Subject: Re: First attempt partly successful (very long)
To: Kjetil Bernhard Thomassen <thomassk@oslo.geco-prakla.slb.com>
From: Scott Stevens <s.k.stevens@IC.AC.UK>
List: port-arm32
Date: 07/02/1996 12:27:55
Kjetil Bernhard Thomassen writes:
> Unixfs does not work with my SCSI disk
> --------------------------------------
>
> When I try to mount my RiscBSD SCSI-disk with Unixfs, it gives me
> the following error message:
>
> "Error - Invalid filesystem superblock or unknown superblock format"
>
> The same error message comes when I boot from the SCSI-disk, but
> if I just ignore it, everything boots fine.
>
Are you using the new filecore ? UnixFS accesses the disk using
filecore operations. Also ensure theat the SWI base is correct for
your card's DiscOp.
> bb_riscbsd
> ----------
>
> This did not check correctly for SCSI when typing S. It always
> ended up with using ADFS. I just made a new copy of this program
> and set it to SCSI all the time.
Right this little proggy has only been tested on cumana and powertec
cards AFAIK. These cards use SCSI_DiscOp. I'll change this. The
case-sensitivity is a problem tho'.
> Also, it did not use the correct SWI for my SCSI card. It tried
> to use an SWI called SCSI_DiscOp, but on the Acorn card, this
> is correctly called SCSIFS_DiscOp. I believe that other SCSI
> cards start their SWI's with SCSI_ in order to avoid conflict
> with Acorn's software.
>
> When these two problems were fixed, I managed to create a RiscBSD
> partition on my HP SCSI disk.
>
> I was also unable to use my whole second IDE disc with this program.
> It needed to have a RISC OS partition on this disc, so I set up a
> 30 MB partition with !Hform. !Hform was unable to format a 10 MB
> partition as I originally intended.
If you want to use the whole disk for RiscBSD you don't need to use
bb_riscbsd. But you *do* need to invalidate any filecore boot block on
the disk. ie if you don't want a filecore section of the disk you need
to remove all evidence of it. One simple way of doing this is to
change the checksum byte (cf bb_riscbsd).
> But, all in all, we are getting somewhere.
Great.
> Kjetil B. Thomassen
> mailto:thomassk@oslo.geco-prakla.slb.com
Cheers Scott
--
Scott Stevens, Network Services Group, Computer Centre, Imperial College
"It was a slow day, and the sun was beating,
On the soldiers by the side of the road,
There was a bright light, shattering of shop windows,
The bomb in the baby carriage was wired to the radio." - Paul Simon