Hi Jason,

Thanks for your info.  I just need a few more clarifications.

:)Strictly speaking, using the MI SCSI code would not speed up your transfers.
:)That is purely a controller driver issue.  (Yes, the controller driver needs
:)to be rewritten from scratch.)

Oooh, that sounds particularly nasty.  I can see why that's low on the list
of priorities around here.

:) > The install notes recommend ofsetting the a partition by one cylinder,
:) >     which is fine for disks with small cylinder sizes, but how much space
:) >     is really necessary for SCSI disks?
:)
:)...as much as it takes to keep the boot block (which spills into the C
:)partition, making it FS_BOOT) from spilling into the A partition.

So, somewhat slightly larger than the number of bytes in SYS_UBOOT or
SYS_INST (whichever is larger), leaving room for larger bootblocks in the
future?

:) > What other NetBSD platforms can/can't write disklabel and bootblocks for
:) >     hp300 machines (I know sun3x, sun3, and sparc can't)?
:)
:)Huh?  sun3x, sun3, sparc, and hp300 can all write boot blocks to the disks
:)and write disklabels to the disk.

Oh.  I was under the impression suns wrote sun-specific disklabels, since
the sun bootrom uses that to figure out where the bootblocks are.

In any case (just to be sure) you're saying that any NetBSD platform with
SCSI can use the disklabel program to write a disklabel and
SYS_UBOOT/SYS_INST to a disk and boot a hp300 machine (with SCSI)?

:) > And, lastly, can anyone comment on why the HP-IB isn't available when one
:) >     or more SCSI devices are attached (i.e. can't use HP-IB drives or
:) >     tapes if a SCSI drive is plugged into my 400s)?  This used to work
:) >     thru NetBSD-1.1.
:)
:)"Um, I don't know."  I have used HP-IB and SCSI at the same time on my
:)hp380.  Define "can't use" .. they don't probe, a timeout occurs when they
:)are accessed, what?  I need specifics here :-)

OK, NetBSD 1.2 and later don't recognize the nhpib or fhpib bus on my 400,
when they're configured into the kernel.  Therefore the kernel doesn't
recognize any hpib hard drives or tape drives I have attached.  When the
kernel loads, it just skips over that part.

I believe I've seen a couple of other posts to the same effect from others
(Herb?).  Could just be that anyone else who is missing hpib doesn't care
since they don't have any devices.

Thanks,
  -- MW