Zip Drives on SGI
Pat Beaulieu
Michael Sweet
: Is it possible to use a SCSI Zip drive with an SGI computer?
Yes, tho there have be problems reported on the net with early firmware.
Considering the backlog of ZIP drive orders, it's a good bet that any drive
you buy new will have good firmware.
--
______________________________________________________________________________
Mike Sweet 2D & 3D Software for Easy Software Products
(301) 994-0377 Silicon Graphics, Inc. 20778 Wolftrap Street
mi...@easysw.com Workstations Lexington Park, MD 20653
http://www.easysw.com
______________________________________________________________________________
Pat Beaulieu
>>Is it possible to use a SCSI Zip drive with an SGI computer?
>Yes, but you will be limited to efs and hfs (mac)
>filesystems.
What do you mean? I won't be able to use IBM formatted disks?
What is efs?
/ Patrick Beaulieu, Surfing from Quebec City /
/ pbea...@riq.qc.ca /
Mike J. Scott
Pat Beaulieu <pbea...@riq.qc.ca> wrote:
>>>Pat Beaulieu <pbea...@riq.qc.ca> wrote:
>>>Is it possible to use a SCSI Zip drive with an SGI computer?
>
>>Yes, but you will be limited to efs and hfs (mac)
>>filesystems.
>
>What do you mean? I won't be able to use IBM formatted disks?
>What is efs?
efs is SGI's native filesystem.
hfs is used by Macintoshes (and OS/2?).
DOS machines use a FAT 16 filesystem (File Allocation Table) which,
as far as I know, is not understood by SGI's. With that being said,
SGI's seem to be able to understand FAT floppies if equiped with a
3.5" floptical drive.
Perhaps the floptical device driver could be kludged to work, but
as far as I know, there's no easy way to read an IBM (FAT) formatted
zip disk on an SGI.
ciao,
--
Michael J. Scott R.R.I., U of Western Ontario
mjs...@heartlab.rri.uwo.ca 'Need a good valve job?'
############### Illegitimus non tatum carborundum. ##############
Walter Roberson
Pat Beaulieu <pbea...@riq.qc.ca> wrote:
:>>Pat Beaulieu <pbea...@riq.qc.ca> wrote:
:>>Is it possible to use a SCSI Zip drive with an SGI computer?
:
:>Yes, but you will be limited to efs and hfs (mac)
:>filesystems.
:
:What do you mean? I won't be able to use IBM formatted disks?
:What is efs?
:/ Patrick Beaulieu, Surfing from Quebec City /
:/ pbea...@riq.qc.ca /
$ man efs
NAME
efs - layout of the Extent file system
EFS is SGI's native file system until you get the optional XFS on the latest
versions of IRIX.
Using IBM formatted disks is not a problem with the Zip drive, provided
that you format them either as hfs disks or as 512 bytes/sector. With
512 bytes/sector, you can use 'mkfs' to write an EFS file system on them.
You cannot, though, use a DOS FAT filesystem on a Zip drive attached to
an SGI system running IRIX 5.3... at least not reliably.
[You are confusing which machine formats the disk with what physical
organization that machine writes on the disk and with the logical organization
overlayed on the physical organization. SGI systems do not care which
machine formats the disk as long as it ends up with the right logical
organization.]
Walter Roberson robe...@Ibd.nrc.ca
David Cortesi
Correct -- the default file system through 5.3, to be replaced
by the improved XFS.
>hfs is used by Macintoshes (and OS/2?).
Macintosh Heirarchical File System. OS/2 uses DOS FAT or an enhanced
file system unique to OS/2.
>DOS machines use a FAT 16 filesystem (File Allocation Table) which,
>as far as I know, is not understood by SGI's.
Wrong! IRIX 5.3 has full support of DOS FAT disk format for
all 3.5-in floppies and for the 29MB Syquest optical drive.
You get icons on the desktop, formatting, drag'n'drop, etc.,
on a par with other devices such as CDs.
The problem with the Zip drive is that the allowed DOS disk sizes
were hard-coded into the smfd driver, mediad, and the Disk Manager.
The Zip disk capacity doesn't match.
>Perhaps the floptical device driver could be kludged to work, but
>as far as I know, there's no easy way to read an IBM (FAT) formatted
>zip disk on an SGI.
There is no way under IRIX 5.3 or the forthcoming 6.2 to format
or mount a DOS-content Zip disk using SGI tools. There are rumors
that the freeware "mtools" package works -- if anyone has actual
experience I would like to hear it.
Dave Cortesi
--
cor...@sgi.com http://reality.sgi.com/employees/cortesi_wpd/
"The point is that, if you try to plan your life, nothing important
can happen ... The crucial aspects of our lives, it seems,
can only come out of nowhere." Fred Hoyle, "Home Is Where the Wind Blows"
David Cortesi
>can you tell me how to install Zip 100 on a SGI Indy system?
>
I'm preparing a rather complete FAQ on installing the Zip drive on SGI
machines. I expect to mail it to the FAQ maintainer at viz.tamu.edu
late today or Monday 11/6. By 11/7 you should be able to find Zip
info via FTP to the FAQ site.
Super-User
Dave Olson
| Perhaps the floptical device driver could be kludged to work, but
| as far as I know, there's no easy way to read an IBM (FAT) formatted
| zip disk on an SGI.
Nope. At best the floppy driver won't work. At worst (5.2), it
will panic the system.
mtools has been reported to work though.
--
The most beautiful things in the world | Dave Olson, Silicon Graphics
are those from which all excess weight | http://reality.sgi.com/employees/olson
has been removed. -Henry Ford | ol...@sgi.com
James Pearson
>There is no way under IRIX 5.3 or the forthcoming 6.2 to format
>or mount a DOS-content Zip disk using SGI tools. There are rumors
>that the freeware "mtools" package works -- if anyone has actual
>experience I would like to hear it.
My "hack" of mtools seems to work with fixed disks, so assuming a Zip disk
can be treated as an ordinary SCSI disk, then mtools may work.
I've successfully used it to read (and write) DOS SCSI disks that use an
Adaptec (1542) controller on the PC, and it can should now access disks with
more than one DOS partition (and now works with IRIX 5.3).
The package is available via anonymous FTP from ftp.ps.ucl.ac.uk
[128.40.25.19] in directory /pub/sgi_mtools-2.0.7
Make sure you read the file README.FIRST, as I said above, it has worked
with the hardware I have, but I can't guarantee it will work with Zip
drives or any other configuration.
James Pearson
+------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Dept. Photogrammetry & Surveying Email: j.pe...@ps.ucl.ac.uk
University College London WWW: http://www.ps.ucl.ac.uk
Gower Street
London WC1E 6BT
England
David Cortesi
>
>I'm preparing a rather complete FAQ on installing the Zip drive on SGI
>machines. I expect to mail it to the FAQ maintainer at viz.tamu.edu
>late today or Monday 11/6. By 11/7 you should be able to find Zip
>info via FTP to the FAQ site.
Here is the file as I sent it this morning, juuuuust too late for
inclusion in the latest posting of the FAQ. Use ftp to
viz.tamu.edu /pub/sgi/faq for the FAQ files. The editor may see
fit to store this long file in /pub/sgi/hardware instead.
-------------------------------------------------------
Subject -??- What about the Iomega "Zip" drive?
Supplied by Dave Cortesi. Please send comments and corrections to
cor...@sgi.com.
The SCSI version of the Iomega Zip drive can be used with some
restrictions in IRIX 5.3, and with fewer restrictions in IRIX 6.2.
There are no plans to support the parallel-port version of the Zip drive.
IRIX supports Zip disks formatted as Macintosh (HFS) filesystems or as
IRIX (EFS) filesystems. Thus you can use Zip disks to transfer files
between SGI workstations, or between an SGI and a Mac.
Support for DOS-formatted (FAT) Zip disks will be added in a release
after IRIX 6.2. Until that time DOS disks cannot be formatted or
mounted using SGI-supplied tools. (The public-domain "mtools" package
might work; please send experiences to cor...@sgi.com.)
Cabling and Termination
-----------------------
The Zip drive should be cabled using a short cable. The Zip uses the
Macintosh-style DB25 cable socket, so you need at least one cable with
mismatched ends: DB25-to-Centronics, for example, or DB25-to-SCSI-II.
The Zip drive has a switch-selectable internal terminator, but its
quality is regarded with suspicion by SGI's conservative SCSI
engineers. If you put the Zip drive last in the external SCSI chain,
SGI's engineers strongly recommend you use an external, active
terminator. You can get an active terminator with a DB25 connector
at low cost from most Macintosh-oriented discount houses. In any
case, be sure to set the Zip drive's terminator slide switch to the
appropriate position when cabling the drive.
The Zip drive has a switch giving a choice of SCSI unit number 5 or 6.
Select whichever number does not conflict with another device on the
same controller. The letter Z in a device name below stands for your
chosen number, 5 or 6. The letter S stands for the SCSI controller
number for the external chain, typically 0 on a workstation.
Booting Up
----------
With the workstation switched off, attach the Zip drive. Make sure it
powers up with, or before, the workstation. When the system boots,
the block and special device names should be created automatically.
Raw disk device names:
/dev/rdsk/dksSdZs[0167]
/dev/rdsk/dksSdZvol
/dev/rdsk/dksSdZvh
/dev/rdsk/fdsSdZ.*
Block disk device names:
/dev/dsk/dksSdZs[0167]
/dev/dsk/dksSdZs15 (under IRIX 6.2)
The hinv command should report:
Disk drive / removable media: unit Z on SCSI controller S
Using the Zip Drive Under IRIX 6.2
----------------------------------
The media daemon (mediad(1M)) recognizes the Zip drive. Provided that
mediad and the Objectserver have been configured on (they are on by
default but can be chkconfig'd off), mediad recognizes the Zip drive at
boot time and places it on the desktop as an icon. The icon reflects
presence of a disk in the drive. The icon backdrop reflects the type
of filesystem on the disk: an envelope for an EFS filesystem and an
apple for an HFS filesystem. Mediad automatically mounts formatted
disks as the filesystem /zip. You can eject the disk by selecting the
icon and using the desktop root menu.
The IRIX 6.2 Disk Manager tool recognizes the Zip drive. You use the
Disk Manager to check disk capacity and to format the disk when
necessary.
Using the Zip Drive Under IRIX 5.3
----------------------------------
NOTE: the following information applies ONLY to IRIX 5.3. After you
upgrade to IRIX 6.2, you do not need the following information and
should use the normal desktop tools for Zip disks as described above.
Under IRIX 5.3, mediad does not handle the Zip drive properly. It
recognizes the drive and puts a "floptical" icon on the desktop, but
cannot handle formatting, ejecting, or mounting. As a result, under
IRIX 5.3 you must eject disks manually, and you must format and mount
disks using administrator commands mediad(1M), mkfp(1M), mkfs(1M),
fx(1M), and mount(1M).
Under IRIX 5.3 you should instruct mediad to ignore the Zip under its
guise as a high-density floppy:
# mediad -i -r /dev/rdsk/fdsSdZ.3.5hi
This step is only done once; mediad will not look at that device again.
Supposedly you can format a blank disk for use as a Macintosh (HFS)
file system, using the mkfp(1) command to the "raw" device file:
# mkfp -t hfs /dev/rdsk/dksSdZvol
However, this frequently does not work; the command typically reports
"bad sector" errors regardless of whether the -x option is used or not.
It is advisable to format Zip disks for HFS using a real Macintosh or
else using an IRIX 6.2 system.
To mount any Zip disk under IRIX 5.3, create the mount point that
is used by mediad under IRIX 6.2:
# mkdir /zip
To mount an HFS disk under IRIX 5.3, apply mount(1M) to the raw
disk volume partition:
# mount -t hfs /dev/rdsk/dksSdZvol /zip
You can then load and save files from /zip exactly as if it were an
IRIX filesystem.
To format a disk for use as an IRIX (EFS) file system, apply fx to
initialize the volume header (not to do a low-level format), and then
use mkfs to create the filesystem. Both commands are applied to the raw
device file partition 7:
# fx -x -c 'dksc(S,Z)' INITIALIZE
# mkfs -t efs /dev/rdsk/dksSdZs7
The fx command produces numerous spurious error messages; ignore them.
To mount an EFS-formatted Zip disk under IRIX 5.3, mount the block (not
the raw) device partition 7:
# mount -t efs /dev/dsk/dksSdZs7 /zip
The disk can then be used like any other mounted file system.
TO REPEAT:
mount an HFS-formatted disk as the *raw* device /dev/rdsk/dksSdZvol
mount an EFS-formatted disk as the *block* device /dev/dsk/dksSdZs7
Mounting the raw device as an EFS filesystem may appear to work
but it is has been reported as causing kernel panics.