This is part of The Pile, a partial archive of some open source mailing lists and newsgroups.
Date: Fri, 20 Oct 2000 14:53:17 -0700 From: Rick Moen <rick@linuxmafia.com> To: svlug@svlug.org Subject: Re: [svlug] Scanner for Linux begin Jacob Hunter quotation: > I want to decide what to do with that store credit, rather what the > right thing to do is. I want something that will work and is a > quality product. Sounds reasonable. > Because I don't have a SCSI card. A frequent dilemma. You could go with one of the essentially-gratis cheap SCSI host adapters they tend to throw in, such as the ones with Advansys chipsets. With those, you'll want to check chipset support, first. And then you'll be using it with the knowledge that it's really only good for slow SCSI devices, such as tapes, scanners, and arguably CD-ROMs / CDR[W] drives. The card will be PIO-driven, rather than interrupt-driven, and therefore somewhat processor-intensive. It won't have int-13h-extension "boot" ROMs, and in consequence the Linux kernel won't auto-probe for it reliably. Therefore, you'll probably have to inform the booting kernel of its presence via a LILO append directive, or equivalent. Another option is to go for a better-but-still-cheap, more well-rounded SCSI host adapter such as a Tecram model using a Symbios chipset. These tend to work well, and the better ones don't pose the autoprobe headaches or bog down the CPU as much. And some are even suitable for hard drives, etc. On the downside, they cost a little more. And you'll still want to verify chipset support, before buying. Last, of course, you could get a good, robust SCSI adapter with a complete feature set. Arguably, your best value might be one with (again) a Symbios chipset. And, again, you'll still want to verify chipset support. (These would make the most _economic_ sense if you had long-term plans to favour SCSI devices more generally.) These are worth considering, anyhow. > The page is very helpful. You're welcome. The printer compatibility database is worthwhile, and I believe you might even find there some decent support software for at least the printing function of your existing combo device, albeit probably not for its scanner function. ===