Onboard Adaptec 7895 - detects SCSI CD-ROM but not HDDs

[pgg]

Hi, I've got an old computer with onboard SCSI (Adaptec 7895 dual channel), four SCSI hard drives (which are blank, no OS), and a SCSI cdrom.

Knoppix boots fine from the SCSI CD-ROM. However, I can't see the SCSI hard drives. (If I Ctrl-A during boot and go into the SCSI BIOS, I can test the hard disks - they're OK.)

channel A has disks 1, 2, and 3 (SCSI IDs 0, 1, 2).
channel B has disk 4 and the CD ROM (SCSI IDs 0, 5).

fdisk -l reports nothing.

What I want to be able to do is 'fdisk /dev/sda' and run mkfs and the like to format these drives.

Why can't I see /dev/sd_ ? The SCSI adapter is seen:

Output of lspci -v:

0000:00:00.0 Host bridge: Intel Corp. 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX Host bridge (rev 03)
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64
        Memory at f4000000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=64M]
        Capabilities: [a0] AGP version 1.0

0000:00:01.0 PCI bridge: Intel Corp. 440BX/ZX/DX - 82443BX/ZX/DX AGP bridge (rev 03) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
        Flags: bus master, 66MHz, medium devsel, latency 64
        Bus: primary=00, secondary=01, subordinate=01, sec-latency=64
        I/O behind bridge: 0000c000-0000cfff
        Memory behind bridge: fa100000-fa1fffff
        Prefetchable memory behind bridge: f1e00000-f1efffff

0000:00:07.0 ISA bridge: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ISA (rev 02)
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 0

0000:00:07.1 IDE interface: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 IDE (rev 01) (prog-if 80 [Master])
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64
        I/O ports at ffa0 [size=16]

0000:00:07.2 USB Controller: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 USB (rev 01) (prog-if 00 [UHCI])
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 9
        I/O ports at ef80 [size=32]

0000:00:07.3 Bridge: Intel Corp. 82371AB/EB/MB PIIX4 ACPI (rev 02)
        Flags: medium devsel, IRQ 9

0000:00:0e.0 SCSI storage controller: Adaptec AHA-2940U/UW / AHA-39xx / AIC-7895 (rev 04)
        Subsystem: Adaptec AHA-2940U/2940UW Dual AHA-394xAU/AUW/AUWD AIC-7895B
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 10
        I/O ports at e400 [size=256]
        Memory at febfe000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
        Expansion ROM at febe0000 [disabled] [size=64K]
        Capabilities: [dc] Power Management version 1

0000:00:0e.1 SCSI storage controller: Adaptec AHA-2940U/UW / AHA-39xx / AIC-7895 (rev 04)
        Subsystem: Adaptec AHA-2940U/2940UW Dual AHA-394xAU/AUW/AUWD AIC-7895B
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 10
        I/O ports at e800 [size=256]
        Memory at febff000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=4K]
        Capabilities: [dc] Power Management version 1

0000:00:10.0 PCI bridge: Digital Equipment Corporation DECchip 21152 (rev 03) (prog-if 00 [Normal decode])
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64
        Bus: primary=00, secondary=02, subordinate=02, sec-latency=64
        I/O behind bridge: 0000d000-0000dfff
        Memory behind bridge: fa200000-faafffff
        Prefetchable memory behind bridge: 00000000f1f00000-00000000f1f00000
        Capabilities: [dc] Power Management version 1

0000:00:12.0 VGA compatible controller: S3 Inc. 86c968 [Vision 968 VRAM] rev 0 (prog-if 00 [VGA])
        Flags: stepping, medium devsel, IRQ 11
        Memory at 10000000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=64M]
        Expansion ROM at 7f000000 [disabled] [size=64K]

0000:02:04.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corp. 82557/8/9 [Ethernet Pro 100] (rev 05)
        Subsystem: Compaq Computer Corporation NC3122 Fast Ethernet NIC (dual port)
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 11
        Memory at f1fff000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=4K]
        I/O ports at df80 [size=32]
        Memory at faa00000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1M]
        Expansion ROM at fa900000 [disabled] [size=1M]
        Capabilities: [dc] Power Management version 1

0000:02:05.0 Ethernet controller: Intel Corp. 82557/8/9 [Ethernet Pro 100] (rev 05)
        Subsystem: Compaq Computer Corporation NC3122 Fast Ethernet NIC (dual port)
        Flags: bus master, medium devsel, latency 64, IRQ 11
        Memory at f1ffe000 (32-bit, prefetchable) [size=4K]
        I/O ports at df40 [size=32]
        Memory at fa800000 (32-bit, non-prefetchable) [size=1M]
        Expansion ROM at fa700000 [disabled] [size=1M]
        Capabilities: [dc] Power Management version 1

I'm pretty sure the needed kernel moduleis loaded since 'insmod aic7xxx" returns:

root@ttyp1[/]# insmod aic7xxx
Using /lib/modules/2.4.27/kernel/drivers/scsi/aic7xxx/aic7xxx.o
insmod: a module named aic7xxx already exists

What next? Thanks.

[pgg]

This suggests this isn't a Knoppix-specific problem -

When I try to install Fedora Core 1 or 3 on the system, it can't find sda b c or d.

I put a Win XP Pro install CD in the system, and setup took a long, long time to produce

(Setup cannot access this disk.)
8386 MB Disk 0 at Id 0 on aic78xx

(Setup cannot access this disk.)
8386 MB Disk 0 at Id 1 on aic78xx

(Setup cannot access this disk.)
8386 MB Disk 0 at Id 2 on aic78xx

(Setup cannot access this disk.)
8386 MB Disk 0 at Id 0 on aic78xx

Any ideas why nothing can touch these disks? Thanks.