About the new s4diag software...

[CME Ned Nowotny]

I have recently grabbed a copy of the uuencoded and compressed s4diag
from the net (Thanks, Thad.) and have a few questions.

First, I have succesfully extracted the executable to build a new
diagnostics disk and feel pretty comfortable with using it to build
a new system disk.  However, I would feel more comfortable if other
people who have formatted out disks with more than 1024 cylinders
would post the executable size and checksums for their s4diag
software.  Best of all, can anyone tell me the origins of this software?

Next, does anyone have a reliable set of instructions for using
s4diag in expert mode?

Can the original s4diag run a disk surface test on more that 1024
cylinders?  In other words, is there any chance that the limit in
the original s4diag only applied to formatting disks?  (Pretty
unlikely, huh?)

Now with regard to another comment I have seen.  Someone claims that
the stock compress program shipped with the PC7300 is compiled to
only compress (and uncompress?) using up to 12-bit compression.
However, I have had no problem uncompressing anything I have
extracted from the net or files that I have compressed at work
(on Suns and Vaxen) and tranferred to my machine at home.  Was this
person mistaken?  (For what its worth, it is a good idea to get
the compress softwre in the archives anyway.  For one thing, you get
the source.  For another, you get man pages.  The only problem I
have had with the stock distribution was the need to link zcat to
compress.  Those with the 3.51 or later version of the 3B1/7300 OS
may have had a different experience.)


Ned Nowotny, MCC CAD Program, Box 200195, Austin, TX  78720  Ph: (512) 338-3715
ARPA: ned at mcc.com                   UUCP: ...!cs.utexas.edu!milano!cadillac!ned
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