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Date:      Thu, 27 Nov 1997 12:22:46 -0800 (PST)
From:      Simon Shapiro <shimon@simon-shapiro.org>
To:        (Kenneth W Cochran) <kwc@world.std.com>
Cc:        freebsd-scsi@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   RE: 2.2.5 install w/DPT hba
Message-ID:  <XFMail.971127122246.shimon@simon-shapiro.org>
In-Reply-To: <199711261709.AA28007@world.std.com>

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On 26-Nov-97 Kenneth W Cochran wrote:
> I'm trying to install 2.2.5 from cd onto system(s) with a DPT SCSI
> hba.  I boot with the boot floppy from shimon@i-connect.net but the
> kernel that goes onto the hd is from the cd.  Simon's driver seems
> fine, but I haven't been able to test things (ie. tapes).
> 
> I *really* need some kind of installation procedure/outline.
> 
> 1.  Booting

You need to boot from the 2.2 floppy that has a DPT driver on it.
You need to run dptmgr and arrange the arrays first.  Right?

> 2.  Kernel installation (so I can reboot).
> 3.  Kernel re-configuration/rebuilding from source
>     (ie. Which source/binary file(s) do I need to get
>     so I can do this?  (& where do they need to go?)

You need at least kernel sources, and use one of the DPT, SENDERO,
NOMIS, whatever configuration files in the DPT patch to build yourself
a kernel.

> For BSDI, there are bootimages, files & instructions available from
> DPT.  I've done this & it works quite nicely.  I get excellent
> support
> from DPT & have for years.  Linux, SunSoft & SCO support DPT natively
> (for a few years now).  I've used them all.

> 
> I'm becoming more than just a little frustrated; this tedium,
> combined
> with my hurriedness/carelessness resulted in a major unrecoverable
> data loss (on the Unix partition I was trying to use to make the
> installation media...  :-((((

I sincerely apologize for your difficulties.

DPT wrote and maintains the BSDi driver.  The (excellent) engineer at
DPT who wrote the driver got paid to write it and BSDi (should be) paid
for their support.

The Linux driver has been in the standard Linux kernel for years and
Mike is making excellent work in maintaining and developing it.

I wrote the driver as part of my other (and demanding) full time job. 
Nobody pays me to support it.  I am spending as much time as possible
supporting the driver and users like you and have done everyting I can
to ease the pain:

*  http://simon-shapiro.org has a web page under construction to make
   patches, boot floppies, etc. more accessible.

*  I routinely build new 3.0-current releases and add the complete
   release to ftp://FreeBSD

*  The driver is in production at my employers and dozens of sites
   around the world, including some very heavy users, on large arrays.
   these users feed me bug and enhanccements requests, which i turn
   around in 24 hours or less, most of the time.

*  There are no outstanding bugs against the driver.

*  Prformance is excellent;  we achieve, on a single P6-200, more than 
   1740 disk I/O operations per second.   RAID-0 performance on 8x
   array is around 18MB/Sec filesystem throughput, with less than 2%
   CPU load.

*  Stability is excellent.  We have zero crashes and routine regression
   test runs at load average of 250.0 or more for at least 24 hours
   prior to any major version release.

*  Scalability is excellent too:  Up to 4 controlers, 12 SCSI busses
   and 30 srives were tested here.  I know of people who run over 50
   drives on one PM33334UW.

However, the core team declined to integrate the driver into 2.2 and
still has to do so for 3.0.  If you want to know why, ask them.

The driver went through several review cycles, without any substantial
change, other than some early bug fixes, some stylistic tweaks and many
space and tab changes.  It is in production use on dozens of systems
and I do not know of any bug outstanding against it from anyone.

To add it to a machine, in ther manner you attempt is frustrating.
Here is how I do it. This is essentiall a process of building a
complete FReeBSD release, all on your own.

It is not difficult, just a bit tedious.

The entire driver is in the public domain.  You are welcome to examine
it online and figure out why. If you can, let me know.

* Get my hands on an IDE drive or a cheap SCSI disk and a blessed
  controller.

* Install FreeBSD on it, including full source.

*  Get my patch from http://simon-shapiro.org

*  cd /usr/src

*  cat patch_file_name | patch -p0 >& patch.out

*  vi patch.out (it is OK to use EMACS here :-) and search for ``fail''

*  cd /usr/src/sys/i386/conf

*  cp {SENDERO|NOMIS|ATLAS} MY_CONFIG

*  {vi|emacs} MY_CONFIG

*  Add any tweaks, specials, etc.

*  /usr/sbin/config MY_CONFIG

*  cd ../../compile/MY_CONFIG

*  make depend && make

*  install -c -m 444 kernel /kernel.DPT

*  sync;shutdown -r now

*  Install a DPT PCI controller, attach disks,

*  Boot DenialOfService

*  Put DPTMGR floppy in a:

*  a:dptmgr/fw0

*  Configure arrays.

*  Boot Unix.

*  dmesg | grep '^s{dt}'

*  fdisk -i the PROPER disks

*  Disklabel them too.

*  cd /usr/src/release

*  {vi|emacs} Makefile
   Set the target to some sane directory with 500MB of space or more.
   I have the Makefile modfied:
   CHROOTDIR=/Build/${BUILDNAME}

*  make release >& /tmp/release.out &

*  When you see that the cvs checkout for usr/src is over
   (usr/src/usr.sbin/zic is normally the last one to checkout),
   cd /build/3.0-some_date-SNAP/usr/src
   patch -p0 < /wherever/patch_file >& patch.out

*  Examine patch.out.  Should be clean

*  When make release is done, you have a boot floppy in
   ${CHROOTDIR}/R/ftp/floppies/boot.flp

*  NFS export ${CHROOTDIR}/R/ftp, or copy it to
      ~ftp/`basename ${CHROOTDIR}`

*  Go install your DPT machine.

Are you still reading?

If you are totally disgusted, join the club.

...


> 
> Many thanks,
> 
> Ken Cochran


If Microsoft Built Cars:

There would be an "Engine Pro" with bigger turbos, but it would be
slower on most existing roads.


Sincerely Yours, 

Simon Shapiro
Shimon@Simon-Shapiro.ORG                      Voice:   503.799.2313



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