MJT> http://www.ussg.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/0204.3/0484.html MJT> MJT> According to it, you should be able to use the drives in your MJT> U10, but not boot from them (the kernel doesn't use the PROM MJT> after the boot process and most modern kernels support LBA48).
That's not so simple. First, the HDD needs to support LBA48 addressing. Any 137G+ disk trivially support it. Second, the IDE controller must support LBA48 addressing. This is more mysterious: to the best of my knowledge, any IDE controller supports LBA48 in PIO modes but most older controllers do not support LBA48 in DMA modes (the second address word confusing state automatas or something like that). Third, the driver of the specific IDE controller must support LBA48. Usually the driver supports LBA48 only when it's possible to use DMA with LBA48 (I'm not aware of any Linux driver that supports LBA48 in PIO mode only). For U5/U10 the problem lies in the IDE controller - the integrated controller does not support LBA48 in DMA mode. And that's it. Not a driver problem but a hardware limitation. Use a PCI IDE controller for the bigger disks but boot from the integrated one since ypu probably can't find a PCI IDE controller with Sparc OpenFirmware ROM that is needed for booting from this device. -- Meelis Roos
