Sun 4/260; ESDI vs. SCSI disks

John Palkovic palkovic%almond.hepnet at csa3.lbl.gov
Mon Jan 1 02:52:49 AEST 1990


I am forwarding this for a colleague.  It was bounced the first time he
tried to send it.  Since the original message was sent we have succeeded
in formatting the Wren disk by disconnecting the Emulex controller,
connecting the Wren, and booting MUNIX. However our 4/260 refuses to boot
from disk with both the Wren and the Emulex controller hanging from the
SCSI bus.  If we turn the Wren disk off it boots just fine.  We have
messed with the jumpers on the Wren to change it's SCSI id to no avail.
Has anyone succesfully added a SCSI disk to a 4/260 with an Emulex
controller?  We are running SunOS 4.0.3 BTW.  Please reply directly and we
will summarize.  Original message follows: 

I bought a 4/260 last April and asked for a SCSI disk controller.  I never
really looked to see what I got until the Wren-V-702 (SCSI) disk I ordered
arrived earlier this week.  Lo and behold, I discover that there is no
obvious way to hook it up!  So, I open up the chassis and I see that my
machine does, in fact, have a Sun3 SCSI controller on the VME, but it has
a disk which is plainly marked as ESDI and a couple of loose cables which
look like they **might** actually hook into another ESDI disk.  Between
the VME/SCSI and the ESDI disk is an Emulex controller board of some kind.
The 1/4" tape drive is SCSI.  I'm confused.  What so I do now?

Here are the options as I see them:

1. Punt.  Buy Sun's expensive, small, guaranteed-to-work disk (yuck!)
2. Put the SCSI I have onto a nearby 4/110, with a plain-to-see SCSI port,
and mount it remotely on my machine
3. Take your expert advice on how to magically make the disk I have work
on my machine
4. Trade it in for an ESDI Wren disk of about the same price and plug it
into the spot reserved for a second Sun ESDI drive.

(On option 4, how about the Wren VI 94196-766 ESDI drive?  Can this be
plugged into the 4/260 enclosure and be made to work?)

How about some suggestions from out there?  As they say, thanx in advance.

Elliott McCrory
Fermi National Accelerator Laborartory
Batavia, IL
Best bet email: mccrory at mdtf05.fnal.gov, mccrory at fnalad.bitnet



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