[546] in linux-scsi channel archive
Re: PLEASE READ!! -- frustrating EISA-bus / SCSI-controller problems
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (csmith@stoneboro.uucp.cirr.com)
Fri Aug 25 00:40:14 1995
Date: Sat, 19 Aug 95 19:32 CDT
From: csmith@stoneboro.uucp.cirr.com
To: linux-scsi@vger.rutgers.edu
"Steven N. Hirsch" <hirsch@emba.uvm.edu> writes:
On Sat, 19 Aug 1995, Jarrett Redd wrote:
>
> jr> main board chip set is HiNT.
>
I think the above line is key to the problem. The HiNT chipset is a
highly non-standard EISA implementation which became notorious among OS/2
users for bizarre incompatibilities. Among other problems, it does not
support level-triggered interrupts nor watchdog NMI.
Also, if it were me I'd be suspicious of DTC's claim of Adaptec
compatibility. For starters, the 154x series of controllers are ISA-buss
architecture, and I believe you state that the DTC is an EISA adapter?
The Adaptec EISA adapters (174x and 274x) are quite different animals.
FWIW, you can find 274x controllers on the Usenet "for sale" groups at
fire sale prices. I have been happily running Linux on two machines for a
year with a 2742T and 2740A - no problems whatsoever.
Note that you must configure the 274x for edge-triggered interrupts!
This can be done with the latest version of the EISA cfg program.
Feel free to E-Mail if you have any further questions about the Adaptec
boards.
I have used a HiNT-based motherboard with a DTC3292 successfully.
Adpatec 1742 also works. Probably 2742 does NOT -- Adaptec quit
worrying about Adaptec compatibility and other niceties about then.
The problem with the HiNT chipset is it doesn't do level-sensitive
interrupts. The DTC board doesn't care. The 1742 does, but can be
configured to be edge-triggered by hacking the .CFG file in an obvious
way. The 2742 lacks an ISA-compatible mode and may not be able to
deal with the HiNT approximation of EISA.
Not only DTC but also Buslogic and others make EISA adapters that can
use 1542-compatible commands (so did Adaptec, up through the 1742).
They get a 16-meg addressing limit in this mode, but remain EISA
devices.
I did not *like* the DTC3292, it doesn't support disconnect/reconnect
or at least at one time it didn't, but it worked ok with Linux 0.99.12
or about then.
Unfortunately I can't try to address the original problem, I haven't
seen it. (I just got a news feed of this list going, and I suspect
that about 90% of the traffic is getting lost somewhere.) But since
I happened to have been in this situation I wanted to say something.
