Adaptec 3940/3940W for standard Debian 1.3 install?
I am new to the list and Linux/Debian but impressed and working
my way through "Running Linux" having read the 1.3 installation
book. I've got a problem and two hypotheses about it but think I'd
do well to tap into the list expertise already in case it will save
much time and hair loss! TIA to any who step in with pertinent
experience!
I'm installing on a machine that had NT 3.51 on it. It's a weird box:
an ASUS motherboard with twin Pentium 90MHz, 64Mb of RAM
and the driver controller is an Adaptec 3940/3940W. That has two
SCSI channels and worked fine under NT 3.51 (and 3.5 before
that). On the first channel the machine has a 1Gb IBM drive and a
Quantum XP34300 as well as a Toshiba CDROM.
I think those two drives and the CDROM were seen and used fine
by my first install. The odd thing is that the install also detected
the three (I said it was an odd box!) disk drives on the second SCSI
channel of the Adaptec but wouldn't format them, complaining
about a "bad partition table" (that may not have been word perfect).
I managed to get a bit more info. that seemed to say that
partitions weren't falling on the heads/tracks it thought they should.
The install wouldn't do anything with them.
The drives are two Seagates, an ST41650 and an ST42100 and a
Quantum Fireball ST4.3S.
I have two hypotheses:
1) That the Debian install repartitioning software doesn't like
partition information left by NT and those drives were still NTFS
formatted whereas the two drives recognised and reformatted OK
had been converted to FAT when I was getting enough DOS
access to the CDROM to start the install off.
2) That Debian 1.3 default SCSI drivers don't work correctly
(perhaps I have to tell them something as a command line
parameter?) with the 3940/3940W second channel despite
apparently seeing the drives that are on it.
I'm low level reformatting all the drives at the Adaptec hardware
level (slooo..ow) prior to reinstalling DOS, windows, adaptec DOS
handlers and then restarting the install of Debian. I am planning to
make sure all the drives can be DOS partitioned and formatted
using the Adaptec DOS/Win3.1 drivers prior to the Debian install
and I'm happy to be installing again as there were things I got
wrong about the network card and as the file system/partition
organisation I chose that time was daft. However, I'd hate to end up
doing all this umpteen times so I'd really appreciate any advice.
I'd rather not move all the drives to the first SCSI channel as the
cabling is a nightmare to do and as I know this arrangement has
worked.
Any help out there?
TIA, best wishes all,
Chris
Chris Evans, Senior Lecturer in Psychotherapy,
Locum Consultant to the
Prudence Skynner Family Therapy Clinic,
St. George's Hospital Medical School, London University
C.Evans@sghms.ac.uk http://psyctc.sghms.ac.uk/
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