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Installing a SCSI controller from the boot prompt

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ronmis

MIS
Jan 19, 2004
11
US
I need to pull data off of a hard drive and don't have the original configuration of the system it was designed for. I have a similar system but the SCSI controller is not the same. I need to make the hard drive recognize the controller so it will finish the boot process. Any suggestions? I have the driver for the controller, an Adaptec 29160.
 
If you have a running SCO box, why not change the SCSI Id of this hard drive, install it in the box and then do a
Code:
mkdev hd
to gain access to the desired data ?

Hope This Help
PH.
 
That would work, but I don't have another SCO box.
 
I have the driver for the controller, an Adaptec 29160.
A BTLD floppy ?
If so, have you tried something like this at the boot prompt ?
Code:
defbootstr link=ad160
If not, you can even try this at the boot prompt:
Code:
unix.install

Hope This Help
PH.
 
Is there a way to get that to look to the floppy? It will only look at the hard drive and is not even looking at the floppy.
 
ronmis,

What do you think of the 29160?

I am trying to do the same thing, as I have the tapes from the old system.
Having major problems as the card will not recognize any legacy SCSI stuff. I had to install an older card to get my tape to work.

There is some good information at about btldinstall and btmnt.
 
Normally I like the 29160, I have had very good luck with them as they rarely malfunction. I normally connect one hard drive, a tape drive, and a CD-ROM. Thanks for the link I am going to check it out.
 
Is there a way to get that to look to the floppy? It will only look at the hard drive and is not even looking at the floppy.

mount your floopy and read the contents. Then cd and look. You may look under /mnt/ad160 (if you mount under mnt and your driver is ad160. most likely it should be ad160)



[ponder]
----------------
ur feedback is a very welcome desire
 
Am I on the right track?
I boot with floppy made from system with the ad160 driver, and plan to follow the procedures.

1. mount /dev/hd0root /rootmount


My question is to make this work is to chroot and make the hard disk the environment.

mount /dev/fd0 /mnt
btldinstall /mnt

That lets you install the driver, but hasn't told the system to USE that driver.

Identify the current disk driver by


grep Sdsk /etc/conf/cf.d/mscsi


Your current driver will in column 2- examples "alad", "arad", "blad"

Identify what driver you need by examining /etc/default/scsihas (if you used a btld, it's whatever you installed)


cd /etc/conf/sdevice.d


Edit the current driver file and change the "Y"'s to "N" in the first column. For example, if your current driver is alad, you edit /etc/conf/sdevice.d/alad.
Edit the NEW driver file and change "N" to Y. Example, your new driver is "blad", you edit /etc/conf/sdevice.d/blad.

Next, cd /etc/conf/cf.d and edit mscsi. Change the driver column to match your NEW controller. For example, changing from alad to blad with vi:



:1,$s/alad/blad/
:wq


Finally,

btmnt -w
cp /stand/unix /stand/unix.good
btmnt -d
./link_unix
 
I need to get the controller installed because I cannot get it to boot in the first place. As it is going through the boot process it will error out with a no root controller error. The hard drive was setup on a different controller and I had to switch to the 29160. That is why I need to load the controller before the machine has booted. Otherwise, all of those suggestions would have been great.
 
the long and short of it is that the boot loader and the kernel have to know about the controller in order to boot.
you can change root controllers on a hd if you configure it into to the kernel before you change it, not afterwards.
your best bet is to buy a media pack, load up a new system on whatever hardware (use the eval keys) then add the drive as a second hd (preventing divvy from creating new filesystems on it), mount it, and retrieve your data.
there are a number of faq's and examples on how to do this here and on the sco site.

hth
stan
 
That's what I was afraid of. Thank you everyone for your input.
 
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