Very Computer

Quote:>    Future Domain TMC-950 SCSI-2 Controller (BIOS v8.2)
>    Texcel DM-3024 internal SCSI CD-ROM drive

>Over the past 18 months I have installed various flavours of Linux and each
>installation exhibits the exact same problem with the CD-ROM drive. I can access the
>drive for a while, but eventually it will time-out with various error messages and
>will not be accessible from then onwards until the system is re-booted.

Texel CD ROM drives are utter pieces of crap, riddled with firmware
bugs (example: problems disconnecting and reselecting in a muli-target
environment) and technically legal sillyness (example: extremely long
handshake sequences which allow the watchdog timer on boards like yours
to fire.)

The chip used on Future Domain 8xx/9xx series SCSI boards and the
Seagate ST01/ST02 suffers from serious design flaws, such as a watchdog
timer that doesn't tell you when it's fired.  Needless to say, the software
workarrounds for this are gross, and not fully reliable (you could try
adjusting SLOW_RATE, although there is a chicken-and-egg problem.)

Combine the two, and you have a _real_ problem.

Quote:>As far as I can ascertain, both my controller and CD-ROM drive are supported
>by Linux.

Marginally.

Quote:>Basically I'm ready to throw it in the bin (after jumping up and down on
>it until it's in _really_ little pieces) and buy an IDE drive.

Good  idea.

Quote:>Help!!! Anyone out there who has any idea what's wrong with my setup?

Bad hardware with software workarrounds that aren't working in your
case.

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My configuration consists of:

        486-DX2-66 with 16Mb RAM
        ET4000 VGA vard with 1Mb RAM
        NE2000 compatible ethernet card
        SoundBlaster 16
        2 x 540Mb Maxtor IDE harddrives on AT controller
        Future Domain TMC-950 SCSI-2 Controller (BIOS v8.2)
        Texcel DM-3024 internal SCSI CD-ROM drive

Over the past 18 months I have installed various flavours of Linux and each
installation exhibits the exact same problem with the CD-ROM drive. I can access the
drive for a while, but eventually it will time-out with various error messages and
will not be accessible from then onwards until the system is re-booted.

Most recently I have attempted to install Slackware 3.0 and Red Hat 2.1 (both kernel
1.2.13) and the problem persists. The LILO boot announces that it has found a
TMC-950 controller at 0xCA000,5 and SCSI CD-ROM drive (LU2) which are the correct
settings. Any attempt to install from CD invariably results in the system dying
mid-way thru the installation procedure. In the past I've installed from an MS-DOS
partition but subsequent routine operation of the CD-ROM soon dies.

I have been using the CD for ~2 years under Windows 3.11, Windows 95 and Windows NT
3.5 without ANY problems whatsoever! Windows 95 assures me there is no device IRQ
conflicts in my system (and I'm sure there isn't). I've got termination set properly
on the controller/drive and disabled zero-wait-state operation.

As far as I can ascertain, both my controller and CD-ROM drive are supported by
Linux. As a last resort I tried removing my controller BIOS but then Windows 95
refused to play! I've heard of others using similar setups without problems.
Basically I'm ready to throw it in the bin (after jumping up and down on it until
it's in _really_ little pieces) and buy an IDE drive.

Help!!! Anyone out there who has any idea what's wrong with my setup?

Thanks in advance...

--
|          Mark McDougall          |

| http://www.zeta.org.au/~msmcdoug |    with less resistance!"