Date: Sun, 25 Jan 1998 20:27:01 +1030 From: Mike Smith <mike@smith.net.au> To: Bruce Vandiver <76350.1227@compuserve.com> Cc: tech_help_drivers <hackers@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: Re: Future Domain SCSI Drivers - TMC-1680 ISA cards with 18C30 & 18C50 chips Message-ID: <199801250957.UAA02540@word.smith.net.au> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Sun, 25 Jan 1998 04:31:41 CDT." <199801250432_MC2-308D-994D@compuserve.com>
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> I am looking for driver support for my Future Domain SCSI cards. I have a > TMC 1680, which is a 16 bit ISA card. The card uses the Future Domain 18C30 > chip. Some of these cards may use the older 18C50 chip. The bios date is > 1994 (v3.4). These cards are best sold to teenagers at rave parties, who will either wear them as jewellery or use them to commit minor acts of mayhem on innocent bystanders. > I have driver support on other Unix releases including SCO Open Server, SCO > Unixware, & Linux (Slackware 3.1). If you have Linux drivers, you probably have source for them. You also appear to be almost the only individual actually interested in driver support for these cards, which puts you in the best possible position to develop such support yourself. Driver development is an educational and rewarding process. Think of it as something to broaden your mind. There are plenty of people that are willing to answer your questions, but, it seems, not many that can do your work for you. > This is my second request. The first was over a year ago. New releases of > FreeBSD still do not show my Future Domain TMC-1680 SCSI cards in the list > of compatible hardware. Picking up drivers for these cards and other legacy > equipment will help expand the user base for FreeBSD. Drivers for legacy equipment are generally developed by people that have such legacy equipment. You appear to be failing to appreciate that FreeBSD acquires new drivers because people go out and develop them, and then contribute them to the project. There isn't a Driver Development Lab with lots of people and money that's studiously ignoring your requests while playing Doom and chugging Jolt and pizza. I wish there was; I'd be begging for a job there myself. > Therefore the > creation of the drivers and hardware support I need should be important to > the FreeBSD community. To be brutally frank, the FreeBSD community is demonstrating a lot more interest in hardware that is useful for contemporary workloads. Witness the stable support for the Adaptec and NCR/Symbios adapters and emerging support for hardware from people like Advansys and DPT in contrast to the poor or nonexistent support for bogus hardware like anything ever manufactured by Future Domain. > Further, the new > hardware support information must be listed on the CD disc case so that > buyers can find it. You are confusing the FreeBSD project and a particular CDROM vendor. The latter would argue that there is not enough room on the case to list even the smallest part of the supported hardware, and that you should consult the online resources (which *are* referenced on the case) before purchasing. Or return the set for a full refund if you are particularly unhappy. > I guess that is a pretty big order, so let me say I can > probably get by with just the TMC-1680 SCSI drivers [ha ha] :-). Any > assistance or info you may provide will be greatly appreciated. Thanks! I would strongly suggest that you should study the Linux source that you have, the source for a similar ISA SCSI adapter driver, and begin your own development. I do seem to recall someone mention that they had documentation for the controller you are asking about on the shelf; perhaps you should search the archives at www.freebsd.org for a reference here too, as such documentation would be very useful. Please feel free to post questions regarding your development to the list, as we do try to encourage new contributors whenever possible. -- \\ 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. \\
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