Very Computer

by **Richard Scott Gra** » Tue, 07 Jul 1998 04:00:00

Hi,

I'm looking for an inexpensive (around $100 - $150 ) ultrawide SCSI
adapter know to work with Linux 2.0.34. This will be my first SCSI
adapter so any recommendations will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks,
Scott Gray

by **kat_ska** » Tue, 07 Jul 1998 04:00:00

You don't want an inexpensive SCSI adapter. Go for quality here, you're not
getting SCSI because it's cheap, so pick something top of the line, or at
least middle of the road. I've had good luck with the Adaptec cards, but
that's the only one I've worked with, so you might want to get some other
opinions.

--
============================
Please don't try to reply to my inbox.
The from address is *very* wrong.

Sorry, but I don't like Spam much.
============================

>Hi,

>I'm looking for an inexpensive (around $100 - $150 ) ultrawide SCSI
>adapter know to work with Linux 2.0.34. This will be my first SCSI
>adapter so any recommendations will be greatly appreciated.

>Thanks,
>Scott Gray

by **jed** » Tue, 07 Jul 1998 04:00:00

>You don't want an inexpensive SCSI adapter. Go for quality here, you're not
>getting SCSI because it's cheap, so pick something top of the line, or at

You don't know what his motivations are? Perhaps he just
wants a better bus. 2 devices per IRQ and no sensible way
to do external devices can really be a drag.

Quote:>least middle of the road. I've had good luck with the Adaptec cards, but
>that's the only one I've worked with, so you might want to get some other
>opinions.

[deletia]

Quote:>>I'm looking for an inexpensive (around $100 - $150 ) ultrawide SCSI
>>adapter know to work with Linux 2.0.34. This will be my first SCSI
>>adapter so any recommendations will be greatly appreciated.

--
Hardly. Microsoft has brought the microcomputer OS to
the point where it is more bloated than even OSes from |||
what was previously larger classes of machines altogether. / | \
This is perhaps Bill's single greatest accomplishment.

by **Rod Smi** » Tue, 07 Jul 1998 04:00:00

[Posted and mailed]

Quote:> Hi,

> I'm looking for an inexpensive (around $100 - $150 ) ultrawide SCSI
> adapter know to work with Linux 2.0.34. This will be my first SCSI
> adapter so any recommendations will be greatly appreciated.

Boards based on the NCR/Symbios 53c8xx chipsets and BusLogic boards seem
to be very well-supported and popular for Linux. BusLogic reportedly
provides very good support to the Linux kernel developers, so they earn a
few extra points. I'm not very familiar with their lineup, though. You
can get a board based on the NCR/Symbios 53c875 chipset for $100-$150.
The Diamond FirePort 40 is one popular board based on this, but I'd
suggest looking elsewhere; the Diamond uses a minor VARIANT of the 53c875,
and is incompatible with NCR/Symbios drivers for most OSes. Instead, look
for something by ASUS, Symbios, J-Bond, or a host of others. Promo-X
(http://www.veryComputer.com/) has J-Bond boards which work well in my
experience, though they lack flash BIOSes (they've got conventional
EPROMs). Many (but by no means all) places that sell ASUS motherboards
will have the ASUS SC875, which I believe has a flash EEPROM.

A few months ago, it was announced that Adaptec was buying Symbios. I
don't know what, if any, long-term consequences will arise from this. So
far I haven't noticed anything obvious; the Symbios web site is still
intact, and Symbios-based products are still available.

As to Adaptec proper, it used to be that this was a middling choice for
Linux, since Adaptec wasn't very co-operative when it came to revealing
technical details to Linux developers. This resulted in drivers that had
a tendency to break whenever Adaptec changed something on their boards
(which they did with some frequency), so buying a new Adaptec board was
something of a *shoot -- it might work beautifully, or it might not
work at all. Adaptec's recently started supporting Linux developers
better, though, so with any luck this will start changing very soon, if it
hasn't already. Adaptec products do tend to be a bit pricier than the
competition, though, so IMHO they don't represent good value for the
dollar (or other currency).

--
Rod Smith

http://www.veryComputer.com/~rodsmith
NOTE: Remove the digit and following word from my address to mail me

by **jed** » Tue, 07 Jul 1998 04:00:00

>[Posted and mailed]

>> Hi,

>> I'm looking for an inexpensive (around $100 - $150 ) ultrawide SCSI
>> adapter know to work with Linux 2.0.34. This will be my first SCSI
>> adapter so any recommendations will be greatly appreciated.

Also, if you're willing to go up to $210, you can get
retail packaged versions of the buslogic/mylex cards
with dual channel scsi3/uw.

Does anyone know how many irq's that card uses?
30 devices on one IRQ sounds quite interesting.

>Boards based on the NCR/Symbios 53c8xx chipsets and BusLogic boards seem
>to be very well-supported and popular for Linux. BusLogic reportedly
>provides very good support to the Linux kernel developers, so they earn a
>few extra points. I'm not very familiar with their lineup, though. You
>can get a board based on the NCR/Symbios 53c875 chipset for $100-$150.
>The Diamond FirePort 40 is one popular board based on this, but I'd
>suggest looking elsewhere; the Diamond uses a minor VARIANT of the 53c875,
>and is incompatible with NCR/Symbios drivers for most OSes. Instead, look
>for something by ASUS, Symbios, J-Bond, or a host of others. Promo-X
>(http://www.veryComputer.com/) has J-Bond boards which work well in my
>experience, though they lack flash BIOSes (they've got conventional
>EPROMs). Many (but by no means all) places that sell ASUS motherboards
>will have the ASUS SC875, which I believe has a flash EEPROM.

>A few months ago, it was announced that Adaptec was buying Symbios. I
>don't know what, if any, long-term consequences will arise from this. So
>far I haven't noticed anything obvious; the Symbios web site is still
>intact, and Symbios-based products are still available.

>As to Adaptec proper, it used to be that this was a middling choice for
>Linux, since Adaptec wasn't very co-operative when it came to revealing
>technical details to Linux developers. This resulted in drivers that had
>a tendency to break whenever Adaptec changed something on their boards
>(which they did with some frequency), so buying a new Adaptec board was
>something of a *shoot -- it might work beautifully, or it might not
>work at all. Adaptec's recently started supporting Linux developers
>better, though, so with any luck this will start changing very soon, if it
>hasn't already. Adaptec products do tend to be a bit pricier than the
>competition, though, so IMHO they don't represent good value for the
>dollar (or other currency).

>--
>Rod Smith

>http://www.veryComputer.com/~rodsmith
>NOTE: Remove the digit and following word from my address to mail me

--
Hardly. Microsoft has brought the microcomputer OS to
the point where it is more bloated than even OSes from |||
what was previously larger classes of machines altogether. / | \
This is perhaps Bill's single greatest accomplishment.

by **Marc Bouro** » Wed, 08 Jul 1998 04:00:00

> I'm looking for an inexpensive (around $100 - $150 ) ultrawide SCSI
> adapter know to work with Linux 2.0.34. This will be my first SCSI
> adapter so any recommendations will be greatly appreciated.

I had nothing but grief with an Adaptec card, but I understand the
situation with Adaptec is improving (though a bit late for me). I now
have an Advansys board, which works perfectly and is supported by the
manufacturer. I'd recommend you consider these too.

Cheers,
Marc.

by **Frank Mil** » Wed, 08 Jul 1998 04:00:00

>[Posted and mailed]

>> Hi,

>> I'm looking for an inexpensive (around $100 - $150 ) ultrawide SCSI
>> adapter know to work with Linux 2.0.34. This will be my first SCSI
>> adapter so any recommendations will be greatly appreciated.

>Boards based on the NCR/Symbios 53c8xx chipsets and BusLogic boards seem
>to be very well-supported and popular for Linux. BusLogic reportedly
>provides very good support to the Linux kernel developers, so they earn a
>few extra points.
> [snip...]
>(http://www.promox.com) has J-Bond boards which work well in my
>experience, though they lack flash BIOSes (they've got conventional
>EPROMs). Many (but by no means all) places that sell ASUS motherboards
>will have the ASUS SC875, which I believe has a flash EEPROM.

For those who might occasionally boot into OS/2: J-Bond does not support
OS/2, even though NCR/Symbios does. The Mylex/Buslogic SCSI card is
supported for both OS's. Even the Buslogic card wasn't free of problems...
the one shipped to me had a bad BIOS, so I definitely agree, the issue of
flash BIOS is an important one.

Quote:>A few months ago, it was announced that Adaptec was buying Symbios. I
>don't know what, if any, long-term consequences will arise from this. So
>far I haven't noticed anything obvious; the Symbios web site is still
>intact, and Symbios-based products are still available.

There was a news item in the last EETimes that the Adaptec was reconsidering
its takeover of NCR/Symbios (June 29, 1988, p.4). Adaptec was claiming
that the FTC was exploring the possibility of anti-trust action against
Adaptec. Other companies are positioning themselves to buy the company.

Quote:>[deleted Adaptec problem list]

-frank

by **felicity+s..** » Wed, 08 Jul 1998 04:00:00

Quote:> situation with Adaptec is improving (though a bit late for me). I now
> have an Advansys board, which works perfectly and is supported by the
> manufacturer. I'd recommend you consider these too.

The Mylex (Buslogic) boards are VERY well supported (I suggest the 958's...)
Also, any board with the ncr53c8xx chipset is good too. I have two systems
with an Intraserver SCSI card based off the NCR chipset, and everything works
great!

--
To reply via mail, please remove the obvious from the email address.

by **Stuart R. Full** » Wed, 08 Jul 1998 04:00:00

:
: A few months ago, it was announced that Adaptec was buying Symbios. I
: don't know what, if any, long-term consequences will arise from this. So
: far I haven't noticed anything obvious; the Symbios web site is still
: intact, and Symbios-based products are still available.

Adaptec's buying out of Symbios has been cancelled. They got word that the
FTC was going to nix the deal, so they just dropped it.

Stu

by **Rod Smi** » Thu, 09 Jul 1998 04:00:00

[Posted and mailed]

>>(http://www.promox.com) has J-Bond boards which work well in my
>>experience, though they lack flash BIOSes (they've got conventional
>>EPROMs). Many (but by no means all) places that sell ASUS motherboards
>>will have the ASUS SC875, which I believe has a flash EEPROM.

> For those who might occasionally boot into OS/2: J-Bond does not support
> OS/2, even though NCR/Symbios does.

Do you mean that J-Bond as a corporate entity doesn't acknowledge the
existence of OS/2, or do you mean that J-Bond products don't work with
OS/2? If the latter, my personal experience runs counter to this claim,
though it's with a 53c860 J-Bond board, not the 53c875 boards being
discussed. If the former, I don't think this is terribly important since,
as you say, Symbios does support OS/2, and the J-Bond boards are fairly
"generic" Symbios-based products, so corporate support from the board
manufacturer isn't really all that vital.

To bring it back on topic for the Linux newsgroups, I'll reiterate that
I've had no problems under Linux with a pair of 53c860 boards (one at
home, one on a system at work) or with a 53c875 board on another work
system, running Red Hat Linux. All three happen to be J-Bond boards from
Promo-X. Actually, my home system has TWO 53c8xx boards -- it's also got
a generic (I believe actually Tyan) 53c825 board. To get it to work with
the 53c860, I had to yank the BIOS chip on the 53c825 and rely on SDMS
BIOS support in my motherboard (the 53c825 board's BIOS was old enough
that it didn't recognize the 53c860, and it took precedence over the
motherboard's SDMS BIOS support). If I had an EPROM programmer, or if
the board had a flash BIOS, I'm sure I could have achieved the same end
by putting a newer SDMS BIOS on the 53c825 board.

--
Rod Smith

http://www.users.fast.net/~rodsmith
NOTE: Remove the digit and following word from my address to mail me

by **Frank Mil** » Thu, 09 Jul 1998 04:00:00

>[Posted and mailed]

>>>(http://www.promox.com) has J-Bond boards which work well in my
>>>experience, though they lack flash BIOSes (they've got conventional
>>>EPROMs). Many (but by no means all) places that sell ASUS motherboards
>>>will have the ASUS SC875, which I believe has a flash EEPROM.

>> For those who might occasionally boot into OS/2: J-Bond does not support
>> OS/2, even though NCR/Symbios does.

>Do you mean that J-Bond as a corporate entity doesn't acknowledge the
>existence of OS/2, or do you mean that J-Bond products don't work with
>OS/2? If the latter, my personal experience runs counter to this claim,
>though it's with a 53c860 J-Bond board, not the 53c875 boards being
>discussed. If the former, I don't think this is terribly important since,
>as you say, Symbios does support OS/2, and the J-Bond boards are fairly
>"generic" Symbios-based products, so corporate support from the board
>manufacturer isn't really all that vital.

My experience was with the 53c875 board. It almost worked -- the drive
was recognized, and could be formatted, but choked on reading/writing
files. I talked to J-Bond initially, assuming that Promo-X wouldn't have
the expertise or inclination to talk to me about an OS/2 problem. That
is, I tried to talk to J-Bond. They are good at not returning phone calls,
and when connecting, saying something like, "well, I'm not sure, and my
manager is in Taiwan right now". After a week or two of this I finally
got around to trying Promo-X. They were very helpful and responsive,
were apparently able to get through to the right people at J-Bond, and
fairly quickly told me that the board was not compatible with OS/2.

I had tried changing the BIOS, using the one on the Symbios web site,
but that did no good either. I still need the OS/2 capability for a
few things, the Linux support wasn't sufficient for me.

In contrast, when I got the Buslogic board (and it had a problem, due
to a BIOS bug/interaction with my hardware), Mylex/Buslogic was very
helpful, and rapidly successful in pointing out how to solve the problem
(going back to an older version of the BIOS, downloaded off of their
web site). Great for Linux, too.

Quote:>To bring it back on topic for the Linux newsgroups, I'll reiterate that
>I've had no problems under Linux with a pair of 53c860 boards (one at
>home, one on a system at work) or with a 53c875 board on another work
>system, running Red Hat Linux. All three happen to be J-Bond boards from
>Promo-X. Actually, my home system has TWO 53c8xx boards -- it's also got
>a generic (I believe actually Tyan) 53c825 board. To get it to work with
>the 53c860, I had to yank the BIOS chip on the 53c825 and rely on SDMS
>BIOS support in my motherboard (the 53c825 board's BIOS was old enough
>that it didn't recognize the 53c860, and it took precedence over the
>motherboard's SDMS BIOS support). If I had an EPROM programmer, or if
>the board had a flash BIOS, I'm sure I could have achieved the same end
>by putting a newer SDMS BIOS on the 53c825 board.

-frank

Very Computer

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