ADV(4)

ADV(4) 💖 — the Advansys SCSI driver, bestie edition

okay so real quick: this is a section 4 page from the Kernel Interfaces Manual, so it's a device driver situation, not a command you type. It's called adv and it is the thing that talks to your vintage Advansys SCSI cards. yes we're doing retro hardware today. slay. ✨

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🌸 NAME 🌸

adv — Advansys ISA/VL/PCI Narrow 8bit SCSI Host adapter driver

like, it's the driver. that's the whole vibe. 💅

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✨ SYNOPSIS ✨

so if you want this driver baked into your kernel (not a module, we're committing), you drop these lines into your kernel configuration file:

device scbus
device adv

Now, for one or more VL/ISA cards, you also need:

device isa

and then in /boot/device.hints:

hint.adv.0.at="isa"

And for one or more PCI cards, you need:

device pci

that's it. that's the recipe. 🫶

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💜 DESCRIPTION 💜

This driver gives you access to the narrow 8bit SCSI bus that's plugged into the Advanced Systems Products, Inc. host adapter chips: ASC900, ASC1000, ASC1090, ASC1200, ASC3030, ASC3050, and ASC3150. iconic lineup honestly. 👑

The tables below list the AdvanSys products that use those chips, how they attach to the bus, their maximum sync rate, and the max number of commands the adapter can juggle at the same time. no cap, this is the whole menu.

Connectivity Products 🦋

• ABP510/5150 — Bus: ISA, Floppy: No, MaxSync: 10MHz, Commands: 240, Footnotes: 1
• ABP5140 — Bus: ISA PnP, Floppy: No, MaxSync: 10MHz, Commands: 16, Footnotes: 1, 3
• ABP5142 — Bus: ISA PnP, Floppy: Yes, MaxSync: 10MHz, Commands: 16, Footnotes: 4
• ABP[3]902 — Bus: PCI, Floppy: No, MaxSync: 10MHz, Commands: 16
• ABP3905 — Bus: PCI, Floppy: No, MaxSync: 10MHz, Commands: 16
• ABP915 — Bus: PCI, Floppy: No, MaxSync: 10MHz, Commands: 16
• ABP920 — Bus: PCI, Floppy: No, MaxSync: 10MHz, Commands: 16
• ABP3922 — Bus: PCI, Floppy: No, MaxSync: 10MHz, Commands: 16
• ABP3925 — Bus: PCI, Floppy: No, MaxSync: 10MHz, Commands: 16
• ABP930 — Bus: PCI, Floppy: No, MaxSync: 10MHz, Commands: 16, Footnotes: 5
• ABP930U — Bus: PCI, Floppy: No, MaxSync: 20MHz, Commands: 16
• ABP930UA — Bus: PCI, Floppy: No, MaxSync: 20MHz, Commands: 16
• ABP960 — Bus: PCI, Floppy: No, MaxSync: 10MHz, Commands: 16, Footnotes: 2
• ABP960U — Bus: PCI, Floppy: No, MaxSync: 20MHz, Commands: 16, Footnotes: 2

🎀 Footnotes 🎀

1. This board has been shipped by HP with the 4020i CD-R drive. The board has no BIOS so it cannot control a boot device, but it can control any secondary SCSI device.
2. This board has been sold by Iomega as a Jaz Jet PCI adapter.
3. This board has been sold by SIIG as the i540 SpeedMaster.
4. This board has been sold by SIIG as the i542 SpeedMaster.
5. This board has been sold by SIIG as the Fast SCSI Pro PCI.

Single Channel Products 🌈

• ABP542 — Bus: ISA, Floppy: Yes, MaxSync: 10MHz, Commands: 240
• ABP842 — Bus: VL, Floppy: Yes, MaxSync: 10MHz, Commands: 240
• ABP940 — Bus: PCI, Floppy: No, MaxSync: 10MHz, Commands: 240
• ABP[3]940UA — Bus: PCI, Floppy: No, MaxSync: 20MHz, Commands: 240
• ABP940U — Bus: PCI, Floppy: No, MaxSync: 20MHz, Commands: 240
• ABP3960UA — Bus: PCI, Floppy: No, MaxSync: 20MHz, Commands: 240
• ABP970 — Bus: PCI, Floppy: No, MaxSync: 10MHz, Commands: 240
• ABP970U — Bus: PCI, Floppy: No, MaxSync: 20MHz, Commands: 240

Multi Channel Products 🌟 (commands are per-channel, okurrr)

• ABP852 — Bus: VL, Floppy: Yes, MaxSync: 10MHz, Commands: 240, Channels: 2
• ABP950 — Bus: PCI, Floppy: No, MaxSync: 10MHz, Commands: 240, Channels: 2
• ABP980 — Bus: PCI, Floppy: No, MaxSync: 10MHz, Commands: 240, Channels: 4
• ABP980U — Bus: PCI, Floppy: No, MaxSync: 20MHz, Commands: 240, Channels: 4
• ABP[3]980UA — Bus: PCI, Floppy: No, MaxSync: 20MHz, Commands: 16, Channels: 4

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okay so for ISA or Vesa Local Bus adapters, you need one kernel hints entry per card that the system is going to attach. you can specify specific values for the port address, irq and drq if you want. if you leave them unspecified, the driver will query the device for its current settings and just use those — lowkey considerate of it honestly. and if the port address is unspecified, the driver goes hunting for it at one of the possible addresses. cards configured for ISA PNP addresses are found automatically, no effort required. 🧚

The possible port addresses for these cards are: 0x110, 0x130, 0x150, 0x190, 0x210, 0x230, 0x250, and 0x330.

Per target configuration done in the AdvanceWare menu (which you get to at boot) is honored by this driver. that includes: synchronous/asynchronous transfers, maximum synchronous negotiation rate, disconnection, tagged queueing, and the host adapter's SCSI ID. 💫

but bestie, heads up — the global setting for the maximum number of tagged transactions allowed per target is not honored, because the CAM SCSI system will automatically figure out the max number of tags a device can receive, and it also guarantees fair resource allocation among devices. so that one setting is just vibing there, unread. 💀

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👑 HARDWARE 👑

The adv driver supports the following SCSI controllers:

• AdvanSys ABP510/5150
• AdvanSys ABP5140
• AdvanSys ABP5142
• AdvanSys ABP902/3902
• AdvanSys ABP3905
• AdvanSys ABP915
• AdvanSys ABP920
• AdvanSys ABP3922
• AdvanSys ABP3925
• AdvanSys ABP930, ABP930U, ABP930UA
• AdvanSys ABP960, ABP960U
• AdvanSys ABP542
• AdvanSys ABP842
• AdvanSys ABP940
• AdvanSys ABP940UA/3940UA
• AdvanSys ABP940U
• AdvanSys ABP3960UA
• AdvanSys ABP970, ABP970U
• AdvanSys ABP852
• AdvanSys ABP950
• AdvanSys ABP980, ABP980U
• AdvanSys ABP980UA/3980UA

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🔥 SEE ALSO 🔥

adw(4), aha(4), ahc(4), cd(4), da(4), sa(4), scsi(4)

go read those too, they're the friend group. 🫶

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🌸 HISTORY 🌸

The adv driver appeared in FreeBSD 3.0. a legend from day one, fr fr. ⭐

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💖 AUTHORS 💖

The adv driver was ported by Justin T. Gibbs from the Linux driver written by Bob Frey of Advanced System Products, Inc. Many thanks to AdvanSys for providing the original driver under a suitable license for use in FreeBSD. giving credit where it's due, periodt. 🙈

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and that's the whole page, bestie!! this one came out of the Debian packaging, dated August 8, 2004 — so yeah, she's vintage but she's still serving. mwah 💅💖