA bus,

If this is the Sept 95 Infomagic CD ROM set, it's ugly.  I didn't have
any problem with the aha1542 driver, but I had lots of trouble with
the aic7880 driver....  Upgrading to Slackware 3.x or switching to
RedHat might help, but probably not.

    Ted> that has an Adaptec 1542B ISA bus SCSI adapter installed.
    Ted> The version number of the Adaptec BIOS is 3.10.  A 1GB drive
    Ted> (Toshiba?) is attached to the adapter.  I have never had any
    Ted> trouble using the adapter from DOS/Windows, with either the
    Ted> 1GB drive or a previous 0.5GB Fujitsu drive.

This is not necessarily relevant; DOS/Windows makes lots of
assumptions that Linux does not.

    Ted> configuration.  BUT, the 1542 driver reports the following
    Ted> error message during boot:
    Ted>   aha1542_in failed(3): Unable to determine Adaptec DMA
    Ted> priority.  Disabling board

Yep.  Found it in the code.  It looks to me like your board is not
where Linux expects it to be---the very first time Linux makes a
request to the board it times out (that "3" is "3 bytes remaining of 3
requested").  The 1.3.76 driver (sorry, I don't have access to a 1.2.8
vintage source) demands that the board live at 0x330 or 0x334.  This
can be overridden in LILO:

/*
 * LILO params:  aha1542=<PORTBASE>[,<BUSON>,<BUSOFF>[,<DMASPEED>]]
 *
 * Where:  <PORTBASE> is any of the valid AHA addresses:
 *                      0x130, 0x134, 0x230, 0x234, 0x330, 0x334
 *         <BUSON>  is the time (in microsecs) that AHA spends on the AT-bus
 *                  when transferring data.  1542A power-on default is 11us,
 *                  valid values are in range: 2..15 (decimal)
 *         <BUSOFF> is the time that AHA spends OFF THE BUS after while
 *                  it is transferring data (not to monopolize the bus).
 *                  Power-on default is 4us, valid range: 1..64 
microseconds.
 *         <DMASPEED> Default is jumper selected (1542A: on the J1),
 *                  but experimenter can alter it with this.
 *                  Valid values: 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 (MB/s)
 *                  Factory default is 5 MB/s.
 */

So where the Slackware boot disk asks you what to boot, use

...
boot: ramdisk aha1542=0x330

"boot:" is the LILO prompt; "ramdisk" is which kernel---this is
required, LILO will try and fail to find a kernel called
"aha1542=0x330" if you don't include it, "ramdisk" is the usual
default for the installation process; "aha1542=" signals the kernel to
pass the following parameters to the driver, and you should change
"0x330" to fit your installation.  You should not have to touch the
other values; DMASPEED in particular is *not* the DMA priority level
mentioned in the message.  BUSON and BUSOFF are tuning parameters;
they might make your system faster if set to non-default values, but
they should not affect whether it works at all....

No promises, of course.  I haven't seen your hardware....  Do make
sure that it's really an Adaptec 1542B (the first time I opened one of
my boxes I found a number of unpleasant surprises where the mfr had
substituted "equivalent" hardware).  Check and see where the board is
configured; several MIDI and sound boards apparently like to use that
0x330 I/O address, so the SCSI host may be elsewhere.  Boot DOS and
use Norton SI or Quarterdeck Manifest or the like; that should give
you most of that information.

{Aside to Ted:  are you convinced yet that I know the difference
between my ass and a 10BaseT jack?}

-- 
                           Stephen John Turnbull
University of Tsukuba                                        Yaseppochi-Gumi
Institute of Policy and Planning Sciences  http://turnbull.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp/
Tennodai 1-1-1, Tsukuba, 305 JAPAN                 turnbull@example.com

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