Some time ago I wrote asking for info on ZIP drives, and received many helpful
replies. I was also requested later for my comments....... Since then I have
connected one direct to the INDY but with a few problems.....
IRIX 5.3 does not explicitly support ZIP drives, so the Zip Drive Utilities
written by Tom Shields, and available from
http://www.aem.umn.edu/people/faculty/shield/zip are required. The next
requirement is the correct cable- you will need a 25 pin half pitch male at the
ZIP end and (presumably) a 50 pin centronics at the other.
The instructions that follow were copied from Tom Shields instruction set.
1) Do as root chkconfig mediad off (this is OK if you don't have a CD -ROM)
If you have a CD-ROM then expect problems if you try to explicitly use..
mediad -r /dev/scsi/sc0d5l0, as this apparently leads to kernel panics and much
dumping!!!(my comment)
I have e-mailed TS to see if he has any comment
2) Power down and connect the ZIP, set termination ON and SCSI ID 5 on the back
of the ZIP...The software is written to expect the ZIP as device 5.
Use hinv to see if it lists the ZIP as Disk drive / removable media: unit 5 on
scsi controller 0
3) As root mkdir /zip
chmod 755 /zip
this is the mount point for the drive
The ZIP must be entered into the /etc/fstab file using the entry...
/dev/dsk/dks0d5s7 /zip efs rw,noauto 0 0
4) As distributed the mount_zip command also exports the /zip directory. Copy
the executables format_zip and mount_zip to /usr/sbin
In the /usr/sbin directory do the following
chmod 4711 format_zip
chmod 4711 mount_zip
ln mount_zip umount_zip
5) The commands format_zip, mount_zip, and umount_zip can now be used by any
user.
to format a disk simply use format_zip format_zip -h gives a list of the
options available.
At this point the drive appears to be automounted and ready to go.
Overall I think I will be very happy with this drive with the exception that it
is a bit undersized.
Hope this info is of use
regards
derek_kennedy@merck.com