Request for help on setting up Syquest removable hard disk
Rick Auricchio
rick at Apple.COM
Sat Mar 17 04:10:40 AEST 1990
In article <8657 at chaph.usc.edu> jamin at aludra.usc.edu (Sugih Jamin) writes:
>Could someone please e-mail me the steps required to setup
>Syquest removable hard disk with A/UX 1.1? Thanks.
This one's not trivial, unfortunately. The Syquest (and A/UX) suffer from a
few problems:
1) Some (all?) Syquest drives don't support the SCSI message
"restore pointers", which causes the 1.1 and 1.1.1 SCSI
manager to get annoyed. Forcing "never-disconnect" mode
is a hack around it, but setting that mode isn't trivial.
The A/UX SCSI manager should infer "restore pointers" on
a drive reconnecting. An oversight that I became aware
of several months back.
2) When the Syquest media is initialized, there are certain
"error control" bits that can be set/reset (I don't know
specifically, but "PER" comes to mind). Anyway, if this
is set "wrong", A/UX attempts to fix it via Mode Select.
Sending a Mode-Select with Zero bytes of page info is
valid SCSI protocol, but the Syquest barfs. One could
flip this bit via some kind of utility program, though.
3) The bad news for last. The Syquest is removable, and A/UX
only understands fixed media. As long as you don't try
to do anything "unusual" with the "removability" features
(e.g. always keep media in the drive, don't try to eject,
don't push the eject button), things should work OK.
The entire issue of removable media has yet to be
addressed. My crystal ball tells me it might be me.
--
--
Rick Auricchio, Apple Computer Inc, 20525 Mariani Av MS 58A Cupertino CA 95014
sun!apple!rick OR rick at apple.COM Mooney N894AR (408) 974-4227
Never eat prunes when you're famished.
My opinion is my own. My employer? They use a windsock and a fire extinguisher.
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