In message <Pine.SUN.3.91-941213.970114121213.2864C-100000@dust0.dur.ac.uk> you wrote:

>   Ok. This is probably posible, but it's ANNOYING!
> 
> I had a similar setup to what you suggest above, but I've got a 420MB IDE 
> disk and a cumana SCSI II card (works the same as the powertec).
> 
>   I have my entire IDE disk for RiscBSD plus 200Mb of the SCSI.  I at 
> first tried having the important parts of the system on IDE, and less 
> important things on the SCSI (like kernel sources, emacs and TeX) and 
> this certainly works.
> 
>   What's ANNOYING is that the problem with these drivers isn't just the 
> slow transfer rates, but also the fact that because they poll the 
> hardware, they really hog the CPU, so for instance while compiling a new 
> kernel I couldn't really do anything else, no matter now nice I made the 
> compiling task.

Yes, that's about the biggest problem.

> 
>   Now I use the SCSI disk as temp storage for data. If I want to work on 
> it I copy it onto my IDE disk, then back when it's finished.
> 
> (It's also used to boot off, as you need to have an ADFS partition on a 
> disk for unixfs to be able to use it it seems - unixfs doesn't see my 
> entirely RiscBSD IDE disk)

If you know this before, you could cure that by creating a very small (say 
1 MB) partition on it, I guess ?

>   If you only have a 210Mb IDE then you'll need more if the 'vital' 
> system on your SCSI.  It will be useable, but a pain.
> 
>   Hope this ramble is of some use!

It certainly is. If I think about it, large parts of RiscBSD will be 
used all the time, for example all the X stuff, so 210MB will be a tad
small. 

I never intended to use this kind of setup all the time, of course, 
so I think the feasability of this idea depends strongly on wether 
and when the improved drivers will be available.

Thanks for the anwer, 


-- 
Thomas Boroske