Re: Configuring an Adaptec 1542cp Card on a PC

[Al Hudson <nospam [at] york.ac.uk>]

Richard,

Do you have Windows installed on the machine? If so, it shouldn't be too
hard, because the IO base address can be utilised as the discriminating
factor between the isapnp options. If not, you really want to try and find
out where the card is in memory. You may get some notice at boot-time that
will tell you something about the SCSI card (you ought to), otherwise I
guess it's a system of uncommenting parts of the isapnp conf file until it
works - that's the way I got my (old) soundcard working. It's not *really*
a linux problem - isa is not designed to be autodetecting, and the pnp
aspect of it is not the same as PCI pnp. IRQs etc. can depend on the slot
in which you put the card; or BIOS peculiarities.

You don't mention the exact chipsets: within the 1542 range are the B, C,
CF and CP variations (i.e., yours might be a AHA-1542CP if it's recent).
There'll also be other chipsets on the board, possible AIC chips. With
more detailed info you'll be able to get it working. Linux almost
definitely supports your card - part of the 1542 chipset has been
supported since before kernel version 1.

If any linux newbies are reading this, and thinking, What the hell is he
talking about?, please don't think this is a linux issue: it's not, it's
a hardware issue. ISA hardware is *not* designed for plug-and-play, it
just doesn't work. A card may be autodetected under Windows; but that just
means it's plug-and-play under windows, not generically plug-and-play.
Remember, these manufacturers often release no information about their
hardware, it's up to people to hack together stuff that works (I'm not
insinuating anything about Adaptec here; I've no idea what their OSS
policy is). Sometimes it's impossible to make support as good as support
under windows. Hopefully manufacturers will follow the lead of other
companies, such as ATi, who recently announced they will be supporting
linux development of ATi graphics drivers. More power to companies like
that. . .

Cheers,

Alex.

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