On Sat 12 Apr, Thomas Boroske wrote:
> In message <Pine.SOL.3.91-941213.970411143948.7077E-100000@duss0.dur.ac.uk> you wrote:
> 
>>   Unfortunately they don't have ATAPI support. I think you'll have to 
>> compile your own kernel for that, unless someone else here can get you one.
> 
> I had a go at building a kernel, but didn't have success. Apparently, 
> including an atapi device couldn't be done as before. With my old 
> archive, the atapi was configured using "atapibus at wdc" and 
> "acd* at atapibus?" atc, but this seems to have changed for the more
> recent source archive.
> 
> First the atapi source directory wasn't included at all, and then the 
> arch/arm32/conf/files.arm32 file gave indication that atapi is now 
> attached to mainbus, however the files needed (should be under 
> arch/arm32/mainbus/exp/xxx) weren't there (the exp directory wasn't).
> All this if I understood the purpose of this file correctly.
> 
> Before I have a go at the current file from the netbsd site: 
> Has anyone got any ideas how to configure an atapi drive with this source
> tree (from sources/kernels/sys-arm32.tar.gz, dated 4. April) ?
> Will it be possible to configure an atapi device at all, with the 
> current sources ???

If I remember correctly, the ATAPI code has not been more than alpha.

Also, there has been lots of changes to the MI (machine independent)
code that means that the ATAPI code has to be rewritten.

Mark (Brinicombe) is in the process of doing that, but as you all
know he is very busy at Causality at the moment.

This means that ATAPI support is not available unless you use
a very old kernel.

> Also, is there documentation somewhere about the kernel configuration
> (ie what's in which files etc) apart from the config_guide.txt - 
> or is this considered general Unix wizard knowledge ?

As far as I know, there is none. Mark (again) has said that he
needs to rewrite the config_guide.txt to include the changes.

> If so, does anyone know a good reading on Unix system architecture
> or other appropriate books ?

You could try the 4.4BSD books available from O'Reilly at:
http://www.ora.com/publishing/sysadmin/products.htm

> I hope you don't mind my questions,

Not at all.

Kjetil B.
mailto:kjetil.b.thomassen@eunet.no