Configuring installation hardware

SCO OpenServer automatically determines the correct hardware settings for PCI hardware devices needed to install the system. If the devices in your system have hardware conflicts such as duplicate interrupt vectors, you need to run the Device Configuration Utility (DCU) by pressing <F8> from the ``Load the required HBA drivers'' installation screen.

You can also run the DCU after installing your system, to add additional hardware devices not needed by the installation. As root, enter mkdev dcu at a shell prompt.

See ``Using the Device Configuration Utility (DCU)'' in the online documentation and the dcu(ADM) manual page for more information.

SCO OpenServer provides several other hardware configuration managers to configure network, modem, print, audio, and video devices after you install the system. See ``After the installation''.

Navigating the DCU is comparable to navigating the installation windows, with similar cursor movement, text entry, and help keys active.

The rest of this section describes:

• viewing hardware device configuration (to view all detected and configured hardware on your system)

• viewing and activating software device drivers

• adding a new controller for a device driver

• exiting the DCU and returning to the installation

Viewing hardware device configuration

To view the currently detected hardware on your system, select Hardware Device Configuration from the DCU main menu. The Hardware Device Configuration window appears. This window displays hardware parameters for each device configured on your system. If a value is not needed, a dash appears in its place.

The fields shown are:

Configuration Status

• Indicates whether or not the hardware controller will (Y) or will not (N) be configured into the kernel.

Device Name

• Displays the name of the device. If a driver is assigned to an entry, the entry will be either the device name such as ``COM Port'', or a driver name such as ``asyc'', the driver for the COM port.

• If the device name is ``UNKNOWN'' on an EISA, MCA or PCI system, this is an entry from NVRAM (Non-Volatile Random Access Memory) indicating that the DCU cannot assign a driver name. For example, if you have installed a network adapter, but have not installed the corresponding software for the adapter, it will be listed as ``UNKNOWN''.

• If the device name is ``unused'', this indicates that an ISA driver is disabled, but the device parameters are retained.

IRQ

• Specifies the interrupt request vector (IRQ) value for the hardware controller.

IOStart, IOend

• Lists the start and end addresses, in hexadecimal notation, for the controller's I/O address range.

Memstart, MemEnd

• Lists the start and end addresses, in hexadecimal notation, for the hardware controller's memory address range.

• For an HBA controller, these are the start and end addresses of the BIOS for the controller.

DMA

• Lists the DMA channel for the controller.

To view additional information about any of the entries, use the arrow keys to highlight the desired controller and press <F6>. When you do, you see configuration information for the following advanced parameters:

Unit

• The unit number for a controller that supports multiple devices.

IPL

• The interrupt priority level, for those devices that have priority handling capability.

ITYPE

• The IRQ sharing type.

BindCPU

• The CPU to which the device binds.

Viewing and activating software device drivers

The following procedures allow you to view or activate the device drivers currently installed on your system.

1. From the DCU main menu, select Software Device Drivers.

2. Select a device driver category. If you are unsure which category the desired device driver is in, select All Software Device Drivers. The Software Device Drivers window for the selected class of device drivers is displayed. The window contains three fields:

   
   Active/Inactive

   If an asterisk (*) appears in this field, the driver is available for use assuming the hardware it supports is installed and enabled. If the field is empty, the device driver is inactive and supports no devices.

   
   Driver

   Lists the device driver name.

   
   Names of Supported Devices

   Lists the hardware controllers the device driver supports (if available).

   Many device drivers support multiple controllers. The Software Device Drivers window lists the controllers supported by each device driver. If a device driver is inactive, the system cannot access any of the controllers that the device driver supports.
   

3. To view a specific device driver, move the cursor to it and press <F6>. Information about the driver appears. For a description of the fields, see ``Viewing hardware device configuration''.

   Press <Enter> to return to the Software Device Drivers window.

4. To activate a device driver, move the cursor to the device driver's status field and press <Space>.

   If you want to add a new controller, the device driver that supports this controller must be active.

5. If you are an experienced administrator who is installing the system, and if there are HBA device drivers that you are sure are not needed on your system, you can instruct the installation software not to install these device drivers. To do so, remove the asterisk next to each of these device drivers.

6. To apply the changes and return to the Software Device Drivers window, press <F10>, then press <Enter>.

Adding a new controller for a device driver

1. From the DCU main menu, select Software Device Drivers.

2. Select a device driver category. If you are unsure which category the desired device driver is in, select All Software Device Drivers. The Software Device Drivers window for the selected class of device drivers is displayed.

3. Move the cursor to the desired device driver.

   If the device driver is not active, activate it by pressing <Space>.

4. Press <F5> to add a new driver.

   The New Hardware Configuration window is displayed. Default values may also be displayed.

5. Enter the correct configuration parameters for the new controller. After you enter these values, you can:

   • Press <F8> to cancel the new controller configuration.

   • Press <F4> to verify that correct values are entered in each field before applying the changes.
     

   • If an error is reported, re-enter the parameter until it succeeds. If the verification succeeds or the message

        Driver does not support the verify function
     

     appears, press <Enter> to continue.

   • To apply the changes and return to the Software Device Drivers window, press <F10>, then press <Enter>.

   After you add the new controller, view the Hardware Device Configuration window (see ``Viewing hardware device configuration'') to verify that the new hardware parameters do not conflict with the existing hardware controllers.

Returning to the installation

Configuration changes made in the DCU do not take effect until they are applied.

• To apply your configuration changes, return to the DCU main menu and select Apply Changes & Exit DCU.

• To end the DCU session without updating your configuration, select Exit DCU and Cancel Changes from the DCU main menu.

After selecting either of these options, you are returned to where you left off in the SCO OpenServer installation.