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Subject: [comp.os.386bsd] BNR/2 derived BSD for PCs FAQ (Part 9 of 10) Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.announce,comp.answers,news.answers From: burgess@hrd769.brooks.af.mil (Dave Burgess) Date: 31 Mar 1994 21:37:58 -0000 Posted-By: auto-faq 2.4 Archive-name: 386bsd-faq/part9 Section 8. ("Supported" Hardware List) Disclaimer: This list is NOT a commercial oriented effort. It is not an attempt to promote brands of computer machinery; it merely reports "happy" customers. The validity of information supplied is based solely on the validity of the statements made by the contributors. If more information is needed on a particular product please contact the contributor directly via e-mail. 8.0 What hardware is 386BSD known to run on and support! The problem with this section of the FAQ is that software is the only reason that every PC card on the planet does not work. EISA cards are not directly supported; when and if EISA is directly supported, they will give a significant performance advantage to EISA bus machines. As it happens, user who desire more than 16Meg of memory must use either VESA or EISA systems. Even with an EISA system, many users will not be able to use the address space above 16Meg unless their system uses only EISA cards for those devices that need access to DMA. The limitations are covered in another section of the FAQ. Many EISA cards operate in an ISA emulation mode. Notably, the Ultrastore 24F SCSI controller operates in an IDE emulation mode that allows the card to be used in the current system without modification. Most EISA cards that operate in ISA mode will work with 386BSD, NetBSD, or FreeBSD. Like EISA, MCA is unsupported currently; unlike EISA, it can't work until it is supported, as it doesn't fall back to ISA operation. If you want to work on this problem, I'm sure that many people will appreciate it; you will probably need an ISA or EISA machine to do the work, however. 8.1 System brand names 8.2 Motherboards Here is the list of compatible motherboards for 386bsd that I managed to collect off the network. Thanks to all of you who contributed to this effort. If some of you have knowledge of a different motherboard and want to add it to the list please send E-mail either Kostis Dryllerakis (kd@doc.ic.ac.uk) or Dave Burgess (burgess@hrd769.brooks.af.mil). -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Manufacturer : Zeos Country of origin : USA Architecture : ISA (serial/parallel ports and controller on board) Bus Slots : 7 16-bit and 1 8-bit Chipset : Processor/Speed : 486SLC/25 Processor Cache : 8K(?) BIOS : Award w/ built-in setup (no password, though) Max Memory : 16 megs Country of availability : Price estimate : This machine was $1995. (out of production) Points of attention : Other Information : I would most likely not recommend this system, or any other system using a 486SLC...the 16 Meg limit is a real pain. Also, the system has No processor upgrade options (unlike a real 486SX)...the motherboard itself would have to be replaced. :( Contributor : Matt Beal (publius@wam.umd.edu) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Manufacturer : Micronics Country of origin : USA Architecture : ISA Bus Slots : 8 (all 16 bit :-) Chipset : Not Known Processor/Speed : 486/25MHz Processor Cache : 256K BIOS : Phoenix Max Memory : 16Meg Country of availability : Australia (at least) Price estimate : Not Known Points of attention : Other Information : Needed "fixed" boot floppies otherwise system would not boot from hard disk. Contributor : Brett Lymn (blymn@awadi.com.au) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Manufacturer : VOBIS / HIGHSCREEN Country of origin : Germany Architecture : ISA Bus Slots : 8 Chipset : OPTI / uP INTEL Processor/Speed : INTEL 80486 DX 50 Mhz Processor Cache : 256 Kb BIOS : AMI 1992 Max Memory : 32MB Country of availability : Europe Price estimate : 3000 US $ with the following configuration: 486/50 - 8 Mb RAM - HDD 210 Mb - 2 floppies - VGA card - 14" VGA Monitor - DOS/Windows/& other software. Points of attention : I paid 6000 US $ for the following configuration: 486/50 - 16 Mb RAM - SCSI card (Adaptec) 425 Mb SCSI disk - 2 floppies - 1 Mb VGA card (ET4000) - 17" professional monitor etc. The hard drive alone costs 1250 US $, but it is from a third party. The monitor alone (PHILIPS, remarked as VOBIS) costs 1000 US $. All prices are valid in Italy. Other Information : Contributor : Piero Serini (piero@strider.st.dsi.unimi.it) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Manufacturer : OPTI Country of origin : Architecture : ISA Bus Slots : 8 Chipset : OPTI Processor/Speed : 486DX/33 Processor Cache : 256K (can use from 64K - 512K) BIOS : AMI Max Memory : 32M Country of availability : USA, at least Price estimate : $850 (w/ 8M) ?? Points of attention : Make sure cache-able region setting matches actual size of RAM. Probably don't want BIOS shadowing. Other Information : Uses 1- or 4-Meg 80ns SIMMS, in sets of 4. (8 sockets). Contributor : Bill Warner (wtw@wpi.wpi.edu) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Manufacturer : unknown (board is called PAT48SA) Country of origin : unknown Architecture : ISA Bus Slots : 6x 16bit, 1x 8bit Chipset : SIS Processor/Speed : 486 33MHz Processor Cache : 256 KByte BIOS : AMI BIOS Max Memory : 32 MByte Country of availability : Germany (at least) Price estimate : Points of attention : none Other Information : Contributor : Jan Klier, Berlin - Germany (klier.cs.tu-berlin.de) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Manufacturer : NICE USA Country of origin : U.S.A Architecture : ISA Bus Slots : 8 Chipset : Processor/Speed : 486DX/50MHz Processor Cache : 256K BIOS : AMI Max Memory : 32MB Country of availability : Price estimate : Points of attention : Other Information : Contributor : Tom Wye TJW00@charon.amdahl.com -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- ==== EISA MOTHERBOARDS === -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Manufacturer : A.I.R. (Advanced Integration Research, Inc.) Country of origin : San Jose, CA USA Architecture : EISA/Local Bus Bus Slots : 8 Total - 5 EISA, 3 EISA/Local Bus Chipset : SIS Processor/Speed : 486DX33 (20-50mhz) Processor Cache : 256Kb (64-512KB) BIOS : AMI Max Memory : 256MB max using 16M X 36 SIMMS Country of availability : U.S.A Price estimate : $475 US with 256KB cache, No processor or Memory Points of attention : Other Information : Only tested with Tiny Kernel with Adaptec 1542B and ET4000 video card. EISA and Local Bus not tested yet. Will post again with further results. Contributor : Joe Gervais joeg@Novell.com -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Manufacturer : NICE Country of origin : USA Architecture : EISA/Local Bus Bus Slots : 8 total - 5 ISA + 2 EISA/VLB + 1 EISA Chipset : HiNT Processor/Speed : 486DX/50MHZ Processor Cache : 256K BIOS : AMI Max Memory : 128MB Country of availability : USA Price estimate : $950 + memory Points of attention : none Other Information : easy boot, mini AT footprint easy boot, sudden death. first motherboard failed after one week due to temperature sensitive component. Contributor : duncan@zycad.com (Donald Duncan) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Manufacturer : Partner (according to supplier - board is unlabeled) Country of origin : Taiwan Architecture : EISA Bus Slots : 8 Chipset : Opti Processor/Speed : 486 DX2 66 Processor Cache : 8k internal 256k on board BIOS : AMI Max Memory : 32Mb Country of availability : UK Price estimate : 599 ex VAT including (necessary) heat sink for 486. Points of attention : Board works with 386BSD straight out of the box with defaults.. When adding memory you must use the BIOS setup to make all of the new RAM cache-able. Other Information : This board is cheap and it works. I got mine from Jupiter Systems (081 570 1011). They do a fairly wide range of boards and accessories. See Micro Mart for an advert. Contributor : David James (dwj@btcase.bt.co.uk dwj@doc.ic.ac.uk) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Manufacturer : Synerco, Inc. Richardson Texas (214) 669-0023 Country of origin : U.S.A. Architecture : EISA Bus Slots : 8 Chipset : SOYO Motherboard Processor/Speed : Intel/486/66MHz Processor Cache : 256K BIOS : 1990 American Megatrends Max Memory : 32 MB Country of availability : Dallas, Texas, U.S.A. Price estimate : US 3,000 Points of attention : Other Information : 1 IO card with /dev/com1=DB9 and /dev/com2=DB25 EtherCard PLUS "Elite16 Series" (io base=0x280, irq=2,iomem=0xd000) (jumper change to SOFT) (Do NOT use default setting, must use) (SMC SuperDisk a:ezsetup to adjust) Logitech MouseMan Serial Mouse (M/N: M-CJ13 -9F) plug in /dev/com1 Contributor : Jongjay Liou (jongjay@mistxt.oc.com) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Manufacturer : Gateway2000 Country of origin : U.S.A. Architecture : EISA Bus Slots : 8 (6 master and 2 slave?) Chipset : Processor/Speed : 486DX2-66E Processor Cache : 8 k internal 128 k external BIOS : Award (?) Max Memory : 16MB Country of availability : U.S.A. Price estimate : $4750 Points of attention : (Set Adaptec 1740 SCSI to "standard" mode) Other Information : Contributor : Daniel Ortmann <ortmann@plains.NoDak.edu> -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Manufacturer : Micronics Model: 5050-00-ICP/E2/256 Revision: A-1, plus rework ECN E2A07 to fix CMOS/clock problem Country of origin : USA/Taiwan Architecture : EISA & Local Bus Bus Slots : 8 EISA. 6 are bus master capable, two are not. One of the slots that can not be used for a bus master has a connector at the other end for a local bus card. So, for this slot you decide whether to plug in an EISA card or a local bus card. Chipset : Intel 357, Intel 358, and a Micronics ASIC. Processor/Speed : 486DX50 Processor Cache : 256 KB external secondary cache, 8 KB internal BIOS : Phoenix 80486/EISA, ROM BIOS PLUS version 1.01.23-2 Max Memory : 64MB Country of availability : Price estimate : $1700.00 US Points of attention : Other Information : built in floppy controller, 1 parallel port, and two serial ports. Contributor : Chris Shaker (shaker@cisco.com) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 8.3 Video cards Card: Manufacturer: Price: Bus: Comments: Card: MGA Manufacturer: ? Price: $10 Bus: ISA 8/16 Comments: Good if you want only text mode in one window, virtually unusable in X. Card: TVGA Manufacturer: Trident Price: $30 - $70 Bus: ISA Comments: Good for multiscreen consoles (pcvt, syscons), but sloooow for 'X'. Some cards with this chipset have a bug preventing them from being used with XFree86. Card: ET3000 Manufacturer: Tseng Labs/Taiwan Price: $40 - $90 Bus: ISA 8/16 Comments: Good for text and 'X'. A bit slow. Card: ET4000 Manufacturer: Tseng Labs/Taiwan Price: $45 - $110 Bus: ISA 8/16, VLB, EISA Comments: Good for text and 'X'. The fastest 'dumb' (unaccelerated) card. Avoid Diamond cards, because of their proprietary clock programming. Diamond is unsupported under XFree. Card: ET4000/32 Manufacturer: Tseng Labs/Taiwan, Hercules Price: $65 - $130 Bus: ISA 16, VLB, EISA Comments: Good for text and 'X'. Some of the early cards have a hardware bug and don't work well with XFree86. Avoid Diamond cards, because of their proprietary clock programming. They are unsupported in XFree86. Card: S3/801, S3/805 Manufacturer: ? Price: $100 - $200 Bus: ISA 16, VLB, EISA Comments: Good for 'X' and text. Popular accelerated video cards. Available with 1 to 2 MB of RAM, VRAM, or DRAM. If you want hhigh resolution, get one that uses VRAM. Card: S3/928 Manufacturer: Miro, ELSA Price: $250 - $500 Bus: ISA 16, VLB, EISA Comments: Good for text and 'X'. Popular accelerated video card. Available with 1 to 4 MB or VRAM or DRAM. For highest resolutions, get VRAM. Supports resolutions up to 1280x1024@60-70Hz. It is twice as fast as the the S3/80x. It is about as fast as a Sparc II with GX adapters. Support for 'low-end' VGA cards is typically poor. Resolutions of less then 800x600 should be avoided. 8.4 Mice Mice are not supported, per se, in the Operating System. They do make the GUI for 'X' a great deal less challenging. The following mice are supported in 'X' and are therefore supported by the free BSD systems: Microsoft mouse Mouse Systems mouse Logitech serial mouse PS/2 bus mouse requires a special driver that is included in the current source trees. 8.5 Serial Cards As a general rule, you should avoid a serial card that either does not use a 16550 UART, or does not have a chip that you can swap out to install one. The 16550 will prevent many silo overflows that can occur with high speed modems. 8.5.1 How do I configure multiport cards? Patchkit 0.2.4 has introduced the possibility to use multiport serial boards. How do you configure an AST/4 in the kernel? The AST/4 and its clone multiport cards can run on 386BSD using patchkit 0.2.4 and later. The only problems seem to be that the code in sioprobe() and sioattach() in sio.c needs to be hacked to get it to properly detect the ports and then recognize the type of UARTs installed (16550As). The code segment that is causing the problem is included below: The test in the sio.c driver (in the sioattach() routine) that is causing it to *think* it is a 8250 is: scr = inb(iobase + com_scr); outb(iobase + com_scr, 0xa5); scr1 = inb(iobase + com_scr); outb(iobase + com_scr, 0x5a); scr2 = inb(iobase + com_scr); outb(iobase + com_scr, scr); if (scr1 != 0xa5 || scr2 != 0x5a) <--- this is it! printf(" <8250>"); This test seems to be depending upon the absence of the com_scr register in the 8250 (iobase+7). Unfortunately, the AST 4-port card uses this last register of the last UART for interrupt status (for the 4 UARTs), hence the last port of the 4 fails the test. The easiest fix is to simply delete this test in your copy of sio.c (If you *know* that you have no 8250s). The Bocaboard (BB1008) fails the same way on *all* 8 of its ports (the +7 address register is replicated for each port according to the documentation). There are also some problems with another test in the if statement: if ( inb(iobase + com_cfcr) != CFCR_8BITS || inb(iobase + com_ier) != IER_ETXRDY || inb(iobase + com_mcr) != MCR_IENABLE || !isa_irq_pending(dev) <--- this one fails! || (inb(iobase + com_iir) & IIR_IMASK) != IIR_TXRDY || isa_irq_pending(dev) || (inb(iobase + com_iir) & IIR_IMASK) != IIR_NOPEND) result = 0; in the sioprobe() routine for a couple of the ports on the 4-port card. Again, the fix is simply to remove that particular test and everything seems to be okay. These are admittedly pretty ugly hacks, but when you're in a pinch to the system back up... What you need in the config file is: sio0 -> COM1 sio1 -> COM2 (both should be recognized and work just fine) sio2 @ 0x1a0 irq 9 flags 0x0501 sio3 @ 0x1a8 irq 9 flags 0x0501 sio4 @ 0x1b0 irq 9 flags 0x0501 sio5 @ 0x1b8 irq 9 flags 0x0501 Other folks have reported that their configuration looks very similar to this, though they are using irq 5 for the 4-port card. (above paraphrased from Bob Willcox, et al) 8.5.2 Now that I have FreeBSD 1.0 installed, how do I set up the serial ports for bi-directional use? Thanks to Lyn Kennedy (lrk@k5qwb.lonestar.org) for the advice about the cua devices and their minor numbers. He worked out much of this without docs. In order to get the comm ports working, I decided to run the sio driver (heard it is faster and more capable than com). In order to get it set up, this is what I did. 1. I have four com ports assigned to the addresses and interrupt lines that are standard for DOS COM1, COM2, COM3, and COM4. I have the following lines in the file used to specify the config for the kernel build: device sio0 at isa? port "IO_COM1" tty irq 4 vector siointr device sio1 at isa? port "IO_COM2" tty irq 3 vector siointr device sio2 at isa? port "IO_COM3" tty irq 5 vector siointr device sio3 at isa? port "IO_COM4" tty irq 9 vector siointr I also enabled the use of com ports for either call in or call out by selecting the bi-directional option. The following line in the config file causes the proper code to be compiled in the driver. options "COM_BIDIR" #Bidirectional support in sys/isa/sio.c 2. After building the kernel, I made sure the devices were represented in /dev. MAKEDEV should be used to create the tty0[0-3] special devices. It will result in entries such as the following: 0 crw------- 1 root wheel 28, 0 Nov 8 06:28 tty00 0 crw------- 1 root wheel 28, 1 Nov 8 10:09 tty01 0 crw------- 1 root wheel 28, 2 Nov 7 01:13 tty02 0 crw------- 1 root wheel 28, 3 Nov 8 03:02 tty03 Then mknod and chown should be used to create the following four entries: 0 crw-rw-r-- 1 uucp dialer 28, 128 Nov 8 03:45 cua00 0 crw-rw-r-- 1 uucp dialer 28, 129 Nov 7 18:34 cua01 0 crw-rw-r-- 1 uucp dialer 28, 130 Nov 7 17:29 cua02 0 crw-rw-r-- 1 uucp dialer 28, 131 Nov 8 03:15 cua03 The tty0[0-3] entries are used to receive calls on (with the bidirectional code, this is signalled because the most significant bit in the minor number is 0). The cua0[0-3] entries represent the same ports as the corresponding tty ports, but with the most significant bit of the minor number turned on. This indicates to the driver that this port is a call out port. The reason for the ownership being set to uucp:dialer is because I have all programs that use dialers (uucico, kermit, tip, etc.) set to operate as set-uid with uucp as owner. Also all of these programs are set up as being in group dialer with group dialer membership being required to execute them. 3. One further step needs to be done to allow proper use of the ports. In rc.local, the last few lines include the following: comcontrol /dev/tty00 bidir comcontrol /dev/tty01 bidir comcontrol /dev/tty02 bidir comcontrol /dev/tty03 bidir 4. Now I set up getty to use the incoming ports with the following entries in /etc/ttys: tty00 "/usr/libexec/getty std.19200" unknown on secure tty01 "/usr/libexec/getty std.4800" unknown on secure tty02 "/usr/libexec/getty std.4800" unknown on secure tty03 "/usr/libexec/getty std.19200" unknown on secure 5. I set up the port file for uucp, the remote file for tip, and the .kermrc file for kermit to refer to the cua0[0-3] devices for call out targets. 6. Note that I have modems on cua/tty 00 and 03. My modems are set up to adjust the baud rate of the call (in or out) by negotiating with the other modem in the call. However the modems always retain the same speed (19,200 Kb) for the rs-232 port. In order to make the modems use the proper speed, I have to send them an AT sequence at the desired speed. They will then retain that setting for incoming calls. So, to do this, I include the following at the end of my rc.local script: /usr/local/bin/initcua00 /usr/local/bin/initcua03 and in /usr/local/bin, I have the two scripts like (this is the one for initcua00): #!/usr/local/bin/kermit set modem hayes set line /dev/cua00 set speed 19200 dial XXXXXXX <----------- it's own number to get busy quit 8.6 Disk Controllers There is no real list of supported wd-driver controllers. The list would be far longer than I am willing to type. Suffice it to say that virtually every know IDE/ESDI/MFM/RLL hard drive controller available works. There are occasional reports that the driver for this particular type of disk drive is "broken", but it is hard to substantiate this. There are a few known "gotchas" with this particular controller, but they are fixed as soon as they are found. 8.7 SCSI Controllers The list of "supported" hard drive controllers is very short. Basically, it is any hard drive controller that emulates a standard IDE/ESDI/MFM controller and a few SCSI controllers. The short list is included below: Adaptec 1540[ABC] ISA SCSI No Floppy Adaptec 1542[ABC] ISA SCSI Ultrastore 14F ISA SCSI Ultrastore 24F EISA SCSI Supported in IDE mode Ultrastore 34F VLB SCSI Buslogic BT742A EISA SCSI Buslogin BT445S VLB SCSI Note that the Ultrastore 24F is supported with an experimental driver or in IDE emulation mode only. Any controller that purports to be a clone of one of the cards listed above will usually work as well. 8.8 Network Cards 8.9 Printers 8.10 TAPE Drives Editor's note: This tapedrive list is maintained by the original authors. If you have additions, corrections, changes, or deletions, please be sure to contact the folks listed in the next paragraph. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Attn: QIC-40/80 users: The QIC-40/80 Driver is reading and writing QIC-40/80 tapes on FreeBSD. Formatting and verifying has yet to be written. The latest version of the QIC-40/80 floppy tape driver is now available at ftp.gte.com:/pub/ft/dist0.3/dist0.3.tgz. This release includes support for the newer floppy driver with FreeBSD. (thanks to cgd for the info) If anyone has information about QIC-40/80 tape drives working (or not) with the ft driver, please forward it and we'll include it in the FAQ. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ These tape drives have been reported as working (or not working) on 386BSD, NetBSD or FreeBSD, either in articles on USENET or in response to previous postings. If you know any more details, want to point out errors, know another tape drive works (or doesn't), have any suggestions for additions/changes to the FAQ, or anything else useful, please send your reports to: andrew@noware.ocunix.on.ca (Andrew Cornwall) or rsk@ecs.soton.ac.uk (Bob Kemp) PLEASE HELP TO 08 Feb 1994 THIS LIST BY PROVIDING COMMENTS AND NEW INFO. IN RETURN, WE WILL POST UPDATES AND TRY TO MAKE THE LIST AVAILABLE TO ANYONE INTERESTED. IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: This list is not guaranteed to be 100% correct. We don't know much about tape drives as yet, so we are only collating information provided by others. By getting feedback on this list, we hope to improve it into an FAQ. EVEN MORE IMPORTANT THANK-YOU: Thanks to everyone who's contributed to this list. Without your help, it wouldn't exist! ------------------------------------------------------------------- Changes to: Archive 2525-S Additions: Conner C250MQT Tandberg TDC-3800 Wangtek 5099EK =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Important stuff: >From: juliane@au.gov.wa.dcd >It should be noted that I am rewritung the scsi system`(new version >out in beta) and that what works with what may change. > >julian Some people have had problems using SCSI tapes. The newest SCSI code fixes several problems; if you have trouble, try upgrading your SCSI driver. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- The latest versions of FreeBSD/NetBSD will use compatible SCSI code. Hence, what works with one should work with the other. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- MANUFACTURER CONTACTS: Archive is a Maynard company bought by Conner Sales: +1 714 641 0279 Technical: +1 800 227 6296 [informant: mq8qc@qcunix.acc.qc.edu (KARAGEORGIOU ANGELOS)] ------------------------------------------------------------------- COMPATIBLE TAPE DRIVES: Format of each entry is as follows: Name: {name of the device; if you're reporting, please be as specific as possible} Capacity: {Maximum size of the device} Approx Cost: {Roughly what you paid} Interface: {How it talks to the machine - SCSI, PC bus, etc} Controllers: {What controller you're using - Adaptec 1542B, etc} Informant: {Who says it works} Comments: {Anything good or bad you feel like saying} Name: Archive 2060 Capacity: 60MB Approx Cost: US$200 Interface: SCSI Controllers: Adaptec 1542b, Adaptec 1742a Informant: duncan@zycad.com Comments: no observed problems when used with julian's drivers. works fine with 1542b/1742a Name: Archive 2150 Capacity: 250Mb Approx cost: US$350-500 Interface: SCSI Controllers: Adaptec 1542b, Adaptec 1742a Informant: ejh@slustl.slu.edu (Eric J. Haug) admerlev@cip.e-technik.uni-erlangen.de (me 8-)) duncan@zycad.com jfieber@sophia.smith.edu Comments: works well with both the driver in the distribution kernel and julians' SCSI drivers. [ejh] nice device!!!, works like a charm, tar w/ original scsi-driver plus variable block length patch, under DOS: GTAR, ASPIBIN (ASPI-TAR), PCTOOLS 8.0, COREL-SCSI works fine with julian's drivers and 1542b/1742a [admerlev/duncan] and with Adaptec 1542C + Julian's SCSI drivers [jfieber] S version (SCSI?) runs under FreeBSD:CombsSF@Salem.GE.COM 2150S also known as Viper 150 Name: Archive 2150L Capacity: 150 Mb, 120 Mb Interface: QIC-02 Controllers: Archive Viper SC402 Informant: vak@kiae.su (Serge Vakulenko) Comments: Works well, with new wt driver (by me and Sergey Ryzhkov). Supports 150Mb and 120 Mb formats on write and 150Mb, 120Mb and 60Mb formats on read. It's possible to use mt command to rewind the tape, seek file forward etc. It's not a problem in the SCSI code. It's a firmware bug in (at least) the Archive Viper 150. Data can be appended only if the drive is ``totally sure'' that the tape is at end of recorded medium. This could be achieved by issuing a `space to end of recorded medium' command. Unfortunately, the recent version of Julian's SCSI driver doesn't support this. (Future versions might do.) As a workaround, it's possible to ``mt fsf'' after the last tape file, then issue another ``mt fsf'', which will result in an IO error (SCSI blank check, `no data found' appears on console), that should be ignored. At this point, the tape could be written to! - joerg_wunsch@tcd-dresden.de Name: Archive 2525-S (Firmware Rev. 25462-007 - seems to be important [nbladt]) Capacity: QIC-24, QIC-120, QIC-150, QIC-525 Approx Cost: ca. 1000,- DM (about US$ 600 ?) Interface: SCSI-1 Controllers: Adaptec 1542B, Adaptec 1542C, Adaptec 1742A, Adaptec 1742B Informant: nbladt@autelca.ascom.ch (Norbert Bladt) hm@hcshh.hcs.de (Hellmuth Michaelis) loodvrij%cyb@fredbox.cts.com (Bruce J. Keeler) musashi@com.netcom (Irving Moy) Comments: In contrary to what my dealer told me, it can read and WRITE QIC-150 tapes. Didn't have a chance to try QIC-120, or QIC-60, etc. yet. I am using 386bsd-0.1 (still with the first patchkit and all updates from Julian for his fabulous SCSI-driver kit) Sorry, no experience with the original driver because that driver doesn't work with the 1742A. [nbladt] Worked with Julian's driver out of the box. [hm] Since putting in Julian's drivers, with Dave Tweten's mods, it seems to work just fine. [loodvrij] Name: Cipher Model 540 Capacity: 45M/60M (probably/hopefully) Approx Cost: Loaned to me in `vintage appearance' (Much dust) - No idea ! Interface: SCSI 1 Controllers: Adaptec 1542B Informant: Julian Stacey <stacey@guug.de> Comments: Shows promise, Cant yet call it truly usefull though: The Good Bit: I have seen it stream constantly on 386bsd. The Bad Bit: I can't use it as a usefull drive because it keeps dropping out with errors. The fault does not lie in the media, & most probably not with external power supply or scsi cable - I'm working on it. Name: CIPHER MicroStreamer F880 (1600bpi, 9 track PERTEC interface) Capacity: ??? Approx Cost: $5000 for the drive in 1985 $1000 for protocol Converter 1992 Interface: SCSI Controllers: Adaptec AHA-1542A to NCR ADP-53 to tape drive Informant: mike@scrooge.uoregon.edu (Mike Hoffman) Comments: It is FAST, reads tape about the same speed as rewind. The SCSI controller runs the 9 track drive thru the converter and an Archive 2060S 60mb Cartridge tape drive directly. After putting in the current patches and reading the PERTEC Specs it was almost "plug and play". The ADP-53 is a protocol converter from/to SCSI/PERTEC, purchased from Laguna Data Systems (see Byte Magazine). Problems: mt does not seem to be of much use. Forward spacing the 9 track tape is an iffy job (skipping the label on a labeled tape). dd now does this (skip=1). I always get the error 'cannot prevent/allow'. This is not a big deal (prevent or allow removal of tape). dd does not handle cr/lf at all well. Could be all the protocol conversions or gnu dd just doesn't do it. All files are read in as one line(no CR Lf etc). The blocking and conversion options have no effect on line length. Conversion from EBCDIC to ASCII works fine. A small program to break up the file solves the long line problem. Name: Cipher ST-150F Capacity: 150Mb Approx cost: US$300 (incl. interface) Interface: QIC-02 Controllers: Cipher Informant: hideki@isl.rdc.toshiba.co.jp (YOSHIDA Hideki) Comments: works well with blocksize <= 4b Name: Cipher ST150-S Capacity: QIC-24(read only), QIC-120, QIC-150 Approx Cost: 1300,- DM (long ago ..) Interface: SCSI (better SCSI-I or CCS) Controllers: Adaptec 1542B, 1742 Informant: Hellmuth Michaelis (hm@hcshh.hcs.de) Comments: This drive responds with empty strings if asked for for it's vendors name and model. It has a strange format of the mode sense/set command blocks. By default, it reports a soft error back to the host which makes it a bit hard to work with. Problems solved with next release of Julian Elischer's enhanced SCSI driver (currently beta, July '93). oyang@bruce.cs.monash.edu.au reports an upgrade which involves a new ROM and cutting some traces. The drive responds: CIPHER : Model ST150S2 Rev: 2.0 ANSI SCSI rev: 01 when asked for it's vendors names and model. Name: COMTEK Gigatape 1200 4mm external DAT Capacity: 1.2 Gb Approx Cost: US$800 Interface: SCSI 1 Controllers: Adaptec 1542B Informant: Rich@rice.edu Comments: Uses formatted, fixed blocksize tapes. Only partial success writing about 400Mb so far. Name: Conner C250MQT Capacity: 250 MB compressed, 125 not Approx Cost: approx $200 Interface: Uses floppy disk controller on PC. Controller: ? Informant: tpw@ruth.ece.psu.edu (Tom Weldon) Comments: Maybe it works, but i couldnt get it to talk to 386BSD with GENERICISA kernel. Name: DEC TZ30 Capacity: 96 MB (uses 3M CompacTape cartridges) Approx cost: Interface: SCSI Controllers: Adaptec 154xB Informant: davidb@otto.bf.rmit.oz.au (David Burren) May 1993 Comments: Works with Julian's SCSI drivers. Console reports "cannot prevent/allow" but this is not a problem. This is the native-SCSI half-height version of DEC's TK50Z drive. Name: DEC TZ857 Capacity: 18.2 GB (stacker unit with seven 2.6 GB CompacTape III tapes) Approx cost: lots Interface: SCSI Controllers: Adaptec 154xB Informant: davidb@otto.bf.rmit.oz.au (David Burren) May 1993 Comments: Works with Julian's SCSI drivers. As with the TZ30, "cannot prevent/allow" is reported but operation continues. As 386bsd has no "mt online" yet, cartridge loading is done manually, but unloading/advancing is done through "mt offline" as under Ultrix. I don't really use this drive, but I had access to it for a day and tried it out... Name: Exabyte 8200 8mm Capacity: 2.2 GB Approx cost: Interface: SCSI Controllers: Adaptec 154xB Informant: davidb@otto.bf.rmit.oz.au (David Burren) May 1993 todd@flex.eng.mcmaster.ca (Todd Pfaff) Nov 1993 Comments: Works perfectly with Julian's SCSI drivers. I use it all the time for my system dumps and for exchanging files with other machines. Works great with FreeBSD-1.0-RELEASE although 'mt -status' doesn't work properly. Name: Hewlett-Packard HP35480A DAT drive Capacity: 4 GB Approx Cost: $1400 Interface: SCSI Controllers: Adaptec 1542B Informant: karl@neosoft.com Comments: Great drive, flawless performance. Requires variable length tapedrive patches which should be in the patchkit, but I haven't checked. (They were submitted around November of '92) Name: Sankyo ST525 Capacity: 525 Mbyte Approx Cost: 6000 SEK (US$850) Interface: SCSI (SCSI-2) Controllers: Adaptec 1542B Informant: jonas@carmen.volvo.se (Jonas Lagerblad) Comments: everything works allright except for one crash The SCSI bus seemed hang after running "dump 0uf - /dev/rsd0a | gzip --best | dd of=/dev/rst0 bs=64k" for approx 1 hour. If I skip the compression everything works perfectly. (I am using Julian's SCSI driver) 386BSD-0.1 patchkit 0.2 patches 0-110 Name: Sony SDT-1000 DAT Capacity: 2 GB on a 90 meter tape Approx. Cost: about $600 now, $3500 when purchased 3 yrs ago Interface: SCSI (SCSI-2 also) Controllers: Adaptec 1542B Informant: steve@molly.dny.rockwell.com Comments: I have used it under 386BSD 0.1 and NetBSD 0.8. Under 386BSD, it didn't support all of the ioctl functions, but works without a hitch under NetBSD. I use it to do tar data backups and restores as well as interchanging data with an H-P 9000/755 using the HPUX tar command. Name: Tandberg 3600 series Capacity: Approx cost: Interface: Controllers: Informant: fredriks@austin.ibm.com (Lars Fredriksen) Comments: IN DEVELOPMENT. So far I have it working with fixed and variable block micro code (original Tandberg vs. IBM firmware). I am adding support for selecting densities for the minor devices via IOCTLS,as well as setting the fixed blocksize via IOCTL. This work is almost done, and I will send the driver to julian. I see him as the distributor of fixes to his own code. So far I have not had any problems reading 30/60/150/250 Mb tapes. similarly no problems writing 150/250 Mb tapes. Name: Tandberg 3660 Capacity: 250Mb Approx cost: Interface: Controllers: Informant: Per Anders Olausson <pao@cd.chalmers.se> meidinge@isar.de(Thomas Meidinger) Comments: DC6250, DC6150 (not tested) and DC600A. Reads and writes DC-6120 as well. [pao] Name: Tandberg TDC-3800 5.25" SCSI-1 325MB TBU Capacity: up to 520Mb (depending on media) uncompressed Approx cost: Didn't buy it new. Interface: SCSI-1 Controllers: AHA1542B Informant: vax@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (VaX#n8) Comments: Would not work with base 386bsd-0.1 kernel. After applying patch kit, everything worked fine. Only tested reads on 250MB, reads and writes on 325MB, and reads and writes on 525MB. Works great. Also fine under NetBSD-0.9. Even got "aspitar" from wuarchive to read tars from DOS. Don't mix 525 and 325MB tapes though, causes heads to wear out fast. Coexists with SCSI-2 drives just fine. Wouldn't trade it for anything but a SCSI DAT or 8mm.Even then, I would have to think about it. Name: Tandberg 3820 5 1/4" HH internal QIC 525 SCSI streamer Capacity: up to 520Mb (depending on media) uncompressed Approx cost: (I bought mine two years ago--it wasn't cheap :-) Interface: SCSI-1/2 Controllers: AHA1542B, 1742A, DTC3290 Informant: tmh@first.gmd.de (Thomas M. Hoberg) stacey@guug.de (Julian Stacey) tomb@gator.bocaraton.ibm.com (Thomas Bagli) Comments: Works well with both the driver in the distribution kernel and julians' SCSI drivers. Reads all QIC media (tested QIC 40/60/120/150/525) Writes QIC 120/150/250/320/525 (120/150/525 tested) Includes a 256k buffer. 2 rw speeds: 83k/s for QIC<320, 200k/sec for 320+ Occasionally the file system can't keep up at 200k/sec on backups (small files), somewhat more often on restores. The drive can directly seek to any block on the tape, so in theory at least with the appropriate device drive you could mount a file system on it (you better keep fragmentation low :-) As you can guess, I am EXTREMELY happy with it. [tmh] The Good Bit: It streams constantly without error (~40mins for 525M write @ 60K blocking). Tape drive shares bus with 3 SCSI-2 Seagate drives also OK with a SCSI-1 Micropolis 1684-7. The Bad Bit: We (several us of using these TDC3820s on different hardware) have undergone an eerom + eprom autodensity upgrade to allow 150M writes (previously could only read 150M tapes +r&w 525M); this known as Revision 04908, Done 92 08 28. There is some kind of block size problem that prevents us reliably exchanging 525M tapes, 150M seems OK, problem is tape hardware oriented I believe, not 386BSD specific. Problem pre-existed the 150M write capability upgrade. A friend with same 386bsd + TDC3820 + 1542A can't read my tapes, neither can a PCS (M68000 based) computer with a TDC3820 [stacey] We paid DM1000 (~$625) in early 1991. This was a very special price, and I estimate that the actual cost would be (very) approximately 50% more (~$950). I've used it with an Adaptec 1742A, a DTC3290 (caching 1542B emulation), and a Mylex ?376? (caching, but only under DOS) SCSI controllers. It doesn't just stream, it screams. I've never seen a streamer that just streams without a pause, rewind or such. This one does (not to say that the Tandberg is the sole reason for this). [tomb] Name: WangDAT 3200 Capacity: 2Gb (up to 8Gb w/compression) on a 90 meter tape Approx cost: US$1200-$1300 approx Interface: SCSI Controllers: Informant: conklin@talisman.kaleida.com (J.T. Conklin) cgd@postgres.Berkeley.edu Comments: Works great with Julian's SCSI drivers and an Adaptec 1742... (I use it to do my dumps, and I've actually checked and made sure the restores work... 8-) [cgd] Name: Wangtek 5099EK Capacity: 60M Approx cost: Interface: PC/QIC-36 Controllers: Informant: robsch@robkaos.GUN.de (Robert Schien) Comments: The wt.c driver, which is delivered with FreeBSD-EPSILON, does not work with my Wangtek 5099EK (60 MB) tape drive. This drive has a PC/QIC-36 interface and it worked fine with ESIX 5.3.2D (For testing I tried SCO Xenix and ISC 2.2.1 and it worked with these OSs, too). With the driver in 386bsd-0.1, I could read tapes, but not write. With the "improved" driver, I could neither read nor write (all minor devices tried). The solution was a driver from someone in Sweden (his name is Mikael Hybsch (sp?)), which worked for me already with 386bsd-0.1. Name: Wangtek 5099EN Capacity: Approx cost: Interface: Controllers: Informant: Original 386bsd.FAQ Comments: Name: Wangtek 5099SC24, this is a QIC drive (same mechanical drive as 5099EN24) with a QIC24 to SCSI board by wangtek full height Capacity: 60Mb w/DC600A, 100Mb w/DC6250 Approx cost: Used as is drives US$25.00/each, refurbs ~US$100.00 Interface: SCSI Controllers: Adaptec 1542B Informant: rgrimes@agora.rain.com Comments: works well with both the driver in the distribution kernel and julians' SCSI drivers. Very old full height driver readily availiable in the surplus market. I know where there are 50 or so of these for $25.00/each as is, they are pulls from old workstations. Name: Wangtek 5150EQ Capacity: 250MB (QIC-150) Approx cost: 400 UK pounds including software for DOS Interface: QIC-02 Controllers: Wangtek QIC-02 included Informant: kd@doc.ic.ac.uk (K J Dryllerakis) Comments: Works with stock driver. Very very slow but reliable. Funny, it only seems to work if you use /dev/wt0 instead of /dev/rwt0. New driver in beta version by micke@dynas.se (Mikael Hybsch). Name: Wangtek 5150ES Capacity: 250Mb Approx cost: Interface: SCSI Controllers: Adaptec 1542B Informant: berry@max.IN-Berlin.DE (Stefan Behrens) duncan@zycad.com (Don) Comments: [With original 0.1 SCSI ...] it streams constantly and works without any errors. Works with original as.c driver and with newer drivers from Julian [eg in patchkit 0.2.4]. [berry] Does not work with the 1742a and 386bsd!!!!! SCSI driver compatibility problems. [duncan, ~Jun'93] NOTE: with the latest patchkit Stefan Behrens [berry] has reported that Julian's SCSI now works with it. No update yet on 1742A behaviour. Name: Wangtek 5525ES Capacity: 525M Approx cost: US$600, CDN$1000 Interface: Adaptec 1542B, Adaptec 1742 Controllers: SCSI Informant: bky@eco.twg.com (Brian Yasaki) andrew@noware.ocunix.on.ca (Andrew Cornwall) Comments: Writes QIC120, 150, 250, 525. Reads QIC24 as well (untested). Works with the distribution kernel. Name: Wangtek QT60 (aka Tecmar QT60) Capacity: 60M Approx cost: Interface: QIC 02 Informant: tcombs@pacific.urbana.mcd.mot.com (Tim Combs) Comments: It works although does not stream under 386BSD 0.1 END OF COMPATIBLE TAPE DRIVE LIST --- Andrew Cornwall andrew@noware.ocunix.on.ca Article 198 of comp.os.386bsd.announce: Path: cynjut.ogisd.ess.harris.com!hrd769.brooks.af.mil!natinst.com!cs.utexas.edu!math.ohio-state.edu!magnus.acs.ohio-state.edu!usenet.ins.cwru.edu!agate!agate!usenet From: Bob Kemp <rsk@ecs.southampton.ac.uk> Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.announce Subject: *BSD-compatible tape drive list Followup-To: poster Date: 14 Jan 1994 12:53:54 -0800 Organization: University of California, Berkeley Lines: 571 Sender: cgd@agate.berkeley.edu Approved: 386bsd-announce-request@agate.berkeley.edu Expires: 27 Mar 1994 20:34:06 GMT Message-ID: <tapes_758406846@landin.ecs.soton.ac.uk> NNTP-Posting-Host: agate.berkeley.edu [ note that the poster didn't supply a subject; the one on this message is of my creation. -- cgd ] *** NB: This list is now also included in the {386,Net,Free}BSD FAQ maintained by Dave Burgess. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ These tape drives have been reported as working (or not working) on 386BSD, NetBSD or FreeBSD, either in articles on USENET or in response to previous postings. If you know any more details, want to point out errors, know another tape drive works (or doesn't), have any suggestions for additions/changes to the FAQ, or anything else useful, please send your reports to: andrew@noware.ocunix.on.ca (Andrew Cornwall) or rsk@ecs.soton.ac.uk (Bob Kemp) PLEASE HELP TO 08 Feb 1994 THIS LIST BY PROVIDING COMMENTS AND NEW INFO. IN RETURN, WE WILL POST UPDATES AND TRY TO MAKE THE LIST AVAILABLE TO ANYONE INTERESTED. IMPORTANT DISCLAIMER: This list is not guaranteed to be 100% correct. We don't know much about tape drives as yet, so we are only collating information provided by others. By getting feedback on this list, we hope to improve it into an FAQ. EVEN MORE IMPORTANT THANK-YOU: Thanks to everyone who's contributed to this list. Without your help, it wouldn't exist! ------------------------------------------------------------------- Changes to: Sankyo ST525 Additions: Wangtek 6200-HS =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- CORRECTION: From the Dec93 tapes list: > The latest versions of FreeBSD/NetBSD will use compatible SCSI code. > Hence, what works with one should work with the other. Apparently, this is incorrect. As a consequence, when you submit an entry, please say which operating system you are using. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Format of each entry is as follows: Name: {name of the device; if you're reporting, please be as specific as possible} Capacity: {Maximum size of the device} Approx Cost: {Roughly what you paid} Interface: {How it talks to the machine - SCSI, PC bus, etc} Controllers: {What controller you're using - Adaptec 1542B, etc} Informant: {Who says it works} Comments: {Anything good or bad you feel like saying} *** Please state in the Comments field which operating system you *** are using and which version. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- MANUFACTURER CONTACTS: Archive is a Maynard company bought by Conner Sales: +1 714 641 0279 Technical: +1 800 227 6296 [informant: mq8qc@qcunix.acc.qc.edu (KARAGEORGIOU ANGELOS)] =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- COMPATIBLE TAPE DRIVES: Name: Archive 2060 Capacity: 60MB Approx Cost: US$200 Interface: SCSI Controllers: Adaptec 1542b, Adaptec 1742a Informant: duncan@zycad.com Comments: no observed problems when used with julian's drivers. works fine with 1542b/1742a Name: Archive 2150 Capacity: 250Mb Approx cost: US$350-500 Interface: SCSI Controllers: Adaptec 1542b, Adaptec 1742a Informant: ejh@slustl.slu.edu (Eric J. Haug) admerlev@cip.e-technik.uni-erlangen.de (me 8-)) duncan@zycad.com jfieber@sophia.smith.edu Comments: works well with both the driver in the distribution kernel and julians' SCSI drivers. [ejh] nice device!!!, works like a charm, tar w/ original scsi-driver plus variable block length patch, under DOS: GTAR, ASPIBIN (ASPI-TAR), PCTOOLS 8.0, COREL-SCSI works fine with julian's drivers and 1542b/1742a [admerlev/duncan] and with Adaptec 1542C + Julian's SCSI drivers [jfieber] S version (SCSI?) runs under FreeBSD:CombsSF@Salem.GE.COM 2150S also known as Viper 150 Name: Archive 2150L Capacity: 150 Mb, 120 Mb Interface: QIC-02 Controllers: Archive Viper SC402 Informant: vak@kiae.su (Serge Vakulenko) Comments: Works well, with new wt driver (by me and Sergey Ryzhkov). Supports 150Mb and 120 Mb formats on write and 150Mb, 120Mb and 60Mb formats on read. It's possible to use mt command to rewind the tape, seek file forward etc. It's not a problem in the SCSI code. It's a firmware bug in (at least) the Archive Viper 150. Data can be appended only if the drive is ``totally sure'' that the tape is at end of recorded medium. This could be achieved by issuing a `space to end of recorded medium' command. Unfortunately, the recent version of Julian's SCSI driver doesn't support this. (Future versions might do.) As a workaround, it's possible to ``mt fsf'' after the last tape file, then issue another ``mt fsf'', which will result in an IO error (SCSI blank check, `no data found' appears on console), that should be ignored. At this point, the tape could be written to! - joerg_wunsch@tcd-dresden.de Name: Archive 2525-S (Firmware Rev. 25462-007 - seems to be important [nbladt]) Capacity: QIC-24, QIC-120, QIC-150, QIC-525 Approx Cost: ca. 1000,- DM (about US$ 600 ?) Interface: SCSI-1 Controllers: Adaptec 1542B, Adaptec 1542C, Adaptec 1742A, Adaptec 1742B Informant: nbladt@autelca.ascom.ch (Norbert Bladt) hm@hcshh.hcs.de (Hellmuth Michaelis) loodvrij%cyb@fredbox.cts.com (Bruce J. Keeler) musashi@com.netcom (Irving Moy) Comments: In contrary to what my dealer told me, it can read and WRITE QIC-150 tapes. Didn't have a chance to try QIC-120, or QIC-60, etc. yet. I am using 386bsd-0.1 (still with the first patchkit and all updates from Julian for his fabulous SCSI-driver kit) Sorry, no experience with the original driver because that driver doesn't work with the 1742A. [nbladt] Worked with Julian's driver out of the box. [hm] Since putting in Julian's drivers, with Dave Tweten's mods, it seems to work just fine. [loodvrij] Name: Cipher Model 540 Capacity: 45M/60M (probably/hopefully) Approx Cost: Loaned to me in `vintage appearance' (Much dust) - No idea ! Interface: SCSI 1 Controllers: Adaptec 1542B Informant: Julian Stacey <stacey@guug.de> Comments: Shows promise, Cant yet call it truly usefull though: The Good Bit: I have seen it stream constantly on 386bsd. The Bad Bit: I can't use it as a usefull drive because it keeps dropping out with errors. The fault does not lie in the media, & most probably not with external power supply or scsi cable - I'm working on it. Name: CIPHER MicroStreamer F880 (1600bpi, 9 track PERTEC interface) Capacity: ??? Approx Cost: $5000 for the drive in 1985 $1000 for protocol Converter 1992 Interface: SCSI Controllers: Adaptec AHA-1542A to NCR ADP-53 to tape drive Informant: mike@scrooge.uoregon.edu (Mike Hoffman) Comments: It is FAST, reads tape about the same speed as rewind. The SCSI controller runs the 9 track drive thru the converter and an Archive 2060S 60mb Cartridge tape drive directly. After putting in the current patches and reading the PERTEC Specs it was almost "plug and play". The ADP-53 is a protocol converter from/to SCSI/PERTEC, purchased from Laguna Data Systems (see Byte Magazine). Problems: mt does not seem to be of much use. Forward spacing the 9 track tape is an iffy job (skipping the label on a labeled tape). dd now does this (skip=1). I always get the error 'cannot prevent/allow'. This is not a big deal (prevent or allow removal of tape). dd does not handle cr/lf at all well. Could be all the protocol conversions or gnu dd just doesn't do it. All files are read in as one line(no CR Lf etc). The blocking and conversion options have no effect on line length. Conversion from EBCDIC to ASCII works fine. A small program to break up the file solves the long line problem. Name: Cipher ST-150F Capacity: 150Mb Approx cost: US$300 (incl. interface) Interface: QIC-02 Controllers: Cipher Informant: hideki@isl.rdc.toshiba.co.jp (YOSHIDA Hideki) Comments: works well with blocksize <= 4b Name: Cipher ST150-S Capacity: QIC-24(read only), QIC-120, QIC-150 Approx Cost: 1300,- DM (long ago ..) Interface: SCSI (better SCSI-I or CCS) Controllers: Adaptec 1542B, 1742 Informant: Hellmuth Michaelis (hm@hcshh.hcs.de) Comments: This drive responds with empty strings if asked for for it's vendors name and model. It has a strange format of the mode sense/set command blocks. By default, it reports a soft error back to the host which makes it a bit hard to work with. Problems solved with next release of Julian Elischer's enhanced SCSI driver (currently beta, July '93). oyang@bruce.cs.monash.edu.au reports an upgrade which involves a new ROM and cutting some traces. The drive responds: CIPHER : Model ST150S2 Rev: 2.0 ANSI SCSI rev: 01 when asked for it's vendors names and model. Name: COMTEK Gigatape 1200 4mm external DAT Capacity: 1.2 Gb Approx Cost: US$800 Interface: SCSI 1 Controllers: Adaptec 1542B Informant: Rich@rice.edu Comments: Uses formatted, fixed blocksize tapes. Only partial success writing about 400Mb so far. Name: Conner C250MQT Capacity: 250 MB compressed, 125 not Approx Cost: approx $200 Interface: Uses floppy disk controller on PC. Controller: ? Informant: tpw@ruth.ece.psu.edu (Tom Weldon) Comments: Maybe it works, but i couldnt get it to talk to 386BSD with GENERICISA kernel. Name: DEC TZ30 Capacity: 96 MB (uses 3M CompacTape cartridges) Approx cost: Interface: SCSI Controllers: Adaptec 154xB Informant: davidb@otto.bf.rmit.oz.au (David Burren) May 1993 Comments: Works with Julian's SCSI drivers. Console reports "cannot prevent/allow" but this is not a problem. This is the native-SCSI half-height version of DEC's TK50Z drive. Name: DEC TZ857 Capacity: 18.2 GB (stacker unit with seven 2.6 GB CompacTape III tapes) Approx cost: lots Interface: SCSI Controllers: Adaptec 154xB Informant: davidb@otto.bf.rmit.oz.au (David Burren) May 1993 Comments: Works with Julian's SCSI drivers. As with the TZ30, "cannot prevent/allow" is reported but operation continues. As 386bsd has no "mt online" yet, cartridge loading is done manually, but unloading/advancing is done through "mt offline" as under Ultrix. I don't really use this drive, but I had access to it for a day and tried it out... Name: Exabyte 8200 8mm Capacity: 2.2 GB Approx cost: Interface: SCSI Controllers: Adaptec 154xB Informant: davidb@otto.bf.rmit.oz.au (David Burren) May 1993 todd@flex.eng.mcmaster.ca (Todd Pfaff) Nov 1993 Comments: Works perfectly with Julian's SCSI drivers. I use it all the time for my system dumps and for exchanging files with other machines. Works great with FreeBSD-1.0-RELEASE although 'mt -status' doesn't work properly. Name: Hewlett-Packard HP35480A DAT drive Capacity: 4 GB Approx Cost: $1400 Interface: SCSI Controllers: Adaptec 1542B Informant: karl@neosoft.com Comments: Great drive, flawless performance. Requires variable length tapedrive patches which should be in the patchkit, but I haven't checked. (They were submitted around November of '92) Name: Sankyo ST525 Capacity: 525 Mbyte Approx Cost: 6000 SEK (US$850), NZ$1400 (internal, Jan94) Interface: SCSI (SCSI-2) Controllers: Adaptec 1542B Informant: jonas@carmen.volvo.se (Jonas Lagerblad) nickg@nz.co.optimation (Nick Gridley) Comments: everything works allright except for one crash The SCSI bus seemed hang after running "dump 0uf - /dev/rsd0a | gzip --best | dd of=/dev/rst0 bs=64k" for approx 1 hour. If I skip the compression everything works perfectly. (I am using Julian's SCSI driver) 386BSD-0.1 patchkit 0.2 patches 0-110. [jonas] I have no problems with this drive and FreeBSD (GAMMA,EPSILON,1.0) I have a BusTek 542B controller but no other SCSI devices (yet..). Further, I mix 150 & 525 tapes, and read the occasional 60m. [nickg] Name: Sony SDT-1000 DAT Capacity: 2 GB on a 90 meter tape Approx. Cost: about $600 now, $3500 when purchased 3 yrs ago Interface: SCSI (SCSI-2 also) Controllers: Adaptec 1542B Informant: steve@molly.dny.rockwell.com Comments: I have used it under 386BSD 0.1 and NetBSD 0.8. Under 386BSD, it didn't support all of the ioctl functions, but works without a hitch under NetBSD. I use it to do tar data backups and restores as well as interchanging data with an H-P 9000/755 using the HPUX tar command. Name: Tandberg 3600 series Capacity: Approx cost: Interface: Controllers: Informant: fredriks@austin.ibm.com (Lars Fredriksen) Comments: IN DEVELOPMENT. So far I have it working with fixed and variable block micro code (original Tandberg vs. IBM firmware). I am adding support for selecting densities for the minor devices via IOCTLS,as well as setting the fixed blocksize via IOCTL. This work is almost done, and I will send the driver to julian. I see him as the distributor of fixes to his own code. So far I have not had any problems reading 30/60/150/250 Mb tapes. similarly no problems writing 150/250 Mb tapes. Name: Tandberg 3660 Capacity: 250Mb Approx cost: Interface: Controllers: Informant: Per Anders Olausson <pao@cd.chalmers.se> meidinge@isar.de(Thomas Meidinger) Comments: DC6250, DC6150 (not tested) and DC600A. Reads and writes DC-6120 as well. [pao] Name: Tandberg TDC-3800 5.25" SCSI-1 325MB TBU Capacity: up to 520Mb (depending on media) uncompressed Approx cost: Didn't buy it new. Interface: SCSI-1 Controllers: AHA1542B Informant: vax@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (VaX#n8) Comments: Would not work with base 386bsd-0.1 kernel. After applying patch kit, everything worked fine. Only tested reads on 250MB, reads and writes on 325MB, and reads and writes on 525MB. Works great. Also fine under NetBSD-0.9. Even got "aspitar" from wuarchive to read tars from DOS. Don't mix 525 and 325MB tapes though, causes heads to wear out fast. Coexists with SCSI-2 drives just fine. Wouldn't trade it for anything but a SCSI DAT or 8mm.Even then, I would have to think about it. Name: Tandberg 3820 5 1/4" HH internal QIC 525 SCSI streamer Capacity: up to 520Mb (depending on media) uncompressed Approx cost: (I bought mine two years ago--it wasn't cheap :-) Interface: SCSI-1/2 Controllers: AHA1542B, 1742A, DTC3290 Informant: tmh@first.gmd.de (Thomas M. Hoberg) stacey@guug.de (Julian Stacey) tomb@gator.bocaraton.ibm.com (Thomas Bagli) Comments: Works well with both the driver in the distribution kernel and julians' SCSI drivers. Reads all QIC media (tested QIC 40/60/120/150/525) Writes QIC 120/150/250/320/525 (120/150/525 tested) Includes a 256k buffer. 2 rw speeds: 83k/s for QIC<320, 200k/sec for 320+ Occasionally the file system can't keep up at 200k/sec on backups (small files), somewhat more often on restores. The drive can directly seek to any block on the tape, so in theory at least with the appropriate device drive you could mount a file system on it (you better keep fragmentation low :-) As you can guess, I am EXTREMELY happy with it. [tmh] The Good Bit: It streams constantly without error (~40mins for 525M write @ 60K blocking). Tape drive shares bus with 3 SCSI-2 Seagate drives also OK with a SCSI-1 Micropolis 1684-7. The Bad Bit: We (several us of using these TDC3820s on different hardware) have undergone an eerom + eprom autodensity upgrade to allow 150M writes (previously could only read 150M tapes +r&w 525M); this known as Revision 04908, Done 92 08 28. There is some kind of block size problem that prevents us reliably exchanging 525M tapes, 150M seems OK, problem is tape hardware oriented I believe, not 386BSD specific. Problem pre-existed the 150M write capability upgrade. A friend with same 386bsd + TDC3820 + 1542A can't read my tapes, neither can a PCS (M68000 based) computer with a TDC3820 [stacey] We paid DM1000 (~$625) in early 1991. This was a very special price, and I estimate that the actual cost would be (very) approximately 50% more (~$950). I've used it with an Adaptec 1742A, a DTC3290 (caching 1542B emulation), and a Mylex ?376? (caching, but only under DOS) SCSI controllers. It doesn't just stream, it screams. I've never seen a streamer that just streams without a pause, rewind or such. This one does (not to say that the Tandberg is the sole reason for this). [tomb] Name: WangDAT 3200 Capacity: 2Gb (up to 8Gb w/compression) on a 90 meter tape Approx cost: US$1200-$1300 approx Interface: SCSI Controllers: Informant: conklin@talisman.kaleida.com (J.T. Conklin) cgd@postgres.Berkeley.edu Comments: Works great with Julian's SCSI drivers and an Adaptec 1742... (I use it to do my dumps, and I've actually checked and made sure the restores work... 8-) [cgd] Name: Wangtek 5099EK Capacity: 60M Approx cost: Interface: PC/QIC-36 Controllers: Informant: robsch@robkaos.GUN.de (Robert Schien) Comments: The wt.c driver, which is delivered with FreeBSD-EPSILON, does not work with my Wangtek 5099EK (60 MB) tape drive. This drive has a PC/QIC-36 interface and it worked fine with ESIX 5.3.2D (For testing I tried SCO Xenix and ISC 2.2.1 and it worked with these OSs, too). With the driver in 386bsd-0.1, I could read tapes, but not write. With the "improved" driver, I could neither read nor write (all minor devices tried). The solution was a driver from someone in Sweden (his name is Mikael Hybsch (sp?)), which worked for me already with 386bsd-0.1. Name: Wangtek 5099EN Capacity: Approx cost: Interface: Controllers: Informant: Original 386bsd.FAQ Comments: Name: Wangtek 5099SC24, this is a QIC drive (same mechanical drive as 5099EN24) with a QIC24 to SCSI board by wangtek full height Capacity: 60Mb w/DC600A, 100Mb w/DC6250 Approx cost: Used as is drives US$25.00/each, refurbs ~US$100.00 Interface: SCSI Controllers: Adaptec 1542B Informant: rgrimes@agora.rain.com Comments: works well with both the driver in the distribution kernel and julians' SCSI drivers. Very old full height driver readily availiable in the surplus market. I know where there are 50 or so of these for $25.00/each as is, they are pulls from old workstations. Name: Wangtek 5150EQ Capacity: 250MB (QIC-150) Approx cost: 400 UK pounds including software for DOS Interface: QIC-02 Controllers: Wangtek QIC-02 included Informant: kd@doc.ic.ac.uk (K J Dryllerakis) Comments: Works with stock driver. Very very slow but reliable. Funny, it only seems to work if you use /dev/wt0 instead of /dev/rwt0. New driver in beta version by micke@dynas.se (Mikael Hybsch). Name: Wangtek 5150ES Capacity: 250Mb Approx cost: Interface: SCSI Controllers: Adaptec 1542B Informant: berry@max.IN-Berlin.DE (Stefan Behrens) duncan@zycad.com (Don) Comments: [With original 0.1 SCSI ...] it streams constantly and works without any errors. Works with original as.c driver and with newer drivers from Julian [eg in patchkit 0.2.4]. [berry] Does not work with the 1742a and 386bsd!!!!! SCSI driver compatibility problems. [duncan, ~Jun'93] NOTE: with the latest patchkit Stefan Behrens [berry] has reported that Julian's SCSI now works with it. No update yet on 1742A behaviour. Name: Wangtek 5525ES Capacity: 525M Approx cost: US$600, CDN$1000 Interface: Adaptec 1542B, Adaptec 1742 Controllers: SCSI Informant: bky@eco.twg.com (Brian Yasaki) andrew@noware.ocunix.on.ca (Andrew Cornwall) Comments: Writes QIC120, 150, 250, 525. Reads QIC24 as well (untested). Works with the distribution kernel. Name: Wangtek 6200-HS Capacity: 2GB Approx cost: $600 (refurbished) Interface: SCSI (SCSI II if controller supports) Controllers: Adaptec 154x, 1742, ... Informant: brians@logrus.rain.com (Brian Smith) Comments: Averages 150 KBytes/sec throughput uncompressed, tested with FreeBSD 1.02 and Adaptec 1542B. Name: Wangtek QT60 (aka Tecmar QT60) Capacity: 60M Approx cost: Interface: QIC 02 Informant: tcombs@pacific.urbana.mcd.mot.com (Tim Combs) Comments: It works although does not stream under 386BSD 0.1 END OF COMPATIBLE TAPE DRIVE LIST =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=- Please send submissions for comp.os.386bsd.announce to: 386bsd-announce@agate.berkeley.edu 8.11 QIC-40/80 tape drives Steve Gerakines has released a series of patches for FreeBSD that allow the use of the QIC-40/80 tape drives through the floppy controller. Get them from ftp.gte.com:/pub/ft/dist0.3/dist0.3.tgz or a similar mirror site, if there are any. Archie will be able to tell you for certain. 8.12 CD-ROMs The Sony Multispin drives work well for Charles Hannum using NetBSD and an SCSI controller. The Sony CDU 561 works well, as do the Toshiba 401 and 4101. The 4101 is a double speed SCSI-2 device and allows 'grabbing' of music tracks. Many folks have announced that they had problems with Mitsumi CD-ROM drives. It seems that there are nearly as many releases of the firmware as there were drives sold. Many of the firmware versions were incompatible with each other. A generic Mitsumi driver will be a hard act to accomplish, if it is possible at all. There are Mitsumi CD-ROM drivers for NetBSD and FreeBSD. They are available in the -current source tree of each, and should be available in the next general release of both systems.