[SunRescue] RE: rescue digest, Vol 1 #1225 - 14 msgs

[Ken Hansen]

Well, Probe-scsi shows the drives fine, as expected (and I am not going to type allthat info anyway ;^)

Internal Termination sounds like a stretch to me, but I'll take a good look into it.

The Axil 245 is a lunchbox (sorta) sized machine, with the PS/drives infront of the MB, not over it (like in say, an LX) so the foot print is a bit bigger.

The SCSI bus works fine w/o an external CD, but have not tried an extenral HD - I will.

The internal drive may not be terminated properly, but I don't think that is the case, since I was able to install on to this drive in place as is. (If I swapped this drive with a pre-installed OS from another machine I would consider this a more likely cause)

Worst case, I may just take a large HD, install Solaris on it in another machine, then boot -r and hope for the best...

I hope I cna get this up, but I have bigger fish to fry with some other machines right now - if you don't hear from me on this matter very soon, it is only because I haven't yet run out of ideas (or have succeeded,and haven't had time to report back!).

Thanks everyone for the help,

Ken 

-----Original Message-----

Message: 10
From: woods at weird.com (Greg A. Woods)
To: rescue at sunhelp.org
Subject: Re: [SunRescue] So I'm trying to get this Axil 220/245 "up", and I can't...
Organization: Planix, Inc.; Toronto, Ontario; Canada
Date: Mon, 16 Apr 2001 15:18:21 -0400 (EDT)
Reply-To: rescue at sunhelp.org

[ On Sunday, April 15, 2001 at 09:12:07 (-0400), Dave McGuire wrote: ]
> Subject: Re: [SunRescue] So I'm trying to get this Axil 220/245 "up", and I can't...
>
> 
>   Is the cdrom drive terminated?  If so, try removing the terminator
> and trying again.
> 
>   Yes, I know that sounds crazy, but I've run literally hundreds of Axil
> 245s...Their scsi busses are just a little bit quirky.

My understanding is that no Sun or Sun-compatible pizza-box machine
should ever have any termination on any *stub* SCSI connectors.
(i.e. the connectors intended for a short stub-length cable and a single
drive)

This is of course a different story for the newer machines with an
actual internal bus, especially the ones with SCA backplanes for the
internal disks....  Those absolutely require proper termination.

I don't know exactly what an Axil 220 looks like inside, but I've got a
320 running NetBSD happily here (though seems at least one stick of
memory I got for it from Memoryx long long ago doesn't work reliably --
but then I never tested it back when I got it, so I guess I'm SOL).

-- 
							Greg A. Woods

+1 416 218-0098      VE3TCP      <gwoods at acm.org>     <woods at robohack.ca>
Planix, Inc. <woods at planix.com>;   Secrets of the Weird <woods at weird.com>

--__--__--

Message: 11
From: woods at weird.com (Greg A. Woods)
To: rescue at sunhelp.org
Subject: Re: [SunRescue] So I'm trying to get this Axil 220/245 "up", and I  can't...
Organization: Planix, Inc.; Toronto, Ontario; Canada
Date: Mon, 16 Apr 2001 15:24:54 -0400 (EDT)
Reply-To: rescue at sunhelp.org

[ On Sunday, April 15, 2001 at 19:57:41 (-0400), Ken Hansen wrote: ]
> Subject: Re: [SunRescue] So I'm trying to get this Axil 220/245 "up", and I  can't...
>
> Well, I saw both this and your follow-up post, and I can see that the
> RAM might be an issue, but I can't get to a Solaris CD image to
> "re-label" the HD in-place.

You've not yet posted the output of "probe-scsi".....

> Side-note: the 220/245 system has a floppy in place, I can swap it out
> and place a 1/3rd height HD, as the SCSI cable and power connectors
> are already in-place. Neat idea.

Sounds like the internal SCSI is on a bus, not stub connectors.  This
would mean that you have to follow proper SCSI termination rules
(i.e. the ends of the bus must be terminated).  The internal cable may
already have a terminator pack on its end, as many types do.

This may also mean that if you've not got any devices on the external
bus connector then you might have to put a terminator on the back end of
the machine.  It shouldn't hurt to put one there anyway because if
there's internal auto-termination it should sense the external one and
disable itself.

Finally of course you should check the SCSI fuse for continuity if you
haven't already (or re-check it! :-).  This fuse limits the current
available for termination power and if it's blown then there is no
termation power.  You can check it without even knowing where it is or
what it looks like by plugging an active terminator pack into the
connector on the back of the system -- if the light on the back of the
terminator doesn't come on when the system has power then the fuse is
likely blown.