Viewing or updating hardware device configuration

These following procedures are used to view your current hardware configurations and change them if necessary.

1. Select Hardware Device Configuration from the DCU main menu.

   The resulting screen displays a row for each device configured on your system, along with its software device driver parameter settings. If there is more than one page of information, you can press the <PgDn>and <PgUp>keys to navigate between pages.

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   NOTE: A dash (-) character in a field indicates that the entry does not require a value because it is not required by the device driver.

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   This screen contains eight fields:

   • The first field indicates whether the hardware controller should be configured on your system. Y (Yes) indicates that the controller should be configured; N (No) indicates that the controller should not be configured.

   • The second field, Device Name, provides 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 networking board, but have not installed the corresponding software for the board, 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.

   • The third field, the IRQ field, lists the interrupt request vector (IRQ) value for the hardware controller.

   • The fourth and fifth fields, the IOStart and IOEnd fields, list the start and end addresses for the hardware controller's I/O address range.

   • The sixth and seventh fields, the MemStart and MemEnd fields, list the start and end addresses for the hardware controller's memory address range.

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

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   • The eighth field, the DMA field, lists the DMA channel for the controller if it has one.

2. To view additional information about any of the entries, use the arrow keys to move the cursor to the row with the hardware controller data, and press <F6>.

   The name of the controller is repeated along with its board ID, the device driver for the controller, the hardware bus type, and (if used by the device driver) the valid values for the Interrupt Priority Level (IPL), interrupt type (ITYPE), interrupt request vector (IRQ), I/O address range, memory address range, DMA channels, bind CPU and Unit. See the System(4dsp) manual page for more information.

   Press <Enter> to return to the "Hardware Device Configuration" screen.

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   NOTE: Steps 2 through 5 can be performed in any order and as often as desired.

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3. Change a device driver parameter for a device according to the following table:

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   NOTE: Note that some fields are read only. The cursor cannot be placed in a read-only field.

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   If	Then
   The parameter is listed on the "Hardware Device Configuration" screen.	Move the cursor to the field for the parameter you want to change. Change the parameter by typing over the existing entry, or press <F2> and follow the instructions for using a Choices menu that follows this table.
   You want to change the Bind CPU, unit number, IPL, or ITYPE parameter values, or any optional device-specific parameters.	Press <F7> to display the "Advanced Parameter Selection" screen. Move the cursor to the field for the parameter you want to change. Change the parameter by typing over the existing entry, or press <F2> and follow the instructions for using a Choices menu that follows this table.

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   NOTE: You should not change entries for devices like the keyboard. Doing so may impair the operation of your system.

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   The following list explains how to use the Choices menu:

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   NOTE: Pressing <F2> allows you to make a choice from the Choices menu. To keep the current value in the parameter field, be sure the cursor is positioned on that value, and press <Enter>.

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   • If there are only two valid choices, the current value is replaced in the field by the alternate choice when you press <F2>. To toggle back to the original value, press <F2> again.

   • If there are more than two valid choices, a menu displays all choices. Move the cursor to your selection and press <Enter>.

   • If a list of choices is not provided, the field will not change and a message appears at the bottom of the screen.

4. Correct any hardware parameter conflicts.

   If multiple devices have the same IRQ or DMA values, overlapping I/O address ranges, or overlapping memory address ranges, the system may not boot or might be unable to access some hardware.

   To prevent this from happening, active devices must have unique IRQ and DMA values, as well as I/O and memory address ranges that do not overlap. (Active devices are all the controllers listed on the "Hardware Device Configuration" screen whose first field does not contain the value N (No) and whose second field does not contain the value unused or unknown.)

   The only exceptions are controllers that support shared IRQ values. When multiple controllers share the same IRQ values, the software device drivers for these controllers must operate at the same IPL. For example, two DPT controllers, supported by the same device driver, will operate at the same IPL. In addition, software device drivers of the same class such as HBA drivers will operate at the same IPL.

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   NOTE: If you have a PS/2 mouse and you install a controller whose IRQ conflicts with the mouse, you must change the IRQ for the new controller. The PS/2 mouse requires IRQ 12.

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5. To temporarily disable a controller (that is, to keep its data in the system resource database but not configure the controller for use by the system), change the Device Name field for this device to unused by following the instructions in Step 3.

   This step is useful if you plan to add the controller to your system again later, because you will not have to enter its hardware configuration data again. It is also useful if you want to temporarily disable all peripherals attached to a controller. This is only applicable for non-ISA controllers if the controller remains physically installed on your system; parameters are automatically deleted when non-ISA controllers are removed from the system.

6. To delete an ISA controller from the system resource database, set the first field of the entry for the hardware device to N (No).

7. Press <F4> to verify the device. (This step is optional, but recommended.)

   If the device driver has a verification routine, pressing <F4> will run the routine and report whether the parameters you specified are correct.

8. To return to the DCU main menu, press <F10>.

9. Select Apply Changes & Exit DCU to save your changes.