Re: Linux Laptops and 10GB HD
I think you may be failing to see the forest for the trees. I've had drives (especially the 100 GB Maxtors) that *some* programs refused to see, whereas others saw the whole thing. I suggest firing up "cfdisk": a somewhat more complex, substantially more powerful program than the stock "fdisk", and see if it doesn't see your whole drive. Also, what does your system report when it identifies the drive during boot? Check "dmesg" to see (assuming it hasn't scrolled). That will most likely be how the *kernel* sees it -- it's then up to userland utils to make sure that they put the correct partitions, etc., in place. (For example, here's a line from mine: hdb: 195711264 sectors (100204 MB) w/2048KiB Cache, CHS=12182/255/63...) That had been there the whole time, so I knew the kernel knew what was up, but fdisk *refused* to see it... though cfdisk worked quite nicely. HTH... -Ken On Thu, 2002-01-24 at 22:55, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > OK, 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. I've > got LBA32 in the lilo.conf file. I've run lilo from both my emergency > backup partition and floppy, same result. As a result, the upper 1.6GB is > not > addressable/usable. Anyone have ideas as to how to get it to work (and I > did check linux-laptops.net, all the C600 reports there just say "use > LBA32 mode," without details on how to get it into that)? > > Some info: > Model: Dell Latitude C600 > BIOS: A19 > CPU: Pentium III/600MHz > Memory: 128MB > HD: IDE, unknown manufacturer (internal with system) > Distro: Red Hat 7.1/Ximian updates > Kernel (multiple, same problem with all): 2.2.18, 2..2.18 w/Win4Lin > updates, 2.2.18 w/Win4Lin & Devfs, 2.4.17, 2.4.2, 2.4.7 w/VMWare, 2.4.4 > Lilo: 21.4.4-13 (Red Hat/Ximian RPM) > parted: 1.4.7-2 (Red Hat/Ximian RPM) > Devfsd: 2.4.3-12 (Red Hat/Ximian RPM) > > Again, any suggestions/help appreciated. > > jeff > --- > --- > thought for the day: FORTUNE'S RULES TO LIVE BY: #2 > Never goose a wolverine. > > > > * > To unsubscribe from this list, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] > with the text 'unsubscribe gnhlug' in the message body. > * > * To unsubscribe from this list, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the text 'unsubscribe gnhlug' in the message body. *
Re: Linux Laptops and 10GB HD
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. *
RE: Linux Laptops and 10GB HD
This sounds plausible. All the hard drives I've run into over the last few years have a 'marketing' capacity counted in 1000s, and an actual capacity counted in 1024s. Thus the '9GB' hard drives hold 8.47GB, the '18GB' hard drives hold 16.9GB, and so on. The '40GB' IDE drive in my current system, actually holds 37.5GB. I would expect a '10GB' drive to hold about 9.3 or so, perhaps less if there are hidden partitions. This of course does not rule out the possibility that the BIOS in your system just can't see the drive past a certain point. -= Bill =- -Original Message- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]]On Behalf Of Mansur, Warren Sent: Sunday, January 27, 2002 6:15 AM To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]; [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: RE: Linux Laptops and 10GB HD Some HD manufacturers report GB, MB, and KB in increments of 1000 instead of 1024, since technically "kilo" means 1000 from the metric system (and so on for "mega" and "giga"). I have an IBM HD which was marketed to be 20 GB, but in computer terms it's actually only 18.6 GB. According to my rough calculations, if that's the case with your HD, the total memory is 9.31 GB. If you have other partitions which take up another 0.9GB then that could be one possible explanation. Just throwing out ideas. Regards, Warren >-Original Message- >From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] >Sent: Thursday, January 24, 2002 10:56 PM >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Subject: Linux Laptops and 10GB HD > > >OK, 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. I've >got LBA32 in the lilo.conf file. I've run lilo from both my emergency >backup partition and floppy, same result. As a result, the >upper 1.6GB is >not >addressable/usable. Anyone have ideas as to how to get it to >work (and I >did check linux-laptops.net, all the C600 reports there just say "use >LBA32 mode," without details on how to get it into that)? > >Some info: >Model: Dell Latitude C600 >BIOS: A19 >CPU: Pentium III/600MHz >Memory: 128MB >HD: IDE, unknown manufacturer (internal with system) >Distro: Red Hat 7.1/Ximian updates >Kernel (multiple, same problem with all): 2.2.18, 2..2.18 w/Win4Lin >updates, 2.2.18 w/Win4Lin & Devfs, 2.4.17, 2.4.2, 2.4.7 w/VMWare, 2.4.4 >Lilo: 21.4.4-13 (Red Hat/Ximian RPM) >parted: 1.4.7-2 (Red Hat/Ximian RPM) >Devfsd: 2.4.3-12 (Red Hat/Ximian RPM) > >Again, any suggestions/help appreciated. > >jeff >--- > >--- >thought for the day: FORTUNE'S RULES TO LIVE BY: #2 > Never goose a wolverine. > > > >* >To unsubscribe from this list, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] >with the text 'unsubscribe gnhlug' in the message body. >* > * To unsubscribe from this list, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the text 'unsubscribe gnhlug' in the message body. * * To unsubscribe from this list, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the text 'unsubscribe gnhlug' in the message body. *
RE: Linux Laptops and 10GB HD
Some HD manufacturers report GB, MB, and KB in increments of 1000 instead of 1024, since technically "kilo" means 1000 from the metric system (and so on for "mega" and "giga"). I have an IBM HD which was marketed to be 20 GB, but in computer terms it's actually only 18.6 GB. According to my rough calculations, if that's the case with your HD, the total memory is 9.31 GB. If you have other partitions which take up another 0.9GB then that could be one possible explanation. Just throwing out ideas. Regards, Warren >-Original Message- >From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]] >Sent: Thursday, January 24, 2002 10:56 PM >To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] >Subject: Linux Laptops and 10GB HD > > >OK, 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. I've >got LBA32 in the lilo.conf file. I've run lilo from both my emergency >backup partition and floppy, same result. As a result, the >upper 1.6GB is >not >addressable/usable. Anyone have ideas as to how to get it to >work (and I >did check linux-laptops.net, all the C600 reports there just say "use >LBA32 mode," without details on how to get it into that)? > >Some info: >Model: Dell Latitude C600 >BIOS: A19 >CPU: Pentium III/600MHz >Memory: 128MB >HD: IDE, unknown manufacturer (internal with system) >Distro: Red Hat 7.1/Ximian updates >Kernel (multiple, same problem with all): 2.2.18, 2..2.18 w/Win4Lin >updates, 2.2.18 w/Win4Lin & Devfs, 2.4.17, 2.4.2, 2.4.7 w/VMWare, 2.4.4 >Lilo: 21.4.4-13 (Red Hat/Ximian RPM) >parted: 1.4.7-2 (Red Hat/Ximian RPM) >Devfsd: 2.4.3-12 (Red Hat/Ximian RPM) > >Again, any suggestions/help appreciated. > >jeff >--- > >--- >thought for the day: FORTUNE'S RULES TO LIVE BY: #2 > Never goose a wolverine. > > > >* >To unsubscribe from this list, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] >with the text 'unsubscribe gnhlug' in the message body. >* > * To unsubscribe from this list, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the text 'unsubscribe gnhlug' in the message body. *
Re: Linux Laptops and 10GB HD
On Thu, 24 Jan 2002 [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > OK ... Jeff! Welcome back! :-) > 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. 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. - Make sure the HDD really is 10 GB. - Make sure your BIOS/disk controller supports drives that size. You may find a firmware update from the vendor to help. - Make sure your BIOS recognizes the HDD as having 10 GB. - Make sure no goofy geometry translation layers or "disk overlays" are present. - 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). - 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. Good luck! -- Ben Scott <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> | The opinions expressed in this message are those of the author and do not | | necessarily represent the views or policy of any other person, entity or | | organization. All information is provided without warranty of any kind. | * To unsubscribe from this list, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with the text 'unsubscribe gnhlug' in the message body. *
