At 9:57 PM -0700 4/23/01, James Tuman Nelson wrote:

:)Let me guess:  because I have a 7500, I have to use the AV version of
:)v4.1 for flashing the 2940, regardless of whether the machine was
:)configured with AV or not when purchased.  Thus, I will not be able to
:)use the 2940UW to boot, unless some sort of new development comes about,
:)or I procure a nonAV machine, such as a G4.

That is how I read the Adaptec install notes.  And, since I don't have
access to a non-"A/V" mac, I'm hesitant to flash my 2940 in case something
goes wrong.  The term "A/V" is wholly Adaptec's, and has nothing to do with
whether there are A/V capabilities or not on youre model.  AFAICT, they
were referring to the first generation of PCI powermacs.

:)However, when I look at the words and .properties, they are identical
:)for both AV and non-AV versions!  Further, the number of bytes is
:)identical.  It is as though both flash programs are identical.  I will
:)check sources of these firmware flashes.

That's a bit weird.  Maybe it's just the part of the program that flashes
it is different on different models.

:)So, how would one set up a floppy or Jaz disk to boot the kernel and
:)then mount the 2940 scsi drive root, /usr, and so forth partitions?

Using the boot floppy, install onto your drive attached to the adaptec bus
Don't reboot
disklabel and create a filesystem on your Jaz disk
copy the kernel over to the Jaz
run installboot on the Jaz to install the bootloader

Now, you'd type:
boot /path/to/Jaz -a
and once the kernel is loaded, you specify that the filesystems are located
on your adaptec drive

Once you're happy with this, you can compile a new kernel with the
adaptec-based hard drive hard wired in as the root partition (you probably
also want a copy of the kernel in the root level of your adaptec-based
drive so 'top' and 'ps' work)

Let me know if you need more detailed instructions.

:)Are you able to boot from your 2940?

No, I'm not.  I've just been using a drive on the external slow-narrow bus
for NetBSD.

:)I suppose I could set up a root device on an external scsi  Jaz drive
:)and just use the 2940 device as /usr, /var, /home, /work, and so forth,
:)but that is kind of crude.  Plus, I lose access to the Jaz.

No, you could remove the Jaz once the kernel is loaded.  Only the
bootloader looks at that filesystem.

:)I will move my 2940UW to the other end of the PCI expansion bus and see
:)if that changes anything.

That should make no difference -- Adaptec never provided the support you're
looking for on this model of SCSI adapters in your model of mac.

Good luck,
  -- MW