Date: Sun, 31 May 1998 12:36:05 -0700 From: Mike Smith <mike@smith.net.au> To: Dave Bodenstab <imdave@mcs.net> Cc: dufault@hda.com, freebsd-scsi@FreeBSD.ORG, freebsd-smp@FreeBSD.ORG, skynyrd@opus.cts.cwu.edu Subject: Re: Micropolis 4345WS (Toshiba "Equium" 6200M) Message-ID: <199805311936.MAA12957@antipodes.cdrom.com> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Sun, 31 May 1998 14:21:06 CDT." <199805311921.OAA02146@base486.home.org>
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> > > I received a couple of those Toshiba computers which Insight had the > > special on (intel dual p6 mb, integrated pro100 ethernet, aha-7880, etc.) > > The 12x atapi cd-room boots our freebsd CD's so quickly that you forget > > that you're booting from a CD. Really nice systems, but mine came with > > Micropolis 4345WS drives at firmware revision zC19. The manufacture date > > of my systems was around 4/97. > > I took the plunge and got two of these boxes. I am very interested in > sharing experiences amoung other FreeBSD folks using these machines. > I plan to take the CPU, memory, disk and cdrom from the second machine > and install them in the first. I'm hoping to sell the remaining MB and > case to recoup some of the cost. We bought several of these for the FreeBSD Project as well; one is off making ELF happen faster, and another will be keeping the -stable packages up to date for Satoshi. (We have other plans for it too, suffice to say that it will be busy 8). All of these came with the same configuration (including the disk and firmware). > > Unfortunately I couldn't get any version of FreeBSD to install without the > > aha driver complaining about the drive timing out, and aborting the > > install. No matter what the settings on the 7880 (disable wide > > negotiation, throttle down xfer rate, etc) and after verifying drive > > jumpers, termination. As soon as sysinstall started doing anything disk > > intensive, the drives would lose it. I had both systems side by side with > > a pile of FreeBSD CD's and each behaved the same whether it was 2.2.2, > > 10/6/97 3.0-snap, 2/2/98 3.0-snap, etc. This is interesting, insofar as I've installed on three of these systems, 2.2 and 3.0, built kernels, built the world, and I expect that Satoshi has been package-building too. None of them exhibit these symptoms (and I wound the Adaptec options right up). > > Since other people have been buying these systems, I'm a little surprised > > that I'm the only person so far to have reported the problem. Fortunately > > it appears that there is a workaround (forget about any 5-year warranty on > > the tomahawk drives though :( > > I called Toshiba before the purchase and they told me that they would be > honoring the warrenty for the drives -- perhaps only for the 3-year Toshiba > warrenty tho. This is extremely good to know - thanks! > them a call... but I'll ask here also: > > - what are USB ports and what can I use them for? USB is the "universal serial bus". Right now, you can't use it for much, although in the next 12-18 months you can expect to be plugging your keyboard, mouse, speakers, modem, scanner, etc. into it. > - any hints/cautions/etc. about removing and reinstalling the CPU? Don't do it unless you have to. You will need a VRM module before you can put the second CPU into the first system. > - what version of FreeBSD current/smp do I need to start downloading? Go for the lastest -SNAP once you've got the hardware in place. > - I want to enable the 2nd UART port and wire a cable, but the user's > guide doesn't have a description of the pinout. Hopefully Toshiba > will supply this on Mon. IICR the motherboard is the Intel Providence board. I do believe that Intel have full documentation on their site (it's likely to be the same pinout as their other boards). > Also, what list would be appropriate for this subject? -questions or -smp. > I suspect that -scsi isn't really applicable anymore. Probably -hardware for the hardware, -smp for SMP related issues. -- \\ Sometimes you're ahead, \\ Mike Smith \\ sometimes you're behind. \\ mike@smith.net.au \\ The race is long, and in the \\ msmith@freebsd.org \\ end it's only with yourself. \\ msmith@cdrom.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-scsi" in the body of the message
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