[rescue] "SCSI Bus Reset Errors" on an IPX

[rescue at sunhelp.org]

Hello,

I am trying to save an SPARCStation IPX I bought on eBay a few weeks ago.  I am using an Apple CD300 and I while I can boot from it, I cannot get past the "SCSI Bus Reset Error" messages that come up after SILO loads on the Debian for SPARC 2.2r3 CD.

My first attempt to install:  I opened the box and temporarily replaced the 2-connector 50 pin SCSI ribbon with a 3 connector ribbon and attached a splitter to the power molex.  I had replaced the 400Mb disk with a Western Digital 2170 2.0GB ULTRA SCSI HDD and the "SCSITerm" and "TERMPWR" were pinned, so I put it at the end of the SCSI ribbon and attached the CD300 to the second connector.  Everything went fine until Linux identified the SCSI controller and the error messages started filling up my console.

I thought there might be something goofy with the internal SCSI drop, so I scrounged around at work until I found some old enclosures and dropped the CD300 into one and shelled out 20 bucks for a SCSI-2 to centronics cable and went to work.  Same thing happened.

I didn't think lack of termination would be a big deal with a 3 foot cable, but I found a centronics terminator and slapped that on the end of the chain but still no luck.

I am not an expert and it's been two years since I've done any work with Sun hardware, but I recall booting an old SS2 the same way and everything worked fine... even without termination (of course I was using the Sun CD and a shorter cable)

An 3133T h4x0r friend suggested the SCSI controller could be bad, so we're trying to dig up an SBus controller, hopefully a combo card with good ethernet (but that's ANOTHER post, and the answer to "Why not net install?"), and we'll go from there.

Any ideas?  Suggestions?

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated.  I love old Suns and would hate to have wasted $15 on a doorstop that should have been my new workstation :-(

Thanks in advance!

Doug Baker
dob at qis.net