How do I access SCSI using A/UX System Calls?

Matthias Urlichs urlichs at smurf.sub.org
Fri Aug 31 18:07:31 AEST 1990


In comp.unix.aux, article <3368 at wrgate.WR.TEK.COM>,
  herbw at midas.WR.TEK.COM (Herb Weiner) writes:
< Page 5-18 of the "A/UX Toolbox: Macintosh ROM Interface" manual states:
< 
< "You can reproduce the functions of the SCSI Manager in A/UX by writing
< your own routines that use A/UX system calls.  [...]

... which is just plain wrong.

You can use this strategy (open the device /dev/dsk/cXd0s31, read/write
whatever you want, close it) if you want to read from, or write to, a standard
hard disk with correct pameters (see the Mode Select and Mode Sense commands;
A/UX wants to have the PER bit turned on for good but insufficient reasons),
or possibly a CD-ROM or Apple's tape drive. Anything else currently requires
you to write a device driver for the A/UX kernel, which is _not_ one of the
easier tasks.

Is the A/UX Device Driver kit available for 2.0? Will it be FTPable from
anywhere.apple.com, or do we have to get it through APDA?

Rumor says that the kit will include a generic tape driver, which is exactly
what I need right now...

NB: Is there a /dev/scsi out there somewhere which could possibly allow me to
do generic SCSI calls from normal A/UX programs? Some 3rd party is said to
work on something like this -- anyone know more?

NB2: I'm running out of SCSI IDs. Are there any Nubus SCSI DMA boards which
will run under A/UX 2.0, on a IIfx, and which won't disable the internal SCSI
port?

NB3: Can anyone out there convince the Dantz people (makers of Retrospect)
that it would be a very good idea to make that fine program more A/UX-aware?
I have 1.0i, and it (a) doesn't know how to talk to tape drives under A/UX
(I'd like to have a dialog to tell it "This is a tape drive", or something
like that), and (b) doesn't know how to calculate the free space correctly.

-- 
Matthias Urlichs -- urlichs at smurf.sub.org -- urlichs at smurf.ira.uka.de
Humboldtstrasse 7 - 7500 Karlsruhe 1 - FRG -- +49+721+621127(Voice)/621227(PEP)



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