E/ISA Boards and CFG Files

ISA boards have physical switches or jumpers for setting the board's characteristics. Set the switches and jumpers using documentation provided by the board manufacturer, and alter the settings if eisa_config reports conflict.

EISA boards lack physical switches or jumpers but instead use a configuration (CFG) file provided by the manufacturer to specify board resources.

The eisa_config program requires a CFG file for every ISA and EISA board, to allocate resources throughout the E/ISA bus. The CFG file enables eisa_config to assess all E/ISA resources, and in the case of an EISA board, configure it automatically. Although it cannot configure an ISA board automatically, eisa_config can report likely switch or jumper settings for conflict-free configuration. (Note, however, that some configurations are simply not possible, as when two boards from different manufacturers require the same resource. If this happens, only one of the boards can be used.)

Each board connected to the workstation on the E/ISA bus must have a CFG file present in the /sbin/lib/eisa directory. These files are read by /sbin/bcheckrc each time you reboot the system.

CFG files are named with the following syntax:

rXXXnnnN.CFG

where:

The following example shows an excerpted EISA configuration file named !HWP0C80.CFG, which contains blocks of board-specific information, functions, and choices within the functions. The eisa_config program selects a choice for each function. If the first (default) choice conflicts with that of another board on the bus, eisa_config selects another choice, or suggests switch settings to resolve the conflict.

BOARD
    ID  = "HWP0C80"
    NAME = "HP EISA SCSI host adapter  25525A"
    MFR  = "Hewlett-Packard Co."
    ...
    IOCHECK  = INVALID
    DISABLE  = SUPPORTED
    COMMENTS  = " This init file performs the following
        - Sets the ABRT to 1 in 0zC85.
        - Sets the RIEN to 0 in 0zC85.
    ...
FUNCTION = "BOOT ROM ENABLE/RELOCATION"
    CHOICE = "ENABLED"
        LINK
          MEMORY = 32K
     ADDRESS = 0D8000h | 0C8000h | 0D0000h
       MEMTYPE = OTH
       WRITABLE = NO
                ...
          INIT = IOPORT(6)LOC(7-6) 00 | 10 | 01
    CHOICE = "DISABLED"
        FREE
          INIT = IOPORT(6)LOC(7-6) 11
FUNCTION = "Host Adapter SCSI ID Selection"
    CHOICE = "SCSI ID = 7"
        FREE
          INIT = IOPORT(7)  10000000
    CHOICE = "SCSI ID = 6"
        FREE
          INIT = IOPORT(7)  01000000

If the default function must be changed, refer to “Changing Choices for Board Functions” later in this appendix for selecting a board function.

/sbin/eisa_config writes its configuration to non-volatile memory (NVM) and to a system.sci file, which can be used to create identical configurations. For the procedure, see “Creating Identical E/ISA Configurations on Other Workstations”, later in this appendix.