Thomas Mueller wrote:
TM> I think it must be a bug in the source code for mount
Steven of NZ responded:
S> Very, very unlikely.
There could be some fault in mount, since it just hangs when I attempt to mount
the CD-ROM, never returning to the command prompt. If it can't mount the
CD-ROM, it ought to return to the command prompt with an error message.
TM> and/or the g_NCR5380 SCSI driver.
S> It is possible that the specifications of the driver have
been altered to accommodate more recent hardware. This is
one reason why old computers often perform better with an
old distribution.
Are they still making SCSI cards with NCR5380 or NCR53c400 controller?
S> I suggest you go back to Slackware 3.1 and confirm that
the n_5380.s kernel works with your CDrom drive. If it
does, you can step through Slackware 3.2, 3.3 and so on
to find where the compatibility stops. You can download
these old kernels from the Slackware archieves. If you
boot your linux filesystem from DOS (using loadlin.exe)
you can swap round these kernels quite simply.
It seems to me that the most likely break point for
compatibility is between Slackware 3.9 and 4.0
(when the kernel changed from 2.0 to 2.2). But you
will only find this out by testing it yourself.
I think my last Linux installation was from Slackware 3.1. 3.2 and later
couldn't access CD-ROM or Iomega Zip 100 or 250, but 7.0, 7.1 and 8.0 could
mount the Zip 250 but not the CD-ROM. I had a subscription to Slackware with
Walnut Creek CDROM, didn't know if it would be carried over by Slackware, but
I recently received 8.0. I could also try kernels from 2.4.5; regular N_5380.S
kernel hung when I tried to mount the CD-ROM though I successfully mounted the
ailing Zip 250. The newer kernels may be too big for LOADLIN.EXE.
Trantor T130B documentation didn't mention NCR5380 or NCR53c400 at all, nor did
OS/2 support for this SCSI. I think for some reason, I have to give the address
as 0x358 (offset of 8) rather than 0x350. I didn't use an IRQ. I think 3, 5
and 7, the only choices, are already taken. Modem is on address 0x2e8, IRQ 5.
I used the kernel command line ncr5380=0x358,-1,254, maybe I should try
ncr53c400=0x358,-1 ? I think -1 would be equivalent to 255 for a single-byte
number, 11111111. SCSI is not detected at all without the command-line
override.
My last Linux installation was lost due to hard disks crash. I was able to
recover the first, smaller, hard disk using Linux fdisk, but not the second. I
think the data on the second hard disk was well overwritten, trashed. First
hard disk had root partition, second hard disk had /usr. So I may be able to
retrieve the kernel from the root partition. This hard disk is not in the
computer now.
Steven, your help may or may not save the situation, but thanks anyway for
trying.
Another advantage of LOADLIN is that Linux gets the correct year instead of
booting into year 2094. Last line of my AUTOEXEC.BAT for DOS is
DATE
so I always remember to correct the year when booting DR-DOS 7.03.
