Linux-Hardware Digest #364, Volume #10 Sat, 29 May 99 21:13:54 EDT
Contents:
Re: Can't install LILO w/RH 5.2 ("William B. Cattell")
Re: Using more than 4 IDE devices (Johan Kullstam)
Re: Terabite Plus Filesystems ("Stefan Monnier "
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>)
Re: TNT2 supported? (Sean)
Re: Any benefit to tweaking the 3C900B optimization settings? (Henrik Carlqvist)
Re: which of these network cars is better (Henrik Carlqvist)
Hewlett Packard printer help. (Highminded)
Re: /dev/sndstat file (Grant Lowe)
Re: Paperport OneTouch 5300 and xsane ("William B. Cattell")
Need Switch/Relay Output For Alarms ("Art Botterell")
Re: VIA MVP3 + UDMA no good? ("William B. Cattell")
Re: AMD 5x86/133Mhz (Rob Farrell)
Re: Dual Celeron's and SMP Performance Problems
([EMAIL PROTECTED])
Re: Wierd problem with SCSI tape drive. Please help! ("William B. Cattell")
Re: Viper 770 TNT2 (KevCo)
Re: DDS-3 DAT drive (Maryann Esh)
Hard Drive Performance ("Robert C. Paulsen, Jr.")
Re: TNT2 - XFree 3.3.3.1 (KevCo)
Re: Hard Disk :Suicide is not an option :) (Swietanowski Artur)
----------------------------------------------------------------------------
From: "William B. Cattell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: Can't install LILO w/RH 5.2
Date: Sat, 29 May 1999 22:46:45 GMT
"Aaron W. Bayles" wrote:
>
> Hello,
> Hopefully someone can help out a Linux newbie here. I am running a
> multiple boot system on a Fujitsu 6.4 Gb IDE hard drive and a Western
> Digital 4.3 Gb IDE hard drive. On the 6.4, I have as Primary
> partitions, OS/2's Boot Manager (7 Mb), Win98 (2047 Mb/Hidden C:), OS/2
> Warp 4.0 (3271 Mb/Hidden C:), and 855 Mb of free space for Linux, in
> that order. On the 4.3 Gb, I have 2 2000 Mb logical partitions D: and E:
>
> with 94 Mb left over for Linux Swap. In case anyone needs to know, this
> is a Pentium Pro 200/512 running on an Acer v60n motherboard, Intel
> 440FX chipset. I have tried to install RH Linux 5.0 and 5.1 on this
> system before, by creating a Primary partition with OS/2's fdisk, then
> changing the type to linux native with linux fdisk. No matter where I
> place the partition for linux, from the very first partition on the
> drive to second and so on, LILO will not install. I install linux
> packages just fine, either with a full blown install, or with a minimal
> 18Mb install, but when I get to the Install Bootloader part, linux will
> not install either on the MBR, or first sector of boot partition
> (preferred). I have not tried to make a linux boot disk to see if that
> will work, since I would much rather prefer to find a way to get my
> existing setup to work. I am able to move around the partitions
> wherever they need to be to get this to work, but I would like to try
> and avoid a complete format/restore if possible. Any help would be
> greatly appreciated. Sorry for the cross/re-posting.
>
> Thanks,
> Aaron W. Bayles
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
> (Please remove no_spam from my address for direct reply)
This has happened to me on a couple of occaisions during the
RedHat install (4.2 & 5.2). To resolve it I boot off the
emergency floppy created during install. Once I'm logged in as
root I do a 'lilo' which installs and activates lilo.
Bill
--
==============================================================
http://members.home.com/wcattell
==============================================================
Park not thy Harley in the darkness of thine garage, that it
may collect dust for want of being oft ridden. Ride thy Harley
with thy brethren, and rejoice in the spirit of the road.
==============================================================
------------------------------
Subject: Re: Using more than 4 IDE devices
From: Johan Kullstam <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Date: 29 May 1999 19:10:22 -0400
Jordi <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> Hello!
>
> What can I do if I already have 4 IDE devices attached to the computer
> (2 HD, CDRom, Atapi ZIp) and I desperately need to attach more hard
> drives?
you start to think real hard about scsi. that's what you do.
i guess the cheapest would probably be to get a very large ide hard
drive and get rid of your current two harddrives.
if you really need all those devices, then scsi is where you want to be!
> Can you use a PCI controller along with the motherboard's controller to
> create extra channels? If so, which chipsets/brands are recommended for
> use with the 2.2 kernels?
why don't you get a cheap scsi controller card. you don't necessarily
need ultra speed or wide bus width.
> Is it as simple as inserting the controller and building the kernel to
> have support for it? After, will the kernel just find the /dev/hde,
> /dev/hdf... and so? Anyone know if this create any problem to Windows?
>
> Thanks in advance,
>
> Jordi
>
--
J o h a n K u l l s t a m
[[EMAIL PROTECTED]]
Don't Fear the Penguin!
------------------------------
From: "Stefan Monnier <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>"
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To:
comp.os.linux.development.system,comp.os.ms-windows.nt.admin.misc,comp.sys.sun.admin,comp.sys.hp.misc
Subject: Re: Terabite Plus Filesystems
Date: 29 May 1999 19:05:07 -0400
>>>>> "David" == David T Blake <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes:
> PCs with *x86 architecture have about 1/3 the computing power
> of an alpha at the same clock speed. That is the penalty for
> keeping legacy chip architecture around.
You lost here all credibility.
Stefan
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Sean)
Subject: Re: TNT2 supported?
Date: Sat, 29 May 1999 23:17:01 GMT
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Good question.. I just recently bought the Diamond Viper 770 32mb
AGP vid card. i haven't tried it yet to see if it works, but also
curious to see IF RedHat 5.2 will support it or will it need some
tweaking?
On Wed, 05 May 1999 13:11:11 GMT, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>Greets, I am looking to find out if the Riva TNT2 will be supported by
>nVIDIA/card manufacturers (specifically Diamond). I am also looking to know if
>the SB Live! Value multimedia kit (SB Live! Value soundcard and 48x CDROM) is
>supported under X/Linux and what X server I should run to use my graphics card
>to its full potential. Thanks...
>
>- Sam
>
>-----------== Posted via Deja News, The Discussion Network ==----------
>http://www.dejanews.com/ Search, Read, Discuss, or Start Your Own
------------------------------
From: Henrik Carlqvist <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.networking
Subject: Re: Any benefit to tweaking the 3C900B optimization settings?
Date: Fri, 28 May 1999 20:08:43 +0200
Steve Snyder wrote:
> The 3C900B has 3 optimizations settings that can be configured with
> 3Com's config utility:
>
> 1. Optimize for maximum performance.
> 2. Optimize for minimum CPU use.
> 3. Normal (balances performance and CPU use).
>
> The factory default is setting #3 above. Given that this card acts
> solely as a conduit for the packets transferred between the server
> and the cable modem, I wonder if "max performance" wouldn't be a
> better option.
Is your cable modem spitting out data a lot faster than your network
card can handle them? Then it might help a little to set it to "max
performance". Otherwise you might find some use for that extra cpu power
you get when setting it to minimum CPU use.
regards Henrik
--
spammer strikeback:
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------------------------------
From: Henrik Carlqvist <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: which of these network cars is better
Date: Fri, 28 May 1999 21:26:09 +0200
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
>
> 3Com� 3C905B TXM 10/100 WuOL NIC
> 3Com� 3C900B TPC 10Mbit Combo NIC
3c905* is 100 Mbit/s, that is ten times as fast as the 3c900* which is
only 10 Mbit/s. The 3c905 is also backwards compatible so it is able to
run at 10 Mbit/s. 100 Mbit/s is only possible with twisted pair so the
3c905* only has a connector for twisted pair cable. To be able to use
this you will probably need a hub for 10 Mbit/s or a switch for 100
Mbit/s.
The combo version of 3c900* is also able to use coaxial cable. With
coaxial cable you don't need any hub or switch to connect your
computers.
regards Henrik
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------------------------------
From: Highminded <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Hewlett Packard printer help.
Date: Sat, 29 May 1999 22:54:13 GMT
I have a Hewlett Packard DeskJest 820Cse and can't get it to print at
all. I haven't tried real hard to set it up because I couldn't just
make it print ASCII then I stoped. I was wondering if anyone can help
me out. Do I have to go someplace and get drivers or is the printer not
Linux compatible. I got this printer way before I ever planed on using
Linux and most of my files are gone(well, so misplaced that I can't
really find them.)
Thanks,
Highminded
"Only in America do we keep junk in the garage and an expensive sports
car in the drive way."
------------------------------
From: Grant Lowe <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: /dev/sndstat file
Date: Sat, 29 May 1999 15:52:34 -0700
Mohd H Misnan wrote:
> On Fri, 28 May 1999 20:48:49 -0700, Grant Lowe wrote:
> >Hi.
> >
> >How can you create this file? I think the one I have right now is
> >wrong. Thanks.
>
> Why do you think it was wrong? /dev/sndstat is used by sound driver and the
> config that you can see by doing cat /dev/sndstat is produced by sound driver.
> If you think that your /dev/sndstat is wrong, then you may have misconfigured
> your sound driver.
>
> --
> |Mohd Hamid Misnan|[EMAIL PROTECTED] / [EMAIL PROTECTED] |i|
> |MacOS 8.6 + |http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/3319/ |M|
> |AMD K6-2/300 + |We want to take over the world, but we don't have |a|
> |Linux 2.2.9 i586 |to do it tomorrow. It's OK by next week - Linus T.|c|
I though it was wrong becase when I did a cat /dev/sndstat, I get the message: No
such file or directory.
Yet if I look with ls in the directory, it's there.
grant
------------------------------
From: "William B. Cattell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: Paperport OneTouch 5300 and xsane
Date: Sat, 29 May 1999 22:54:00 GMT
Kaushik Mallick wrote:
>
> I have a Paperport OneTouch 5300 scanner. It is connected to one of he 2
> parallel ports (the other being the printer). I downloaded the program XSANE
> and compiled it successfully to scan some pictures. But running XSANE gives me
> an error message saying 'no devices available'. I have the scanner turned on and
> works perfectly fine in Winblows.
> What is going wrong? Any help will be greatly appreciated.
Currently there are no Visioneer drivers for Linux. I use a
Paperport 3100B. I wrote and asked Visioneer if they were
planning to support Linux. There answer was non-committal (i.e.
- "we're thinking about it"). Write/email them and ask them to
support Linux.
Bill
--
==============================================================
http://members.home.com/wcattell
==============================================================
Park not thy Harley in the darkness of thine garage, that it
may collect dust for want of being oft ridden. Ride thy Harley
with thy brethren, and rejoice in the spirit of the road.
==============================================================
------------------------------
From: "Art Botterell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: alt.linux
Subject: Need Switch/Relay Output For Alarms
Date: Sat, 29 May 1999 15:56:25 -0700
I'm building a system for use in TV and radio newsrooms and I'd like to
provide one or several switch-closure signals under software control. These
would be used to actuate lights and/or other alarms when certain events
occur (urgent news, network failure, etc.)
Has anyone here made a switch- or relay- output board work under Linux? If
so, which board and where did you find the driver?
Right now this is the only thing that might keep us from using Linux for
these systems... and we have to decide within the next week... so any inputs
will be much appreciated.
Thanks!
- Art Botterell
Project Manager
Emergency Digital Information Service (EDIS)
California Governor's Office of Emergency Services
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
------------------------------
From: "William B. Cattell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: VIA MVP3 + UDMA no good?
Date: Sat, 29 May 1999 23:00:44 GMT
Jonas Palsson wrote:
>
> I get LOTS of CRC errors when i download files (ethernet connection). I
> know that the NIC not is broken so my last hope is that anyone here
> knows what the problem could be. I think it could be something with the
> VIA MVP3 chipset and UDMA. My system:
>
> Harddisk: IBM Deskstar 16GP (udma disk)
> CPU : AMD K6-2 350
> MB: DFI P5BV3+ with the VIA MVP3 chipset
> RAM: 64 MB PC100 SDRAM
> NIC: 3com905B
>
> Hope anyone can solve my problem
>
> Jonas P
I have an AMD K6-2/350 with the same chipset (FIC 2013 mb) and
everything is working great.
One thing to check would be your connection. Your NIC might be
good but if you have a poor patch cable or connector you might
get the same type transmission errors.
Get your net admins to put a Sniffer on the wire and check for
excessive errors.
--
==============================================================
http://members.home.com/wcattell
==============================================================
Park not thy Harley in the darkness of thine garage, that it
may collect dust for want of being oft ridden. Ride thy Harley
with thy brethren, and rejoice in the spirit of the road.
==============================================================
------------------------------
From: Rob Farrell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: AMD 5x86/133Mhz
Date: Sat, 29 May 1999 23:12:41 GMT
I have an AMD 5x86-133pr75 w/ write back cache on my LAN. While it may be the
SLOWEST machine that I own, it hasn't hit e-bay yet because it has to be the
MOST STABLE machine I've ever used!
I've never tried to o/c this machine... try setting the jumpers back to their
normal configuration and you should be up and running smooth and steady in no
time!
This box has been running linux for 2.5 years... first kernel may have been
the 2.0.29 if my memory serves me correctly.... now it's running 2.0.36 w/
40mb of RAM and a Diamond Stealth 2000 4mb PCI video card. Xwindows is a
little slow, but it beats the hell out of trying to run MS WIN9x on it!
*laughs*.
---> Rob
$ cat /proc/cpuinfo
processor : 0
cpu : 486
model : Am5x86-WB
vendor_id : AuthenticAMD
stepping : E
fdiv_bug : no
hlt_bug : no
f00f_bug : no
fpu : yes
fpu_exception : yes
cpuid : yes
wp : yes
flags : fpu
bogomips : 66.56
$ uptime
6:16am up 22 days, 2:53, 7 users, load average: 1.23, 1.08, 1.02
--
__ _ [EMAIL PROTECTED]
/ / (_)__ __ ____ __
/ /__/ / _ \/ // /\ \/ / (2.0.36)
/____/_/_//_/\_ _/ /_/\_\
The choice of the GNU generation!
oOOo GBH Network Operations oOOo
Schouwen van RM wrote:
> John Hong wrote:
> >
> > Anyone running with one of these? Anyhow, I o/c this to 160Mhz
> > (4x40Mhz) and everything was going just fine until I tried recompiling
> > the kernel (ended up with Sig11). Going back to 133Mhz (4x33Mhz)
>
> I've been running this baby at 160MHz for several years now. No problems
> whatsoever! Compiling a kernel goes just fine too.
>
> --
> Groeten / Regards,
>
> -=-Reinout
>
> [ have a look at my homepage: http://www.cs.vu.nl/~rmvschou/ ]
------------------------------
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Crossposted-To: alt.comp.hardware.overclocking,csu.unix.linux
Subject: Re: Dual Celeron's and SMP Performance Problems
Date: 29 May 1999 22:39:51 GMT
In comp.os.linux.hardware Totally Lost <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
: Ok Before you asserted $150 difference, now you've raised that to to
: $550 ...
The difference was meant between single and dual-Celeron.
Sorry for my broken english :-)
: http://www.shopper.com/pfind/cpu.pentii.333mmx.html $125.50
: http://www.shopper.com/pfind/cpu.cel.333mmx.128k.html $ 72.95
: CPU Price difference: Uni $52.55, Dual $105.10
Maybe overseas in USA, but not here in Germoney ...
--
-------------------------------------------------------------------
| Bernhard Kuhn (kuhn[at]lpr.ei.tum.de) O|||OO||OO| |
| Laboratory for Process Control and Real-Time Systems O|||O|O|O|O |
| Technische Universit�t M�nchen Tel.+49-89-289-23732 O|||OO||OO| |
| 80290 M�nchen, Germany Room 3944 Fax -23555 OOO|O|||O|O |
--------------------------------------------------------------------
------------------------------
From: "William B. Cattell" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Subject: Re: Wierd problem with SCSI tape drive. Please help!
Date: Sat, 29 May 1999 23:05:04 GMT
Alex Stewart wrote:
>
> Nitin Mule <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> : I'm getting this extremely annoying problem with my SCSI tape drive. It's a
> : brand new device and sometimes works fine. However, ocassionally I get an
> : error when I try to backup about 10GB of data using tar. It's a random
> : problem and I have little clue where things are going wrong.
>
> Randomness usually indicates a hardware problem..
>
> : scsi: aborting command due to timeout: pid 246340, scci0, channel0, id 15,
> : lun 0 write (6) 01 00 00 1e 00
>
> This really sounds like a hardware SCSI issue, most likely one of the following
> things:
> 1) Bad termination (verify that the termination plug (if external) is secure,
> try using a different terminator)
> 2) Bad cable (again, verify it's secure, try wiggling it during a backup and
> see if it causes more errors, etc, or just try using a different cable)
> 3) Bad interface in the drive (much more unlikely, but possible)
> 4) Bad SCSI controller in your computer (fairly unlikely, but it's something
> to test if nothing else turns up)
>
> It could also be caused by power problems with the drive (potentially even
> brief power hits too small for you to notice, but big enough to screw up the
> SCSI controller), so you might want to double-check the power connections, etc.
> (I assume you're using a surge protector?)
>
sorry to piggyback but yes, check the cabling. I just resolved
the EXACT same type of error msgs when tarring to a scsi tape.
turns out that the ribbon cable in the external cabinet had
become pinched and although the device was recognized [most of
the time] on boot up I was always getting the errors. After
verifying termination, ID assignment, parity, etc; I replaced the
ribbon cable and all problems went away.
==============================================================
http://members.home.com/wcattell
==============================================================
Park not thy Harley in the darkness of thine garage, that it
may collect dust for want of being oft ridden. Ride thy Harley
with thy brethren, and rejoice in the spirit of the road.
==============================================================
------------------------------
From: KevCo <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Viper 770 TNT2
Date: Sat, 29 May 1999 20:19:06 -0400
You'll need XFree86 3.3.3.1 (the latest version) for TNT2 support. Even
with that, I had to manually add 'Chipset "RIVATNT" ' to my XF86Config
(thanks to a usenet tip I found in another group) to make it work.
Otherwise it comes up with "unknown chipset" and drops into 320x200.
With the added chipset line I'm able to run at any resolution/colordepth
I want.
Also I have an AMD K6-2/300 with a VLI chipset. I've had no trouble
with the TNT2 under windows or linux once I finally got Xwindows up.
------------------------------
From: Maryann Esh <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Crossposted-To: comp.os.linux.misc
Subject: Re: DDS-3 DAT drive
Date: Sat, 29 May 1999 17:24:25 -0500
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
I've received the same results when I tried to take a DDS-2 tape from an
HP-C1533A Drive to a Seagate Archive Python (23288?). The Seagate could
not read the tapes, but could write tapes that the HP could read. Both
could read and write their own tapes, though. Have you tried that? Is the
drive active while you think it's writing?
BTW: I sold the Seagate. I still have the HP.
Chris Mauritz wrote:
> What's the secret to getting a DDS-3 DAT drive to work with linux?
> I've tried reading/writing tapes with Redhat 5.2 and Redhat 6.0
> using an HP and a Seagate drive without success.
>
> When I try to read/write tapes, I get:
>
> tape read error: Input/output error
>
> I've compiled SCSI tape support into the kernel (tried both 2.0.36 and
> 2.2.9) and made sure the device files (/dev/nst0 /dev/st0) exist.
>
> Anyone have any suggestions?
>
> Chris
>
> --
> Christopher Mauritz
> [EMAIL PROTECTED]
------------------------------
From: "Robert C. Paulsen, Jr." <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Hard Drive Performance
Date: Sat, 29 May 1999 19:31:18 -0500
Is there any way to measure hard drive performance when using Linux?
____________________________________________________________________
Robert Paulsen http://paulsen.home.texas.net
If my return address contains "ZAP." please remove it. Sorry for the
inconvenience but the unsolicited email is getting out of control.
------------------------------
From: KevCo <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: TNT2 - XFree 3.3.3.1
Date: Sat, 29 May 1999 20:37:56 -0400
Just got mine working today thanks to a post in another newsgroup. Use
the regular SVGA server and add a line under your device section that
reads:
Chipset "RIVATNT"
------------------------------
From: Swietanowski Artur <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: Hard Disk :Suicide is not an option :)
Date: Sat, 29 May 1999 19:36:39 +0200
trefor wrote:
> I have 2 identical hard drives
>
> klogd reports
>
> <6>hda: IBM-DTTA-351010, 9671MB w/466kB Cache, CHS=1232/255/63
> <6>hdb: ABM-LTTA-3=1810, 8063MB w/466kB Cache, CHS=2455/128/63
^ ^ ^ ^ ^^^^ ^^^
Clearly, you've got a bunch of bits lost/converted.
Man, you're most likely up a sh** creek w/o a paddle. Esp. if
similar errors in disk signature are reported outside Linux.
The above means, that:
(a) either transmission of data from the 2nd disk is unreliable,
(b) or the disk itself is rotten (not necessarily the surface, just
the electronics),
(c) or the kernel at the point of writing this report has a serious
headache caused by, say, some incompatible drivers that mess up
with memory that does not belong to them.
To check (a) you could try changing all the elements in the data
transmission path: the cable and the controller. So connect and
configure the second disk (primary/secondary master/slave/cable
select) as the first one is configured now. Place the first disk
at a safe distance -- in case it's contagious.
To check (c) you would need a kernel that is stripped bare of
anything more than e2fs and ELF support. No sound cards, net cards,
no other filesystems, etc. If this kernel has no problem with the
drive and the full one has, and if you can repeat the experiment
a few times, you will have caught the culprit.
If you're sure it's neither (a) nor (c), I don't see any obvious
alternative to (b) :-<
> fdisk /dev/hdb produces :(
> <snip>
After the preamble like the klogd gave you, you shouldn't expect
anything more than rubbish. But the rubbish sometimes makes some
sense...
> Disk /dev/hdb: 128 heads, 63 sectors, 2455 cylinders
> Units = cylinders of 8064 * 512 bytes
>
> /dev/hdb1 * 1 1
> 16772 67622912+ 6 DOS 16-bit >=32M
> Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary:
> phys=(63, 246, 63) should be (63, 127, 63)
> /dev/hdb2 16449 16772
> 17033 1051233+ 83 Linux native
> Partition 2 does not end on cylinder boundary:
> phys=(202, 246, 63) should be (202, 127, 63)
> /dev/hdb3 16580 17033
> 17067 136552+ 82 Linux swap
> Partition 3 does not end on cylinder boundary:
> phys=(219, 246, 63) should be (219, 127, 63)
> /dev/hdb4 16597 17067
> 35743 75302014 83
> Linux native
> Partition 4 does not end on cylinder boundary:
> phys=(1023, 246, 63) should be (1023, 127, 63)
Looks like the physical data of the partition table is consistent
with the true size of the disk. This display (with sector numbers)
is difficult to interpret. Go to fdisk, type 'u' (to toggle units
between 'cylinders' and 'sectors'), get fdisk to display cylinder information and then
compare the display for /dev/hda and /dev/hdb.
If the cylinder info is OK, then your partition table may be just
fine!
So maybe the data is fine, too. Just how to get to it???
> A low level format has been attempted
To find out the culprit, you might, e.g., get into your BIOS and
ask it to autodetect your drives. Does it report rubbish, or sensible
data? If it's rubbish, maybe you could force BIOS to accept the data
you type in as the counts of sectors, heads and cylinders. Then maybe
you can fool Windoze or Linux to take the disk size data the way you
know it should be.
I don't know if Windoze accepts hard disk information from BIOS.
I've an unclear memory of seeing some tricks to make Linux accept
hard drive geometry from the kernel argument (included in
/etc/lilo.conf or typed at boot). You might want to look for more
info on this, as I'm no expert with such tricks.
The startng points are:
- man lilo.conf, part about the 'disk=' global option (to force
disk geometry reading from BIOS),
- also see the 'disktab=', 'ignore-table' options in 'lilo.conf',
- in 'KERNEL OPTIONS' there you also have things like:
append=string
Appends the options specified to the parameter line
passed to the kernel. This is typically used to
specify parameters of hardware that can't be
entirely auto-detected or for which probing may be
dangerous. Example:
append = "hd=64,32,202"
In any case, if you force some OS to swallow the right drive
geometry, you might save tha data, as long as it's still there.
In linux it's pretty obvious what to do. In Windoze 95/98 there's
a driver to read ext2 partitions. Will loose the attributes and
ownership, but possibly will recover the files.
> If this is the case would it be repairable as
> a disk.
> I think that to hope for the safe return of the
> data is a bit too much to ask santa for.
> If it cannot be got back to it's original
> size is it possible to format it at a size that
> will be acceptable by the bios and at least get
> some real estate out of the deal.
The size is acceptable for the BIOS, but the drive reports a wrong
size. As long as you can't make sure you found yout what caused
the misreporting and you removed the cause, I wouldn't use this
disk for anything but a paperweight.
Since many things look suspicious in the boot log you attached, I'd
suggest extreme caution (yes, there's still a lot more that could go
wrong). If your Linux root remains bootable, boot into single user
mode. Make sure nothing but root is mounted. Add 'noauto' to mount
options of the partitions on the second HDD. Comment out the swap
from the second partition. Read the partition tables with fdisk and
see if they make any sense. Try enforcing the correct disk geometry.
If you manage to get fdisk to report something sensible, you might
try mounting the partitions one by one and seeing if the data can
be reconvered. Do not run e2fsck before backing up all you can from
each partition.
Let me know how you're doing.
HTH,
=====================================================================
Artur Swietanowski mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
Institut f�r Statistik, Operations Research und Computerverfahren,
Universit�t Wien, Universit�tsstr. 5, A-1010 Wien, Austria
tel. +43 (1) 427 738 620 fax +43 (1) 427 738 629
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