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diff --git a/sys/gnu/misc/aic7770/README b/sys/gnu/misc/aic7770/README new file mode 100644 index 0000000..1e4e5a0 --- /dev/null +++ b/sys/gnu/misc/aic7770/README @@ -0,0 +1,94 @@ +@(#)README 1.16 94/11/09 jda + +AHA274x/284x DRIVER + +*** THIS SHOULD BE CONSIDERED BETA SOFTWARE *** + +BACKGROUND & LIMITATIONS + +For various reasons, we ended up with one of these cards under the +impression that support was soon forthcoming. In mid-May, I asked +Scott Ferris (the official person who's supposed to be writing this +driver) what documentation he used, _finally_ got it from Adaptec, +and started writing this driver. It is now at what I would consider +a stable state - it runs our news server and is battered by SCSI +requests 24 hours a day without dying. There are a few devices it +reportedly doesn't like working with - those are being sorted out. Due +to some unexpected equipment loans, I am able to support this at least +for the time being. + +YOU MUST HAVE THE BIOS ENABLED OR THIS WILL NOT WORK. The BIOS extracts +some configuration information that I cannot get to portably yet, as +well as provides some self-tests which this driver does not attempt to +duplicate. + +Scott's driver development is stalled for now, and after discussions +with him, this is now officially out of "pre-alpha" status and into +beta until the remaining device problems can be resolved. The latest +patches can be obtained via anonymous ftp from ftp.cpsc.ucalgary.ca in +/pub/systems/linux/aha274x. + +It supports both EISA 274x and VL-bus 284x, either single or twin-bus cards +(but not the second SCSI bus of twin cards - see aha274x.c), and supports +disconnection, synchronous SCSI, and scatter-gather. Unlike previous +versions, abort() and reset() are now implemented, and both hosts.c and +aha274x.c should give a clean compile. Code is now present to detect parity +errors, but has not been tested. + +I wrote this using a 1.0.9 kernel. Unfortunately, I'm getting tired of +#ifdef'ing everything to handle two or three different evolutionary steps +in the SCSI kernel code, so I've upgraded my system to 1.1.49, and will +only leave in code to support versions from about 1.1.45 onward. + +Thanks to patches supplied by Mark Olson <molson@tricord.com>, this driver +will now work with the 284x series (the VL-bus version of this card). The +294x (PCI-bus) support is based on patches sent to me by Mark Olson and +Alan Hourihane <alanh@fairlite.demon.co.uk>. + +Under protest, this driver is subject to the GPL - see the file +COPYING for details. + +Thanks to the following people for bug fixes/code improvements (also +thanks to the people who have sent me feedback): + + "David F. Carlson" <dave@ee.rochester.edu> + Jimen Ching <jiching@wiliki.eng.hawaii.edu> + mday@artisoft.com (Matt Day) + "Dean W. Gehnert" <deang@ims.com> + Darcy Grant <darcy@cpsc.ucalgary.ca> + Alan Hourihane <alanh@fairlite.demon.co.uk> + isely@fncrd8.fnal.gov (Mike Isely) + Mike Jerger <jerger@ux1.cso.uiuc.edu> + tm@netcom.com (Toshiyasu Morita) + neal@interact.org (Neal Norwitz) + Mark Olson <molson@tricord.com> + map@europa.ecn.uoknor.edu (Michael A. Parker) + Thomas Scheunemann <thomas@dagobert.uni-duisburg.de> + +Special thanks to Drew Eckhardt <drew@kinglear.cs.Colorado.EDU> for +fielding my questions about synchronous negotiation. Steffen Moeller +<smoe0024@rz.uni-hildesheim.de> sent me installation instructions which +were previously included in this README. + +David Pirie <pirie@cpsc.ucalgary.ca> was nice enough to loan me his +2842 card for a week so I could track down one bug, as well as his +CD-ROM drive later, and also thanks to Doug Fortune at Riley's Data Share +in Calgary, who arranged a long-term loan of a 2842 board for further work. + +Many thanks to the fearless prerelease testers! Dean Gehnert has been +building Slackware boot disks for the driver, which are available from +ftp.cpsc.ucalgary.ca in /pub/systems/linux/aha274x/slackware_boot. + +Carl Riches <cgr@poplar1.cfr.washington.edu> has set up a mailing list +for aic7xxx driver development. To subscribe, send a message to +aic7770-list@poplar1.cfr.washington.edu with a message body of: + + subscribe AIC7770-LIST <your name here, without the angle brackets> + +Please direct questions and discussions to that list instead of me. When +sending bug reports, please include a description of your hardware, the +release numbers displayed by the driver at boot time, and as accurate a +facsimilie of any error message you're mailing about. + +John Aycock +aycock@cpsc.ucalgary.ca |