Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!cs.utexas.edu!swrinde!zaphod.mps.ohio-state.edu!sdd.hp.com!spool.mu.edu!uunet!icom!xwkg.Icom.Com!andy From: andy@xwkg.Icom.Com (Andrew H. Marrinson) Newsgroups: comp.unix.sysv386 Subject: Re: Dell System V Release 4 Message-ID: Date: 1 Feb 91 02:53:18 GMT References: <1991Jan28.212845.18306@hssiarl.uucp> Sender: news@icom.icom.com (News Feed) Organization: Icom Systems, Inc. Lines: 38 morris@hssiarl.uucp (Morris Forbes) writes: >The only real problem I found was with the installation of their TCP/IP >using a WD 8003E and tying to a thick ethernet drop through an external >transceiver. The self configuration they have builtin to the system >does not appear to handle thick ethernet properly (they tell me it >works fine with thin). I don't think this has anything to do with thick vs. thin. It has to do with old vs. new WD8003 cards. Newer WD8003 cards have an EEPROM in which you can store the shared memory address once and it remembers it from then on. Older ones don't have this, instead the driver must tell the card the shared memory address at boot time. We originally used an older card on thin Ethernet, and had the same problem you described. When we switched to a newer WD8003 (and maybe programmed its EEPROM with a DOS utility from WD) the auto-configuration worked fine. > The solution was fortunately simple - just >modify the wdn file in /etc/conf/sdevice.d/ and rebuild the kernal. Yes, this also works. Note that they point out that you must do this for the 16 bit WD card (in the one manual you do get with DELL V.4). I think that is because that card doesn't have the EEPROM. In general I was also quite pleased with Dell's V.4. I wish they were a little more flexible about non-Dell hardware, although I can understand there reticence to support it more fully. We are using non-Dell hardware ourselves, and I don't think we are having any serious problems because of this, but it does make me nervous that support might be refused at any time because of this. It will be interesting to see what Interactive does... -- Andrew H. Marrinson Icom Systems, Inc. Wheeling, IL, USA (andy@icom.icom.com)