Date: 22 Feb 89 02:06:23 EST (Wed) From: "Wm E. Davidsen" Subject: 80386 mailing list, vol 4 #10 To: 386users@TWG.COM 80386 User's mailing list vol 4 #10 Feb 22, 1989 In this issue: Z-386 eating disk controllers Seeking Inboard386/PC advice ENIX (cheap UNIX for 80x86 boxes)? Xenix386 & Telebit-Plus How to detect a floppy in 386/ix ?? MicroChannel joystick adapters, anyone? WYSE comes through with the goods! (Was: Word Perfect Killed...) 386 & Backup Prgs. 386 problems [ 3 msgs ] Replacing 286 with 386SX drop in board [ 2 msgs ] 386 "real" mode access beyond 1M using data_32 instruction prefix Need HELP - Adaptec ACB-2322A, Micropolis 1558, Wyse pc386 The addresses for the list are now: 386users@TWG.COM - for contributions to the list or ...!uunet!TWG.COM!386users 386users-request@TWG.COM - for administrivia or ...!uunet!TWG.COM!386users-request P L E A S E N O T E If you want to get on or off the list, or change your address, please mail to the 386users-request address, or the message will be delayed by having to hand forward it (for your convenience, not mine). ---------------------------------------------------------------------- From: tsf@arizona.edu (Ted Frohling @ CCIT-Telcommunications, University of Arizona) Subject: Z-386 eating disk controllers Date: 30 Jan 89 18:00:36 GMT I am having a very strange problem with my Zenith Z-386 box. It seems like it wants to eat disk controllers. Shortly after buying the unit, I decided to install a larger disk drive. An ST-4096 drive to be specific. This 80Mb drive was to augment the existing CDC 40Mb drive. I had no end of trouble getting the controller to talk to the drive which was configured as the second drive. Didn't matter whether it was the 80 or 40Mb drive. I could format either drive as the one and only drive in the system. Since, the 80Mb had not been purchased from Zenith, the Zenith repair guys said it had to be the drive. When I showed them that it would work perfectly well as the only drive in the system, they changed their tune and swapped controllers. By the way, the controller is a DTC 5280-cai. It's a floppy/hard drive controller. Everything went along ok for about 2 months and shortly after thanksgiving the machine started acting up again. It wouldn't talk to the second drive. At this time the machine was configured as 40 Mb first HD, 80Mb second. Through a series of reboots I was finally able to see the second drive. I made a full backup and back the machine went to the shop. The shop said that the 80Mb drive was bad. This after two weeks in the shop. I picked up the machine. In desperation, I took the drive out of the 386 and installed in an XT clone with a Western Digital hard disk controller and formatted it! After the successful format, I reinstalled it in the 386 as the only drive and formatted it there. As before, the controller wouldn't talk to the just previously good 40Mb drive when it was configured as the second drive. I have talked to the shop since, and they have again changed their story about how the drive must be bad, since it obviously does work as the only drive in the system. I called DTC tech support. They had just heard of a similar story with an unnamed system and an ST-4096 drive. Has anyone else had this kind of problem? Resolutions please. Yes, I've paid attention to terminating resistors, cables, etc. The Zenith shop, stated that I had exceeded some magic capacity that the controller had at 100Mb, but DTC denies any such limit. Just a limit on the number of tracks, which has more to do with the formatting software than anything else. I used diskmanager from Ontrack (the full version) to do the low level formatting. -- Ted Frohling Internet: tsf@rvax.ccit.arizona.edu Network Support BITNET: tsf@arizrvax.BITNET CCIT - Telecommunications AT&T: (602) 621-4834 University of Arizona, Tucson, AZ 85721 ------------------------------ From: jkennedy@umn-cs.CS.UMN.EDU (Joel Kennedy) Subject: Seeking Inboard386/PC advice Date: 2 Feb 89 00:55:26 GMT Greetings. I am an XT clone owner looking to upgrade to a 386 in some way. The Inboard/pc looks to be the most economical way. My applications are such that slow video access doesn't bother me, but I'm worried about the disk access. I currently have an ST-238 and find that quite fine, for now. Someday, I expect to want to move on to something larger and faster. Will that be possible without bagging the inboard and getting a real 386 system? What other drawbacks are there to this approach that will be un-overcomeable? Advice in general? Another appealing, although much more expensive approach is the Hauppauge board. Is it worth it? Will it do everything I've ever wanted, at least those relating to computers? Can I use my ST-238 in that? Where is it available and for how much? Other suggestions in general? Very much thanks in advance. Joel K. ------------------------------ From: todd@uhccux.uhcc.hawaii.edu (Todd Ogasawara) Subject: ENIX (cheap UNIX for 80x86 boxes)? Date: 1 Feb 89 18:06:54 GMT Has anyone had any experience with Everex's ENIX for boxes with Intel CPUs? I heard that for $299 you get X-Windows, Korn Shell, TCP/IP software, and the usual Berkeley enhancements plus GNU C and EMACS in a ready-to-run form. The $299 gets you a two user license. $499 gives you an unlimited license. -- Todd Ogasawara, U. of Hawaii Faculty Development Program/Focal Point UUCP: {uunet,ucbvax,dcdwest}!ucsd!nosc!uhccux!todd ARPA: uhccux!todd@nosc.MIL BITNET: todd@uhccux INTERNET: todd@uhccux.UHCC.HAWAII.EDU <==I'm told this rarely works ------------------------------ From: sandy@turnkey.TCC.COM (Sanford 'Sandy' Zelkovitz) Subject: Xenix386 & Telebit-Plus Date: 30 Jan 89 04:59:27 GMT I finally found out why the Telebit wasn't running under RTS/CTS Flow Control! It turns out that it wasn't the modem. It is either the driver for the standard comm ports or my cable going to the modem. When I hooked the modem up to the Smart Multi-port card, all works as advertised! I would like to thank everyone that sent me mail about this problem and I would as like to mention to others that are having similar problems, try a different comm port or cable. Sandy -- Sanford Zelkovitz XBBS 714-898-8634 UUCP: ....att!hermix!alphacm!sandy ....trwrb!ucla-an!alphacm!sandy ....uunet!turnkey!alphacm!sandy ....ucbvax!ucivax!icnvax!alphacm!sandy DATA: 714-898-8634 VOICE: 714-894-7898 ------------------------------ From: larry@focsys.UUCP (Larry Williamson) Subject: How to detect a floppy in 386/ix ?? Date: 1 Feb 89 18:16:48 GMT I need to be able to write to a floppy without having the fd(7) driver display disk error messages to the console repeatedly until the operator inserts a floppy. I must detect the missing floppy, prompt the operator to insert one, verify they did insert the floppy, then write the data. I've looked for an ioctl(2) that I can use, but there isn't one that will do the trick. I tried V_GETPARMS, but it does not detect the floppy's presence. The OS is Interactive's 386/ix (1.0.6). Any other suggestions? Larry -- Larry Williamson -- Focus Systems -- Waterloo, Ontario watmath!focsys!larry (519) 746-4918 ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 2 Feb 1989 19:38 EST From: The Time Traveler Subject: MicroChannel joystick adapters, anyone? I know this is not directly related to this list, but it's close ... I am DESPERATELY looking for a Joystick adapter for my 25MHz Model 70. Yes, I actually have one (well, almost), and yes, I do want to play/ write games using a joystick on one. For those of you who don't know what all the hype is, please note that the IBM PS/2 Model 70 uses the MicroChannel bus, so all those great PC and AT expansion cards won't fit. In addition, my system runs at 25MHz, and I don't ANY joystick adapters work at this speed. I looked almost everywhere. If anyone knows anything, PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE tell me. Thank you. Timur Tabi ------------------------------ From: tbetz@dasys1.UUCP (Tom Betz) Subject: WYSE comes through with the goods! (Was: Word Perfect Killed...) Date: 7 Feb 89 03:00:01 GMT This time last week I had a dead Wyse 3216, a hopelessly lost dealer service department, and a tired mind. I was beginning to suspect those nice folks in Orem of having left a deadly bug in their WP code, and I was generally pissed at the world, wondering whether I'd ever get this damn thing running. My boss was beginning to wonder too, saying things like, "Have you heard any rumors about Wyse going out of business?" He had. Then I received some email from Steve Van Domelen at Wyse in San Jose, in reply to one of my earlier requests for information. In desperation, I called him up. I'll make a long story short... I'm typing this now on a WY-60 connected to that 3216 (with a new mother and daughter board set, and the latest rev of the WD 1007 HD controller chip), through a WY-995 smart card, via Telix 3.11 running under VP/ix. In other words, with Steve coordinating the efforts of Wyse's local service center (and a little help from a beta version of the 995 drivers, soon to be replaced by the final version) this sucker's up and running at 100%. Thanks, guys. Oh, the funny 'w' thing I reported earlier under VP/ix was fixed using stty -ixon -ixoff .... it's a flaw in the beta 995 drivers, and can be removed later, in case anyone else cares. Word Perfect (while it has a few annoying problems... like requiring the C: psuedo drive, for one) seems to work quite nicely now, both on the VGA console and on the terminals. I suspect that I'll be able to dispose of the C: drive as soon as I get the latest release, just out this week. I hope. Thanks again to all who helped. -- "Let's not be too tough on our own ignorance. It's the thing that makes America great. If America weren't incomparably ignorant, how could we have tolerated the last eight years?" ---- Frank Zappa, Feb 1, 1989 ---- Tom Betz - 914-375-1510 - cmcl2!dasys1!tbetz & cmcl2!philabs!spies!tbetz ------------------------------ From: artw@pnet01.cts.com (Art Weiss) Subject: 386 & Backup Prgs. Date: 9 Feb 89 02:36:12 GMT I just upgraded to a 386 and it seems to be working fine except that the hard disk backup programs that I used to use don't work right anymore. I used to use PC Tools' PCBACKUP v 4.11 on my 12 Mhz AT. It worked fine in both turbo and slow speeds. On the '386, which has only 20 and 25 Mhz speeds, it won't work. I then tried FastBack Plus, V 1.01 on it and had success, but only at 20 Mhz. I know these are not the latest versions of the programs and that I should get updates, but I'm curious to see if anyone else has experienced similar problems with the same or similar software. The motherboard in my machine is an X'Golden 25 Mhz w/Chips & Technology chipset, and the backups were being done to a 1.2 Meg drive. ...Art ------------------------------ From: m5@lynx.uucp (Mike McNally) Subject: 386 problems Date: 7 Feb 89 20:12:10 GMT Forgive me for what may be an ignorant question, but is there a version of the 386 that doesn't have problems with TLB misses while floating point stuff is going on? We have ``double sigma'' parts, and they exhibit the problem. For a while, I thought that the double sigmas fixed the bug; I guess I was wrong. -- Mike McNally Lynx Real-Time Systems uucp: {voder,athsys}!lynx!m5 phone: 408 370 2233 Where equal mind and contest equal, go. ------------------------------ From: smcroft@sactoh0.UUCP (Steve M. Croft) Subject: Re: 386 problems Date: 8 Feb 89 22:54:18 GMT In article <5219@lynx.UUCP>, m5@lynx.uucp (Mike McNally) writes: > Forgive me for what may be an ignorant question, but is there a version > of the 386 that doesn't have problems with TLB misses while floating > point stuff is going on? I heard of this problem but thought that it was with the 386/287 combo. Could this also be happening with 386/387 equipment? -- ############################################################### # steve "whadda guy" croft # # ...!pacbell!sactoh0!smcroft || ...csusac!athena!crofts # ############################################################### ------------------------------ From: mslater@cup.portal.com (Michael Z Slater) Subject: Re: 386 problems Date: 9 Feb 89 03:38:43 GMT >Forgive me for what may be an ignorant question, but is there a version >of the 386 that doesn't have problems with TLB misses while floating >point stuff is going on? We have ``double sigma'' parts, and they >exhibit the problem. For a while, I thought that the double sigmas >fixed the bug; I guess I was wrong. The double-sigma parts have a 32-bit multiply that works; they have all 21 of the errata, however, including the paging/fpu problem. The "D-step" parts supposedly fix all known problems; they are marked 80386DX. Curiously, the DX is what identifies the chip as a D-step part, but the D is not the step number. It is supposedly just a coincidence that the DX nomenclature was added at the same time that they switched to the D step. SX suffix is for Single-wide (16-bit) data bus, DX is for Double wide (32-bit) I'm told. Perhaps there will be a 486QX ?? (64-bit bus) Michael Slater, Microprocessor Report mslater@cup.portal.com ------------------------------ From: cab@opus.ATT.COM (C. Anthony) Subject: Replacing 286 with 386SX drop in board Date: 10 Feb 89 17:11:35 GMT For many reasons, I need to run REAL software, the kind that lets you use huge data structures with out diddling segment registers or constructing data structures to hide hardware/software inadequacies. Typical applications are digital processing of sampled sounds and computer graphics. I have a '286 that runs the UNIX(tm) system and DOS via the UNIX-reboot-DOS-reboot task switching mechanism :-). I've used microport SV/AT up to release 2.4 alternately patching the system, developing, phoning to ask "is it fixed yet?" and keeping an eye out for a 386 upgrade method that doesn't involve a motherboard swap or an INBOARD/AT which wouldn't work in my system. I've shaken too many bugs out of the system, timing wise, interrupt wise, software wise, memory wise, powerwise and other wise to junk the development/testing environment it constitues for a complete unknown. So I am looking for the most non-intrusive way to upgrade. Has anyone seen, or is anyone working on a 386SX cum bus interface that can replace a 286 cpu. Will it work with a '287. email or post. will summarize if requested. regards -- -CAB- _____/ _ || _\___ lNYCl_ ______ __|) Standard disclaimer. == (0) (0) ------------------------------ From: mark@intek01.UUCP (Mark McWiggins) Subject: Re: Replacing 286 with 386SX drop in board Date: 11 Feb 89 22:56:36 GMT I've seen press releases from two companies selling 386SX daughterboards: Cumulus Corp. (216-464-2211), and AOX: 617-890-4402. Haven't heard about a ship date from AOX, but Cumulus claims to be shipping the end of February. I also have a friend who works for Hamilton Avnet who claims that she can get 386SX d.boards; I thought she said they were direct from Intel. I'll find out about this next week. In any event: Intel just cust the price of the 386SX in half, to (as I recall) $89 in quantity. This should cut the total price of a 286-to-386SX upgrade to about $350-$400, I think. Since my company sells an 80386 version of C++, this is a big win for us; we're considering some sort of deal bundling a 386SX board with our compiler. I have no affiliation with any of the aforementioned companies. -- Mark McWiggins UUCP: uunet!intek01!mark DISCLAIMER: I could be wrong. INTERNET: intek01!mark@uunet.uu.net ------------------------------ From: tony@h-three.UUCP (me) Subject: 386 "real" mode access beyond 1M using data_32 instruction prefix Date: 12 Feb 89 20:25:39 GMT I need to write a routine for a 386 in "real" mode (actually a firm- ware application) that can read/write data above 1M. At first glance, the instruction and address prefixes (0x66, 0x67) would seem to be the way to do this; but I can't get them to work, and even have a suspicion they won't work. Here is the current test routine (assembler is right to left w operands). The routine takes a physical address and a 32 bit value to put there. Technique is to zero 'es' and stick the address into 'esi'. Theory is that will yield: effective address == (0 << 4) + esi This routine fails with General Prot Fault (13). | void m32poke(addr, value) | u32 addr, value; #include "sys/mch.h" #include "asm.h" .globl _m32poke _m32poke: push bp | C linkage mov bp,sp push si xor ax,ax | es to zero as base mov es,ax .byte 0x66 | 32bit prefix mov si,*4(bp) | si=address .byte 0x66 mov ax,*8(bp) | ax=value .byte 0x66 | GP 13 fault points here! .byte 0x67 seg es mov (si),ax pop si pop bp ret Is this the wrong way to do this? Is it even possible to access above 1M without going into full protected mode? -- --tony ...!uunet!h-three!tony (919) 549-8334 h-three Systems Corporation h-three!tony@uunet.uu.net POB 12557; RTP, NC 27709; USA t. e. bennett ------------------------------ From: itkin@mrspoc.UUCP (Steven M. List) Subject: Need HELP - Adaptec ACB-2322A, Micropolis 1558, Wyse pc386 Date: 13 Feb 89 20:59:33 GMT I've recently decided to upgrade our Wyse pc386 (it came with a dinky 40MB disk). I contacted a Wyse distributor (Wyle Labs) and they recommended and sold me an Adaptec ACB-2322A ESDI controller and a Micropolis 1558 382MB ESDI disk. Great! But there was no manual with the disk and I've never installed a setup like this before. Looks simple, right? I've connected everything as is, using all the defaults. Cables in the right places, ground connectors connected, ready to go. I try to boot the SETUP disk so I can change the configuration and get in to twiddle the CMOS and the system tells me that it can't find a BOOTABLE DEVICE! So now what? I've got calls in to both Wyle and Wyse. They are DEFINITELY taking their time in responding. Meanwhile the machine is so much junk iron! I'm guessing that I need to change some jumpers or something, but have NO idea what to pick. I don't want to start to messing with stuff without some knowledge of what I'm doing for all the obvious reasons. Can someone offer some help? I'm tired of calling Wyle and Wyse and REALLY want to be able to use this machine. -- : Steven List @ Transact Software, Inc. :^>~ : Chairman, Unify User Group of Northern California : {apple,coherent,limbo,mips,pyramid,ubvax}!mrspoc!itkin : Voice: (415) 961-6112 ------------------------------ End of 80386 M/L ****************