*BSD News Article 44152


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From: tls@cloud9.net (Thor Lancelot Simon)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.netbsd.misc
Subject: Re: Commerical OS's (was Re: aha0: DMA beyond end of ISA)
Date: 17 May 1995 07:34:32 GMT
Organization: Cloud 9 Internet, White Plains, New York, USA
Lines: 47
Message-ID: <3pc8u8$66g@news.cloud9.net>
References: <MICHAELV.95May12222703@MindBender.HeadCandy.com> <1995May16.114607.16086@zippy.dct.ac.uk>
NNTP-Posting-Host: cloud9.net

In article <1995May16.114607.16086@zippy.dct.ac.uk>,
Angus Marshall <amm@tremas.dct.ac.uk> wrote:
>michaelv@MindBender.HeadCandy.com (Michael L. VanLoon) writes:
>> In article <3ophvm$9md@anshar.shadow.net> jc@anshar.shadow.net (Justin) writes:
>>    This point would be moot if NetBSD supported the PCI Adaptec SCSI
>>    adapter, so I wouldn't have to use the ISA adapter :) Any ideas on
>>    the ETA for the adapter support or the >16MB RAM ISA fix?
>> NetBSD supports two excellent PCI SCSI adapters already.  When Adaptec
>> lets up on their Draconian policies, I'm sure someone will write one
>> for that card too (that isn't GNU Copylefted).
>
>Oh yeah? Which ones? for the last 4 months I've been trying to get the NCR card
>to coexist with ed0 and ed1. I can get the system to come up from the hard 
>drive successfully, but as soon as ed0 or ed1 is enabled with ifconfig
>I get blasted by messages about "NIC memory corrupt: Packet length
>zero" 
>
>The hardware all works fine under MS-Dos and Windows so I'm forced to
>think it's a software problem.
>
>> In the mean time, you can use the NCR 53c810 PCI SCSI cards, as well
>> as the BusLogic bt946c, under NetBSD with excellent results.
>
>TX: Yes, these cards work, but NOT with ethernet  - prove me
>wrong.(please)

Sure.  I have more than five customer machines with '810/'825 SCSI and 
anywhere from one to three ethernet controllers each.  One of them is an 
ASUS P55TP4 with two SMC 8216T cards using the 'ed' device driver.

At home, I have an ASUS SP3G with a 3C509 and a NE2100 clone, with both 
the onboard '810 SCSI and a BT946C.

>> Why this obsession with Adaptec anyway?
>'cos they WORK!

So do the NCR and BusLogic controllers.  Perhaps you have other, broken 
hardware in the system in question.

I am not happy with the performance I get from the NetBSD/FreeBSD ncr 
driver, however.  I plan to switch the '825 system to a BT956C as soon as 
I can get my hands on one.  The 53c8XX hardware has a reputation for good 
performance, so I'm pretty sure this is a driver issue.
-- 
Thor Lancelot Simon                                               tls@cloud9.net

Somewhere they're meeting on a pinhead, calling you an angel.