*BSD News Article 50098


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From: larry@rn.com (Larry Snyder)
Newsgroups: comp.periphs.scsi,comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: PCI 2940 Config (and NCR)
Date: 4 Sep 1995 11:27:53 -0400
Organization: Larry's Internet Server at home
Lines: 51
Message-ID: <42f5tp$ca@trauma.rn.com>
References: <4298im$h4@trauma.rn.com> <42abn3$mkv@crl.crl.com> <1995Sep3.134248.26342@wavehh.hanse.de>
NNTP-Posting-Host: rn.com
Xref: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au comp.periphs.scsi:36533 comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc:5329

In article <1995Sep3.134248.26342@wavehh.hanse.de>,
Martin Cracauer <cracauer@wavehh.hanse.de> wrote:
>ggrant@crl.com (Gary E. Grant) writes:
>
>>In article <4298im$h4@trauma.rn.com>, Larry Snyder <larry@rn.com> wrote:
>>>I recently installed a 2940 Host Adapter in my machine and am using
>>>the default settings including "Extended DOS translation for drives
>>>greater than 1 Gig = Enabled".  I have a 2 gig SCSI drive with a 400
>>>meg partition (the first partiion) as DOS, a 1400 meg BSD partition
>>>(FreeBSD 2.0.5) and the 3rd partition is FreeBSD swap.
>>>
>>>The motherboard is an Opti Chipset P100 with 32 megs of RAM.  The
>>>2940 Bios is 1.11.
>>>
>>>Shouldn't I be able to install the NCR host adapter by just plugging it
>>>in the PCI slot on the MB?  The machine won't boot completely and acts
>>>like it's having problems with sector translation.  How does the NCR
>>>handle drives larger than 1 gig?  This isn't mentioned anywhere in
>>>the documentation.
>>I suspect that that problem is: Adaptec & NCR use slightly different 
>>low=level format programs and the boot block format is not the same. What 
>>that means that you need to dump the disk to tape, re-fdisk the disk and 
>>the reload from the tape. I too have 2940 as well as NCR 810/825 controllers.

Using which controller to re-fdisk the drive (2940 or NCR) - and second,
just I keep the "Extended DOS translation for drives greater than 1 GIG
enabled?"

>This can be true, but doesn't have to. I can use the same partitions
>both with NCR and AHA and can boot both by just exchanging the
>drive. 

could it be related to the BIOS translation of the disk geometry?

The Adaptec by default has something like disk translation enabled
for drives over 1 GIG which I've left alone..

>later modify the label under a UNIX system.  This way, I can be sure
>to have disk geometry at least in a defined way. As I said, this way I
>can use the same partitioning both for AHA and NCR under FreeBSD. This
>didn't work when I used FreeBSD-2.0.5-install to guess geometry.

My first 400 megs is DOS, and I can boot DOS just fine
using either controller.  When I try to boot FreeBSD using the NCR,
it boots but dies when checking the file system.  FreeBSD resides on
the last 1400 megs of the drive..

I'm beginning to think I need to disable the "Bios translation for
drives greater than 1 gig" with is by default enabled with the 2940.