On Wed, 28 Apr 1999, Brian D Chase wrote:

> 
> I'm using one in a MicroVAX II without problems.  It's been a good year or
> so since I configured it though.  I'll try to look at my setup by this
> weekend.
> 
> I don't have the specs on this controller, but I remember the setup being
> very intuitive.  I just hooked up my VT240 to the SQ706A and plunked away.
> But since I don't have the specs on the controller, I set things up with a
> good dose of SCSI paranoia in mind.

Setup doesn't seem very intuitive here...  :-(    maybe you have a newer
firmware version.    A basic functionality of SCSI controllers seems to
be missing here--   the reporting of what devices are attached to the
SCSI bus.   This is a basic function that no SCSI controller should be
without.  This provides valuable information about the basic health of
your SCSI bus.   Even my ESDI controllers will probe the connected
devices and give you a report of what it finds...
 
> [1] You may not be able to use disks larger that 1GB on this controller.
>     I have no idea though so I opted to just use a 1GB Fujitsu which
>     worked out fine.

Not a problem...   Current target is a 383MB Seagate.  Known good-- works
fine on a MV3100.
 
> [2] I didn't use SCSI ID 0, because sometimes SCSI controllers don't like
>     to use ID 0.  I don't know enough about SCSI controllers to know why
>     this is the case, but I've had problems with PCs and SGIs in the past
>     where setting one device at SCSI ID 0 causes *strange happenings* on
>     the bus to which the device is connected. (e.g. the single ID 0
>     device gets detected on ID 0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, and 7)

The controller is claiming to be using SCSI ID 7, as per the resident
diagnostics.   Disk at SCSI ID 0 appears to work, to a point.
 
> [3] Maybe use the built in SQ706A disk formatter.  Well, I did, and
>     nothing blew up.  Try [1] and [2] first, and then maybe consider
>     using the formatter.

For further testing, I put an old RZ23 on there that is about to die from
bearing failure, so if the controller made a mess of it, it would be no
great loss. 

I ran the format command, telling it to format SCSI ID 0, and it went
off and did it.  Came back and said format complete.  Still no joy
from SHOW DEVICES at the >>> prompt.
 
Just as a test, I told the controller to format a non-existent SCSI
ID, and it dutifully reported that ID was not responding, so I guess
we can trust what the diags are saying about the format results, and
I suppose we can infer that basic SCSI bus connectivity is working.


> The drive shows up as an RA80, but the geometry is correct for the actual
> SCSI drive.

Shows up where?   
 
Sure wish I knew why nothing shows up in SHOW DEVICES....


> -brian.
> ---
> Brian "JARAI" Chase | http://world.std.com/~bdc/ | VAXZilla LIVES!!!
> 

Thanks,
Jim