🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <4k0tnp$o66@info.evansville.net> tkraft@evansville.net (Toby L. Kraft) writes:

> Whenever I install a new PCI board, I never know what IRQ will get
> assigned to it.  The PCI board may get an IRQ assigned to an ISA board
> and then the trouble begins.  I have several Micron systems with Phoenix
> BIOS and Buslogic BT946C controllers.  Three different MB bioses - three
> different IRQ's assigned to the Buslogic board!
> HI54M-02PM -> IRQ 11
> HI54M-09PM -> IRQ 15
> HI54M-10PM -> IRQ 10
> Needless to say this plays havoc with system configurations with systems
> like SCO unix which won't boot if there is an irq conflict.  There is no
> method that I have found to assign an IRQ to a specific PCI board with
> Phoenix and/or Buslogic's bioses.
>
> We had a system with a defective motherboard that failed after about 6
> months.  No problem - just swap motherboards with the same configuration
> - right?  Wrong!  The new motherboard had a newer bios which chose a
> different IRQ for the buslogic than the earlier one which conflicted with
> the network adapter and SCO paniced on boot (as it should).  Only
> solution was to flash the bios back to the earlier level to get the IRQ
> assigned where we had SCO configured for it.

It doesn't sound like you're using the latest SCO driver from BusLogic,
then, because it's PCI compliant and doesn't care whether the IRQ moves or
not - it'll go out and find the adapter anyway.  Versions of the driver
prior to 2.06 were not completely compliant and forced you to use 0x334h
and IRQ=11 in order to have the card recognized as a BusLogic.  You can get
the latest driver at ftp://ftp.buslogic.com/pub/current/SCO.EXE

> Are there any bioses out there that let you determine resource assignment
> for PCI adapters?

Probably, but most of the major ones do it for you, assuming you're going
to be using properly PCI compliant drivers.

> Is there a Buslogic bios that allows you to force the IRQ to a specific
> one and is it possible with PCI?

Not and still be PCI 2.0 compliant.

> Where is a good source of info about PCI in regard to actually explaining
> how all this works and how to live with it.

I'd like to know too.  :-)

> PS I never had these problems with ISA boards...

Well, they haven't made ISA "Plug & Play/Pray" yet.  Fortunately.

Rhia