Path: utzoo!utgpu!jarvis.csri.toronto.edu!mailrus!wuarchive!cs.utexas.edu!uunet!mcsun!ukc!dcl-cs!aber-cs!thor!pcg From: pcg@thor.cs.aber.ac.uk (Piercarlo Grandi) Newsgroups: comp.unix.i386 Subject: Re: RLL controllers & 386/ix Message-ID: Date: 2 Sep 89 22:18:05 GMT References: <1989Aug29.162452.10538@agate.uucp> <2237@infmx.UUCP> Sender: pcg@aber-cs.UUCP Organization: Coleg Prifysgol Cymru Lines: 53 In-reply-to: aland@infmx.UUCP's message of 30 Aug 89 03:07:07 GMT In article <2237@infmx.UUCP> aland@infmx.UUCP (Dr. Scump) writes: In article <1989Aug29.162452.10538@agate.uucp> ilan343@violet.berkeley.edu writes: >I am setting up a 386 clone that will eventually run a version of UNIX, >probably 386/ix. Since I am trying to keep costs down, I am thinking of >using a large (120MB) RLL hard-drive. I see from Interactive's list of >compatible hardware that they limit the choices of RLL controllers, >which concerns me a bit. >Can anyone report their experience (good or bad) trying to install >versions UNIX/386 in systems with RLL controllers? I am using an ACB 2372B on my 386 with ESIX 3.2; it works fine. It is quite fast, and does have a read ahead cache (small), which helps a little bit. It does support 1:1 low level format. The ESIX disc driver is not a speed monster unfortunately. No personal experience here; just some vendor info. ISC claims compatibility with just 4 RLL controllers (Adaptec ACB-237[02], Bell Tech [Intel?] B-130, and WD 1006V-SRZ). ESIX, on the other hand, specifically disclaims RLL support in the literature I received just yesterday. This is bizarre, because the ACB 2372 is virtually register level compatible with the standard MFM controller, the WD1003. The disc driver does not even realize that it is an RLL controller. The only difference is that RLL drives that have 26 sectors/track, not 17; but the driver can be configured to cope with that (in /etc/partitions). As I said, it does work on my machine. There is one problem with ESIX: if your disc geometry does not appear in the ROM table, you are more or less stuck if you use the standard installation procedure. Unfortunately most ROM tables do not have entries with 26 sectors/track. Thank goodness you can make your system work nonetheless. Just write manually an /etc/partitions file, instead of letting disksetup build it, taking care of specifying the right geometry. UNIX itself never looks at the ROM tables; they are only read during boot (and then you only want to make sure that the drive type you assigned with setup is for an entry with the right number of heads; cylinders and sectors are not important), and during installation, as disksetup consults the ROM table to get the geometry info to put in /etc/partitions. If you do that yourself, all is ok. I think that a good bet for a disc to use with an ACB 2372 is either an ST4144 or a Miniscribe 3128 (but most probably a 3085 will work). -- Piercarlo "Peter" Grandi | ARPA: pcg%cs.aber.ac.uk@nsfnet-relay.ac.uk Dept of CS, UCW Aberystwyth | UUCP: ...!mcvax!ukc!aber-cs!pcg Penglais, Aberystwyth SY23 3BZ, UK | INET: pcg@cs.aber.ac.uk