RZ56 Help needed - test-drb@ccmp.vtda.org

3 Dec 1999

On Dec 3, 15:47, allisonp(a)world.std.com wrote:
...
   I am trying to
install NetBSD on my MicroVAX 3100.  I would like to
 install it on the RZ56 which is in its own expansion box.  The problem,
 or so I am told, is that the drive as it is needs to be told to spin up
 and NetBSD doesn't do that. 
 Do a >>>show dev as that has to spin it up to talk to it.

 > It has been suggested that there might be a jumper to tell it to spin up
...
   automatically.
  Does anyone here know if that is the case, and if so,
 where it is? 
 No there isn't that I can remember. 
Alison is probably correct.  Some DEC drives do have a jumper to select
spinup on power-up, but the RZ23/24/25 definitely don't (the original
Connor drives do, but DEC changed the firmware) and some notes I have here
suggest the RZ55/56 have different firmware too.

What you'll get out of the drive depends on what the OS is trying to do: a
SCSI MODE SENSE command will work fine, but you won't be able to do
anything more interesting until the disk has spun up (which is done by
issuing a START UNIT command).  DEC used to have a utility called RZSPINUP
to do this, but any SCSI utility that can issue a START UNIT command would
do as well.

-- 

Pete						Peter Turnbull
						Dept. of Computer Science
						University of York