Date: Tue, 16 Jul 1996 21:20:08 +0200 (MET DST) From: Stefan Esser <se@zpr.uni-koeln.de> To: conta@alpo.casc.com (Alex Conta) Cc: freebsd-scsi@freebsd.org, freebsd-hardware@freebsd.org Subject: Adaptec 2940 PCI-SCSI on Compaq ProLinea 5100 Message-ID: <199607161920.VAA00899@x14.mi.uni-koeln.de> In-Reply-To: <9607161820.AA12434@centime.cascade> References: <9607161820.AA12434@centime.cascade>
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Alex Conta writes: > > SCSI hardware/freebsd problem: > > 1. > > I have an Adaptec 2940 PCI-SCSI-2 adapter that works just fine under FreeBSD > 2.1 on a DEC Starion 960 PC (SCSI-2 hard disk drive + cd-rom). > > The same adapter works fine on a Compaq ProLinea 5100 (SCSI hard disk and > cd-rom) under Windows 3.1, but it does not work when I try to install FreeBSD > from a CD-ROM distribution. > > The installation fails because the adapter is not recognized. Booting with > "-c" and setting manually the IRQ, Port Address, and other parameters didn't > help. Please enter "-v" at the "Boot: " prompt and send me all numbers from the lines starting with pcibus_setup or pcibus_check. If it reports success in the pcibus_check line, then I need any information about devices found on the PCI bus. > Known problem? Known solution? Compaq caused lots of problems because of their knowingly ignoring the PCI specs. I once got a reply that it wouldn't matter, since the BIOS and their drivers worked around the problems introduced this way. But what they didn't care about was, that the required workaround might break support for other systems. They don't bother, since they know their drivers are only used with their machines. But we hardly want to have a special FreeBSD version just for Compaq machines ... :) > 2. > > Any plans to add support for the AMD SCSI adapter that is embedded with > Compaq DexPro 6200 XL? There was a message from Tekram recently, who seem to offer a SCSI board based on the same chip and who seemed to be interested in having it supported under FreeBSD. I sent them a reply, but did not hear from them thereafter ... Many people have asked for support of the AMD SCSI chip. But since it is far less powerful than the NCR 53c810, which is available for some $70, nobody bothered to actually write a driver for it ... I understand that it might be good enough to connect an external CDROM or tape ... (It is a bus-master controller, but requires the CPU to handle disconnect and that means that there are multiple interrupts per transfer required and also that SCSI latencies are being introduced which limit the SCSI throughput. The NCR 53c810 as well as the Adaptec 2940 series offers a small CPU as part of the host adapter.) Reagrds, STefan
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