IDE interface with 2 EIDE drives

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3 total messages Started by Graham Daveney Tue, 09 Jul 1996 00:00

#338

Author: Graham Daveney
Date: Tue, 09 Jul 1996 00:00

41 lines
2422 bytes

Hi Guys,

    running kernel 1.2.13
    have had WD Caviar 800meg drive working fine.
    just added Quantum Sirocco 2.5gig EIDE.

    The "problem" is that I can only get the drive working when I jumper the
WD as master and the Quantum as slave and daisy chain the Quantum off the WD.

    Problem with this as I see is that things are real slow when trying to use
the drives in tandem. From hearing what other people say as well as many
readings of the /usr/src/linux/drivers/block/README.ide I understand that you
can run drives off the second interface/port on the IDE card.

    When I jumper the Quantum as slave and daisy chain it off the WD the BIOS
will autodetect it, all 4969 cylinders of it. No worries. If I hang the Quantum
off the second IDE interface/port BIOS will not recognise it, and Linux seems
to have problems as well.

    I have heard that if you use LILO (I don't at the moment but that can
change), you can pass arguments to force the detection of drives that the BIOS
won't or can't recognise.

    Question: should I worry about getting the Quantum working off the second
interface/port, or just be happy with the daisy chained solution ?

    Question: once I get LILO happening. What is the line command that I use
so that Linux can see the drive even if the BIOS is oblivious of its existence.

    Question: how do I ensure that the Quantum is assigned its own IRQ, on top
of that how do I find out which memory address it wants to use, or more
importantly how do I assign the memory address. Should I throw away the $35
VLA IDE card that I am using and buy something a bit more substantial.
 

Thanks for your time guys, this one has been a bit of a headache.


Graham Daveney
daveney@speednet.com.au

Re: IDE interface with 2 EIDE drives

#340

Author: Rob Crittenden
Date: Wed, 10 Jul 1996 00:00

32 lines
2048 bytes

In article <4runb2$ri8@news.mel.aone.net.au>,
	daveney@speednet.com.au (Graham Daveney) writes:
>Hi Guys,
>
>    running kernel 1.2.13
>    have had WD Caviar 800meg drive working fine.
>    just added Quantum Sirocco 2.5gig EIDE.
>
>    The "problem" is that I can only get the drive working when I jumper the
>WD as master and the Quantum as slave and daisy chain the Quantum off the WD.
>
> ...removed...

If I remember correctly, a patch was needed for 1.2.13 to handle > 2
drives with EIDE.  I'd recommend that you upgrade to 2.0 for more reasons
than just that.  You shouldn't need to do any LILO magic to get it to
work.  When the kernel boots, does it recognize the 2 ide controllers?

On my EIDE card (Promise 2300+) the primary controller (Int 14) has
the full VLB data path, the secondary (Int 15) is the standard IDE
bus (16-bits), so I have the faster/most use drives connected to primary
and the less-frequently used on the secondary.  Your milage may vary.

Rob
-- 

+------------------------------------+----------------------------------------+
|           Rob Crittenden           |        Phone: (301) 763-8590           |
|             Hughes STX             |          Fax: (301) 763-8388           |
|       Satellite Active Archive     |       E-mail: rcrit@saa.noaa.gov       |
+------------------------------------+----------------------------------------+

Re: IDE interface with 2 EIDE drives

#341

Author: Graham Daveney
Date: Thu, 11 Jul 1996 00:00

49 lines
2821 bytes

Rob Crittenden (rcrit@saa.noaa.gov) wrote:
: In article <4runb2$ri8@news.mel.aone.net.au>,
: 	daveney@speednet.com.au (Graham Daveney) writes:
: >Hi Guys,
: >
: >    running kernel 1.2.13
: >    have had WD Caviar 800meg drive working fine.
: >    just added Quantum Sirocco 2.5gig EIDE.
: >
: >    The "problem" is that I can only get the drive working when I jumper the
: >WD as master and the Quantum as slave and daisy chain the Quantum off the WD.
: >
: > ...removed...
: 
: If I remember correctly, a patch was needed for 1.2.13 to handle > 2
: drives with EIDE.  I'd recommend that you upgrade to 2.0 for more reasons
: than just that.  You shouldn't need to do any LILO magic to get it to
: work.  When the kernel boots, does it recognize the 2 ide controllers?
: 
: On my EIDE card (Promise 2300+) the primary controller (Int 14) has
: the full VLB data path, the secondary (Int 15) is the standard IDE
: bus (16-bits), so I have the faster/most use drives connected to primary
: and the less-frequently used on the secondary.  Your milage may vary.
: 
: Rob

Thanks so much Rob !

    I recompiled the kernel with the newer ide driver (still using 1.2.13), and
switched the Quantum over to the second ide controller and the kernel recognised
the Quantum as hdc now. When I tried to do fdisk /dev/hdc I was getting an error
saying something like "Drive not recognisable" or something like that. Then I 
remembered that there was a problem with the Slackware distribution and hdc hdd.
I did a search on altavista and saw a reply that you had suggested to someone
a little while ago saying that they should run /usr/src/linux/drivers/block/
MAKEDEV.ide if they had the Slackware distribution. Anway I did that and I could
mount the beastie.

   Problem solved.
 
   I did have an older IDE card like yours where the secondary controller was
a regular 16 bit ISA controller, but now I am using a newer card which I think 
has the second port has a full VLB data path. I don't know I will have to check.



Many Thanks
Graham

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