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From: Dennis Holmes <dholmes@rahul.net>
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: SCSI, Barracuda and Adaptec problem
Date: 1 Sep 1996 03:41:04 GMT
Organization: a2i network
Lines: 35
Message-ID: <50b0kg$c1m@bug.rahul.net>
References: <27AUG199611483612@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu>
NNTP-Posting-Host: waltz.rahul.net
NNTP-Posting-User: dholmes
In <27AUG199611483612@ubvms.cc.buffalo.edu> rpk@niagara.edu (Richard P. Kernin) writes:
>I'm trying to install FreeBSD v2.1.5 on a 2GB Seagate Barracuda disk
>(ST12550N) with an Adaptec 2842-VL SCSI controller, but to no avail.
>The system is a i486/80Mhz VLB system with 64MB of memory, and the above
>mentioned SCSI/disk combination. The error message I get from FreeBSD
>is "sd0: invalid partition, no magic", and am then allowed to go through
>all the setup, only to have the "commit" phase bomb with a kernel panic
>due to a "write error". Using the onboard SCSI utilities (SCSIselect) I'm
>able to see the disk, format and verify the disk, and FreeBSD finds it OK,
>but cannot install. In trying to re-install DOS on the system (it used to
>run DOS, then Netware for a couple of weeks while I was testing) I'm not
>able to access the disk anyone either.
I'm also running on an 80MHz VLB system and just had a bout with the 2842 a
couple of weeks ago. I finally tracked down some documentation on Adaptec's
web page that indicates the 2842 is not supported on buses > 33MHz (yours &
mine run at 40 MHz, half the internal processor speed). In my case, the
problems seemed to improve slightly by slowing the clock to 33MHz and
disabling the external processor cache. But I find crippling the machine
an unacceptable solution ;) (besides which the problems did not entirely go
away), so I returned the card to the dealer and bought a Buslogic 445 card.
The Buslogic card is supported at >33MHz (in its default configuration no
less) and is working great for me.
The problems I saw were mostly seg faults, I suspect due to bad DMA
activity. But at the time I was using a tape drive and a cd-rom, no SCSI
hard drives.
FYI, I got my BT445 from NCA for about $200 (KT445 retail box), which is a
little less than the 2842 package ($235 I think).
--
+-------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| Dennis Holmes dholmes@rahul.net |
| San Jose, CA Disclaimer: I'm temporarily insane. |
+------=>{ Meanwhile, as Ford said: "Where are my potato chips?" }<=------+