SCSI/ESDI Compatability under ISC UNIX

Gary Blumenstein garyb at crpmks.UUCP
Fri Jun 1 05:43:10 AEST 1990


In article <1164 at crpmks.UUCP> I wrote:
>I heard that running both an ESDI controller and a SCSI host adapter
>such as Adaptec 154xB simultaneously under ISC UNIX can cause major problems.
>That is if it can be done at all.  Does anyone know if this is this true and 
>if there's a workaround?
>

One response I got was the following:

| I have a Compaq Deskpro 386/25 with both ESDI and Adaptec SCSI coexisting just
| fine.  The Compaq box has a Compaq-proprietary version of a WD-1007A as its
| ESDI controller.  The way the configuration stuff is set up, you MUST boot
| from the ESDI drive and use the SCSI drives as secondaries.  I don't have a
| tape drive on the system right now, but have had one in the past.  Worked
| fine.  The Adaptec board is smart enough that it adds very little load to the
| system, as opposed to the PIO AT-style disk controllers.

As it turned out, I wound up installing the Adaptec 1542A SCSI host adapter
along with a WD1007V-SE2 controller.  The boot disk is on the ESDI card
and right now the only SCSI device on the bus is a Archive Viper tape.

I also wound up buying the Chantal (3rd party) SCSI drivers
instead of the ones supplied by ISC.  I'm happy with this setup and I'm 
conviced that Chantal will be supplying superior SCSI drivers for some 
time.  

The Chantal driver installation was easy with the execption of a conflict with
device major numbers on some previously installed devices.  This is documented
in their release notes along with the fix.  All that was required was to 
remove TCP/ip and Streams, install Chantall, then re-install TCP/ip and
Streams.  Chantal comes with a wealth of useful utilities and the ones
I tried work like a charm. 

Now all I have to do is add a few WORM drives and a CD/ROM Jukebox or two!  :-)

--
Gary M. Blumenstein, UNIX Network Administrator // CIBA-GEIGY Corporation USA
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
Phone (914) 347-4700                    7 Skyline Drive, Hawthorne, NY  10532
FAX   (914) 347-5687                    UUCP  ...uunet!philabs!crpmks!garyb



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