[Pc_Support] Re: 68-pin SCSI card for Linux box ....

[Bryan J. Smith]

On Tue, 2006-06-27 at 11:41 -0500, PHIL BERGSTRESSER wrote:
> I have used quite a few Adaptec models over the years, but have been
> using the 29160 retail for 3 years.

Which is why you're not having issues.  Retail 29160 cards.

The entire AIC-78xx was a serious PITA -- especially Ultra
(AIC-787x/788x) and Ultra80 (AIC-789x) OEM models.  I used to rip them
out of Dell, Gateway, Micron and other PC servers and put in Symbios
Logic 53c875 (Ultra) and 53c895/896 (Ultra80) cards in the late '90s.

Adaptec _never_ officially supported Linux until very late 1999, and
then they still have various "hands off" policies on their RAID cards.

When it came to mainboards, I always looked for the 53c8xx on-board over
the AIC-78xx.  If it had a AIC-78xx, I didn't want it.  It typically had
all sorts of OEM firmware changes.  I.e., Adaptec recommended you
_never_ use their generic Windows drivers (or those built-in), but the
OEM's Windows driver set.  Unfortunately for Linux, there was _no_
AIC-7xxx driver set from the OEM (and the AIC-7xxx driver was already
bad enough with retail AIC-78xx solutions without throwing OEM firmware
changes issues into the mix).

I still see some people complaining about the 29xxx/39xxx series cards,
but not nearly as much.  The 29160 sold very well on the retail shelf,
which is why it better supported.

But I'll still stick with 53c895/896 and 53c1010 any day, because it was
working damn well for me in 1999.  Not only on Linux, not only on NT,
but also on OpenVMS/Alpha, Solaris/SPARC, etc... in non-PC firmware
flavors too.  Symbios Logic (now LSI Logic) has always understood the
OEM channel better than Adaptec.

> It supports 16 devices which I needed, but only the newer drives have
> jumpers for more than 8 positions.

That's basic narrow (8-bit data, 3-bit ID/8-device) v. wide (16-bit
data, 4-bit ID/16-device) SCSI.


-- 
Bryan J. Smith           Professional, technical annoyance
mailto:b.j.smith at ieee.org     http://thebs413.blogspot.com
----------------------------------------------------------
The existence of Linux has far more to do with the breakup
of AT&T's monopoly than anything Microsoft has ever done.