From: ede@kadabra.osf.org (Ted Ede) Subject: Re: is RLL SOL? Date: Thu, 1 Oct 1992 22:19:09 GMT
In article <1992Oct1.200508.4413@unislc.uucp> erc@unislc.uucp (Ed Carp) writes:
>Seth Chaiklin (psykseth@aau.dk) wrote:
>
>: I have looked in the various INSTALL docs, and the FAQ (from July) and nary
>: a peep about whether Linux can be installed on an RLL drive.
>: There was a peep that MFM, ESDI and SCSI were possible, so perhaps by
>: implcations RLL is out of the running.
>:
>: Anyway, I have this wonderful ST-238R which Linux 0.97.11 could not read
>: (according to fdisk). Am I doomed to live on floppies (or find a rich uncle)?
>:
>: [As a newcomer to Linux, I can only give my naive praise at how easy
>: it was to install on the floppies and how exhilirating it was to
>: watch it come up. I am sure it has been said thousands of times
>: before, and probably more elegantly, but I could also guess that the
>: people who work on it don't get so tired of hearing it. (-: ]
>
>I've run 0.96c on an RLL controller, so linux does, indeed, support RLL drives
The problem you are having is probably with a cheesey 8 or 16 bit
controller. I had a wd1002-27x (cheesey 8 bit controller). I was
told I needed a real 16 bit controller, so I bought a Seagate ST21R
(16 bit) controller. It had a lousy BIOS and didn't work. I finally
bought a Western Digital wd1006 off of a guy on the net. It works
like a champ. Find yourself a wd1006 or clone and you'll be all set.
Another thing to note. If you're having problems with this controller
and you have a newer bios, you're probably telling your BIOS that drive C
is not installed. The BIOS on your older controller is causing this.
When I installed my new card and low-level formatted, my system BIOS
(AMI) got drive C set to type 1. It doesn't match my disk, an st238r,
but at least linux recoginizes it. I have no idea why this happens,
if anyone has any clues I'm all ears.
Since I'm not the first one to run into this, the subject may be FAQ-
worthy.
cheers,
ted
Ted Ede -- ted@world.std.com -- on contract at the Open Software Foundation
-- All views expressed are mine unless explicitly stated otherwise --
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