Re: question for friend

[turnbull@example.com (Stephen J. Turnbull)]

>>>>> "Ted" == Ted Matsumura <tedm@example.com> writes:

    Ted> Hi, I was wondering if any of you gurus could help out a
    Ted> friend, please cc: him as he's not yet on the list, but

    Ted> From: "Gary A. Hildebrand" <gah@example.com>

    Ted> I'm trying to run Slackware 2.3.0 (based on Linux 1.2.8 circa
    Ted> 5/7/95) on an AST 486DX33 PC with 16MB of RAM and ISA bus,

If this is the Sept 95 Infomagic CD ROM set, it's ugly.  I didn't have
any problem with the aha1542 driver, but I had lots of trouble with
the aic7880 driver....  Upgrading to Slackware 3.x or switching to
RedHat might help, but probably not.

    Ted> that has an Adaptec 1542B ISA bus SCSI adapter installed.
    Ted> The version number of the Adaptec BIOS is 3.10.  A 1GB drive
    Ted> (Toshiba?) is attached to the adapter.  I have never had any
    Ted> trouble using the adapter from DOS/Windows, with either the
    Ted> 1GB drive or a previous 0.5GB Fujitsu drive.

This is not necessarily relevant; DOS/Windows makes lots of
assumptions that Linux does not.

    Ted> configuration.  BUT, the 1542 driver reports the following
    Ted> error message during boot:
    Ted>   aha1542_in failed(3): Unable to determine Adaptec DMA
    Ted> priority.  Disabling board

Yep.  Found it in the code.  It looks to me like your board is not
where Linux expects it to be---the very first time Linux makes a
request to the board it times out (that "3" is "3 bytes remaining of 3
requested").  The 1.3.76 driver (sorry, I don't have access to a 1.2.8
vintage source) demands that the board live at 0x330 or 0x334.  This
can be overridden in LILO:

/*
 * LILO params:  aha1542=<PORTBASE>[,<BUSON>,<BUSOFF>[,<DMASPEED>]]
 *
 * Where:  <PORTBASE> is any of the valid AHA addresses:
 *                      0x130, 0x134, 0x230, 0x234, 0x330, 0x334
 *         <BUSON>  is the time (in microsecs) that AHA spends on the AT-bus
 *                  when transferring data.  1542A power-on default is 11us,
 *                  valid values are in range: 2..15 (decimal)
 *         <BUSOFF> is the time that AHA spends OFF THE BUS after while
 *                  it is transferring data (not to monopolize the bus).
 *                  Power-on default is 4us, valid range: 1..64 microseconds.
 *         <DMASPEED> Default is jumper selected (1542A: on the J1),
 *                  but experimenter can alter it with this.
 *                  Valid values: 5, 6, 7, 8, 10 (MB/s)
 *                  Factory default is 5 MB/s.
 */

So where the Slackware boot disk asks you what to boot, use

...
boot: ramdisk aha1542=0x330

"boot:" is the LILO prompt; "ramdisk" is which kernel---this is
required, LILO will try and fail to find a kernel called
"aha1542=0x330" if you don't include it, "ramdisk" is the usual
default for the installation process; "aha1542=" signals the kernel to
pass the following parameters to the driver, and you should change
"0x330" to fit your installation.  You should not have to touch the
other values; DMASPEED in particular is *not* the DMA priority level
mentioned in the message.  BUSON and BUSOFF are tuning parameters;
they might make your system faster if set to non-default values, but
they should not affect whether it works at all....

No promises, of course.  I haven't seen your hardware....  Do make
sure that it's really an Adaptec 1542B (the first time I opened one of
my boxes I found a number of unpleasant surprises where the mfr had
substituted "equivalent" hardware).  Check and see where the board is
configured; several MIDI and sound boards apparently like to use that
0x330 I/O address, so the SCSI host may be elsewhere.  Boot DOS and
use Norton SI or Quarterdeck Manifest or the like; that should give
you most of that information.

{Aside to Ted:  are you convinced yet that I know the difference
between my ass and a 10BaseT jack?}

-- 
                           Stephen John Turnbull
University of Tsukuba                                        Yaseppochi-Gumi
Institute of Policy and Planning Sciences  http://turnbull.sk.tsukuba.ac.jp/
Tennodai 1-1-1, Tsukuba, 305 JAPAN                 turnbull@example.com