[SunRescue] Sunos 3.5 on OLDEN sun3toyz

[BSD Bob]

> A trick you might try is to format and partition the disk on a SunOS 4.X
> machine (SPARC or Sun3) and then run the SunOS 3.5 install starting at
> the copy mini-UNIX step.

The disk was previously run up on 4.1.1, before trying to install 3.5.
It was not a standard disk, but a custom format not in the format.dat files
(Quantum LPS240, 1816+2C, 4H, 65S).

The menus in the 3.5 diags only allowed the use of xylogics, scsi-esdi, and
scsi-mfm controllers.  On a lark, I fed it the addressing values of the si
controller, directly, and it seemed to accept it, but would not actually
write to it.  The ones posted earlier did not work, but seemed to be
specific to the md controller boards.

Since the drive is up again on 4.1.1, I will try just going into the
copy of the mini-UNIX and see if that works.

> When we used to have SunOS 3.5 running on some
> old 3/60 machines, I had large (in those days) 768MB SCSI disks.  I was
> able to format and partition them under the SunOS 3.5 boot tapes by
> giving all of the track/cylinder information.  But it is much easier to
> format and partition the disk using SunOS 4.X since most of the drives
> are in the /etc/format.dat file.

I tried manually feeding the values in, but it would not accept them.
Something sure seems to be tied to the scsi bridge controller boards.
It seems to be able to sense that the boards are or are not there.

What drive cases were you using to fit drives into?  All the older drive
boxes I have seen have the scsi bridge controller boards (MD/MT, etc),
before the actual drives, and the drives were all esdi or mfm.  Maybe
I should try an external box off of my sun4/SS1/IPX crates?

I may have a pair of the Micropolis 1355 drives available.  If I can find
enough cables to hook it up, I will try that.  I hope I did not chuck
the cabling and mounting bits and md board.....(:+{{.....

Thanks for the tips.

Bob