Benjamin Scott opined:
>On Thu, 24 Jan 2002 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>> OK ...
>
> Jeff! Welcome back! :-)
>
Well, I've been around, just not able to be active :)
>> I'm looking for some help in getting Linux to recognize the 10GB HD on
>> my Dell Latitude C600 laptop. Currently, it's reporting (parted) 8.4GB,
>> because lilo is apparently using C:H:S instead of LBA32 addressing.
>
> LILO has nothing to do with how much disk space the Linux kernel sees.
>LILO has one job and one job only: Load the kernel (and initrd, if any)
into
>memory and jump into it. The only reason LILO enters into the discussion
at
>all is that if LILO cannot see your kernel, it will not be able to boot
it.
>Since the older CHS-oriented BIOS calls are limited to addressing roughly
8
>GB or so, LILO needs to be told to use the newer LBA-oriented BIOS calls.
>
OK, but fdisk and parted all show the C:H:S addressing, instead of LBA32.
My calculations are that the 10GB drive, even with the divide by 1000
instead of divide by 1024, should have more than 8.4GB (which happens to
exactly match the old CHS limitation).
> But the kernel will not care. Indeed, the kernel barely uses the BIOS,
>although it might be mislead by it in some cases. (To give you an idea of
>how little the kernel cares about your BIOS, I have set IDE devices to
"Not
>present" in the BIOS, and the kernel still finds them. It ignores the
BIOS
>and asks the IDE controller directly.)
>
> Things to try, in approximate order:
>
> - Check the output of "cat /proc/partitions" to see what the kernel
> thinks the size of the disk is. You may be seeing a parted limit.
> - Check the output of "dmesg" for any clues. Maybe the IDE driver
> is complaining of some problem.
Will do that.
> - Make sure the HDD really is 10 GB.
I assume (since it's a laptop), that Dell is giving me the correct info (I
don't feel like breaking the laptop open).
> - Make sure your BIOS/disk controller supports drives that size. You may
> find a firmware update from the vendor to help.
A19 is the latest. Unfortunately, there's nowhere in the setup to change
the bios/disk controller view of the HD. I can only change the boot drive
(internal HD, bay HD, CD/DVD, floppy - actually a choice of order for 3)
> - Make sure your BIOS recognizes the HDD as having 10 GB.
Wonderful Dell BIOS - it tells me that I have an internal HD, but no way
to see how it sees it. I even ran the Dell utilities that came with it -
all it does is run a bunch of tests, and report that the internal HD is
IDE (and yes, that was the verbose report - the standard report was
"Internal HD OK"). Grr - I know most people don't care, but some of us
DO!!!!
> - Make sure no goofy geometry translation layers or "disk overlays" are
> present.
None I've loaded, but I can't be certain about the BIOS - Dell's wonderful
"you don't need to know" attitude.
> - Make sure the drive is not set to lie about its parameters (done
> to work around broken BIOSes that freak if they see a large drive).
Yea, except I can't find any utilities to do that (although I'll try the
cfdisk that Ken suggested).
> - Check the kernel documentation to see if it mentions anything for the
> particular IDE chipset your laptop uses. There may be a special
> parameter you have to use to work around some chipset brain damage.
> - Try contacting the vendor for support.
I'll have to hunt for the info. Alas, the Dell manual will conveniently
tell me all the wonderful things I can buy for the laptop, and how easy
and wonderful it is, and what great people Dell is, and how to select from
a menu, but neglect to mention such little things as chipsets. I had to
find out the sound chipset (Maestro 3) from linux-laptops.net.
>
> Good luck!
>
Thanks. BTW - did I mention how much I hate the Dell manuals, utilities,
and attitude towards customers ;)
(Off-topic (semi) - my first micro was a Zenith Z-100, came with about 6
feet of documentation - including BIOS listings, parts #'s, board layouts,
etc. Now I don't know whether it's that they're too lazy to produce &
ship the docs, or are trying to keep their competitors (who could just buy
a box and take it apart!) from getting the info. I hope the former, not
the stupid later)
jeff
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
---
thought for the day: To have died once is enough.
-- Publius Vergilius Maro (Virgil)
*****************************************************************
To unsubscribe from this list, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
with the text 'unsubscribe gnhlug' in the message body.
*****************************************************************
