Subject: Re: Seagate SCSI write-back drive cache
To: Chuck Cranor <chuck@dworkin.wustl.edu>
From: Michael L. VanLoon -- HeadCandy.com <michaelv@MindBender.serv.net>
List: current-users
Date: 03/23/1997 16:42:11
>>I remember a discussion on enabling this, a month or three ago.
>>(I. e. it comes enabled in write-through mode, and you have to send a
>>SCSI command to enable write-back.  This is to protect against power
>>failure and uncommitted data.  I have a UPS, so this is a non-issue.)

>	we had this problem too.   Justin Gibbs helped us out.
>you need to change a value on "mode page 8".  what you have to 
>do is get the "scsi" program compiled and run the following command:
>./scsi -e -f /dev/rsd0d -m 8 -P 3
>and change WCE to "1".
>I believe the "scsi" command is from FreeBSD.   However, it has been
>ported to OpenBSD, so I just grabbed all the necessary pieces and 
>pulled it over to NetBSD (it doesn't require any kernel changes).
>get ftp://dworkin.wustl.edu/pub/scsi.tar.gz if you want my port of
>the OpenBSD version of "scsi" (includes i386 binary).
>Oh, I suggest reading the man page before running "scsi" just so
>you understand what it is doing.

Thanks, Chuck, this did the trick.  It's not really very much faster
(these are semi-old drives -- 2-3 year old 1GB ST31200Ns), but every
little bit helps.

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  Michael L. VanLoon                           michaelv@MindBender.serv.net
        --<  Free your mind and your machine -- NetBSD free un*x  >--
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