Re: Sorry - plaintext this time - Disk geometry and two OSes.
On Mon, Aug 4, 2008 at 8:02 PM, Slick Bo <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I've > seen a few people on this mailing list say that disk geometry really > doesn't matter that much, and the OS usually works fine despite > apparent errors. But I'd prefer to be able to keep my windows installation. > If I let sysinstall change the disk geometry, will it create problems > for the files on "0" and the WinXP installation? If so, do you know of > an alternate way to find the disk geometry, and should I directly give > these results to sysinstall? Will that fix my problem? This is something I've wondered about, but blithely ignored. What does the warning really mean? Why doesn't it matter? -- Ned Ruggeri ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: Sorry - plaintext this time - Disk geometry and two OSes.
On Mon, 4 Aug 2008 18:02:52 -0700 (PDT) Slick Bo <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > If I let sysinstall change the disk geometry, will it create > problems for the files on "0" and the WinXP installation? NO. You can safely do it. And if you don't like the fbsd bootloader you can always change to another one. Your diskdata will be safe. -- Dick Hoogendijk -- PGP/GnuPG key: 01D2433D ++ http://nagual.nl/ + SunOS sxce snv94 ++ ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Sorry - plaintext this time - Disk geometry and two OSes.
Hi everyone, I have two 37GB (nominally 40GB) IDE/ATA disk drives. I'm trying to leave my Windows XP SP1 installation on the one that shows up as "0" (ad0 in sysinstall), and giving the entire other drive to FreeBSD. When creating a boot agent for the 0 drive, sysinstall complains about incorrect disk geometry. I have tried checking the geometry of my disks. However, my BIOS does not display it. The only information it displays about each disk is the capacity in megabytes (4 MB), and the "type" (whether it's "auto" or "off"). And pfdisk.exe doesn't work; it's reportedly not allowed to directly access the disk. I considered running chkdsk, but it seems it needs to run at boot time in order for it to actually check the 0 drive, and I have no way of catching the output (microsoft claims it dumps information into an event log, but it doesn't, or I can't find it in the place they claim). One other note. On my 0 drive, there are two primary partitions. The first one is a 30 MB FAT partition with the label msdosfs/DellUtility (my computer is a Dell). I'm assuming the boot information is on this partition... will sysinstall know to put the bootloader on that partition? I've seen a few people on this mailing list say that disk geometry really doesn't matter that much, and the OS usually works fine despite apparent errors. But I'd prefer to be able to keep my windows installation. If I let sysinstall change the disk geometry, will it create problems for the files on "0" and the WinXP installation? If so, do you know of an alternate way to find the disk geometry, and should I directly give these results to sysinstall? Will that fix my problem? Alright, I appreciate it. Thanks a lot in advance, Will L. ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: Disk Geometry
On Thu, Feb 28, 2008 at 09:30:19PM +0100, ras bsd wrote: > On 28/02/2008, Jerry McAllister <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > On Thu, Feb 28, 2008 at 12:48:37AM +0100, ras bsd wrote: > > > > > Hello list, this is my first post here. > > > > > > My problem is: > > > > > > I've installed the OS in my laptop in this order, Win XP and Debian > > > GNU/Linux. I'm trying to dive into the freebsd world from many years > > > in GNU/Linux. When i start the installation, when i have to enter in > > > the disk partition section an error appears saying that the disk > > > geometry is not valid and, anyway, I can not see the free disk space > > > that i left free after the other OS. My scope is keep working the > > > three OS. > > > How can i know the correct disk geometry? What am i doing wrong? > > > > > > Well, I don't know why it does not see the free space unless you > > are looking in the wrong step. There is often confusion by new > > users who come from the MS world because FreeBSD uses the term 'slice' > > and MS uses the term 'primary partition' to refer to the same thing. > > Due to ancient conventions in Bios and etc, there can be up to 4 slices > > (or primary partitions) on any physical disk. > > > > Lunix has its own notion of extended partition as well. Don't try > > to use that for FreeBSD. > > > > FreeBSD must be installed/built in a free slice (primary partition by > > MS vocabulary). It cannot be put in some extended partition space. > > > > It is possible that you have already used up the 4 slices if the laptop > > manufacturer put a diagnostic utility slice on the drive. That is > > normally hidden from MS, but will show up to FreeBSD. If that is true, > > and you have used up the number of slices, then FreeBSD will not allow > > you to add any. You will need to use a tool such as 'gparted' or > > Partition Magic to shuffle things around and maybe squeeze the other > > slices and even nuke one. > > > > Then FreeBSD uses the term 'partition' to refer to the subdivisions > > of a slice. MS has some things called extended partitions which are > > not the same thing at all. > > > > Anyway, the point where you first need to see the free space is in > > the step dealing with the slices which is done with fdisk(8). > > > > As for the disk geometry issue, it normally does not matter. That > > is the BIOS complaining. You want to just let it go ahead and > > build things and try to ignore that error message. Once it gets > > past loading the boot sector from a slice, FreeBSD no longer used > > the BIOS. It handles everything itself. > > > > There are exceptions to this response, but go ahead (once you get the > > free space issue figured out) and try it and see if it works. It > > won't hurt anything and if it works, you're home free. If it doesn't > > then you have some more exploring to do.I am not quite sure what > > because although I have frequently seen that message - almost all > > the time, I have never had it not work to just go ahead and slice, > > partition and build and ignore the message. That is with both IDE(SATA) > > and SCSI(SAS). > > > > So, your real problem is finding that elusive free slice space or > > freeing up a slice number to use for it. > > > > Good luck, > > > > jerry > > > > > Mi laptop is Intel Core2 Duo and the Hard Disk is SATA 200 Gb Toshiba > > > MK2035GSS-(S1). > > > > > > Thank you. > > > ___ > > > freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list > > > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions > > > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" > > > Thank you very much Jerry. > > It was the problem, I had the free space in a extended partition made > of ext3fs Linux. The solution was move the space and leave that > partition totally unalocated. After that everything was ok with the > installation. I'm on it. > > Thank you. Hey, I got to get one once in a while. Glad it is working. FreeBSD is a good one. jerry > ___ > freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: Disk Geometry
On 28/02/2008, Jerry McAllister <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > On Thu, Feb 28, 2008 at 12:48:37AM +0100, ras bsd wrote: > > > Hello list, this is my first post here. > > > > My problem is: > > > > I've installed the OS in my laptop in this order, Win XP and Debian > > GNU/Linux. I'm trying to dive into the freebsd world from many years > > in GNU/Linux. When i start the installation, when i have to enter in > > the disk partition section an error appears saying that the disk > > geometry is not valid and, anyway, I can not see the free disk space > > that i left free after the other OS. My scope is keep working the > > three OS. > > How can i know the correct disk geometry? What am i doing wrong? > > > Well, I don't know why it does not see the free space unless you > are looking in the wrong step. There is often confusion by new > users who come from the MS world because FreeBSD uses the term 'slice' > and MS uses the term 'primary partition' to refer to the same thing. > Due to ancient conventions in Bios and etc, there can be up to 4 slices > (or primary partitions) on any physical disk. > > Lunix has its own notion of extended partition as well. Don't try > to use that for FreeBSD. > > FreeBSD must be installed/built in a free slice (primary partition by > MS vocabulary). It cannot be put in some extended partition space. > > It is possible that you have already used up the 4 slices if the laptop > manufacturer put a diagnostic utility slice on the drive. That is > normally hidden from MS, but will show up to FreeBSD. If that is true, > and you have used up the number of slices, then FreeBSD will not allow > you to add any. You will need to use a tool such as 'gparted' or > Partition Magic to shuffle things around and maybe squeeze the other > slices and even nuke one. > > Then FreeBSD uses the term 'partition' to refer to the subdivisions > of a slice. MS has some things called extended partitions which are > not the same thing at all. > > Anyway, the point where you first need to see the free space is in > the step dealing with the slices which is done with fdisk(8). > > As for the disk geometry issue, it normally does not matter. That > is the BIOS complaining. You want to just let it go ahead and > build things and try to ignore that error message. Once it gets > past loading the boot sector from a slice, FreeBSD no longer used > the BIOS. It handles everything itself. > > There are exceptions to this response, but go ahead (once you get the > free space issue figured out) and try it and see if it works. It > won't hurt anything and if it works, you're home free. If it doesn't > then you have some more exploring to do.I am not quite sure what > because although I have frequently seen that message - almost all > the time, I have never had it not work to just go ahead and slice, > partition and build and ignore the message. That is with both IDE(SATA) > and SCSI(SAS). > > So, your real problem is finding that elusive free slice space or > freeing up a slice number to use for it. > > Good luck, > > jerry > > > > > > Mi laptop is Intel Core2 Duo and the Hard Disk is SATA 200 Gb Toshiba > > MK2035GSS-(S1). > > > > Thank you. > > > ___ > > freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list > > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions > > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" > Thank you very much Jerry. It was the problem, I had the free space in a extended partition made of ext3fs Linux. The solution was move the space and leave that partition totally unalocated. After that everything was ok with the installation. I'm on it. Thank you. ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: Disk Geometry
On Thu, Feb 28, 2008 at 12:48:37AM +0100, ras bsd wrote: > Hello list, this is my first post here. > > My problem is: > > I've installed the OS in my laptop in this order, Win XP and Debian > GNU/Linux. I'm trying to dive into the freebsd world from many years > in GNU/Linux. When i start the installation, when i have to enter in > the disk partition section an error appears saying that the disk > geometry is not valid and, anyway, I can not see the free disk space > that i left free after the other OS. My scope is keep working the > three OS. > How can i know the correct disk geometry? What am i doing wrong? Well, I don't know why it does not see the free space unless you are looking in the wrong step. There is often confusion by new users who come from the MS world because FreeBSD uses the term 'slice' and MS uses the term 'primary partition' to refer to the same thing. Due to ancient conventions in Bios and etc, there can be up to 4 slices (or primary partitions) on any physical disk. Lunix has its own notion of extended partition as well. Don't try to use that for FreeBSD. FreeBSD must be installed/built in a free slice (primary partition by MS vocabulary). It cannot be put in some extended partition space. It is possible that you have already used up the 4 slices if the laptop manufacturer put a diagnostic utility slice on the drive. That is normally hidden from MS, but will show up to FreeBSD. If that is true, and you have used up the number of slices, then FreeBSD will not allow you to add any. You will need to use a tool such as 'gparted' or Partition Magic to shuffle things around and maybe squeeze the other slices and even nuke one. Then FreeBSD uses the term 'partition' to refer to the subdivisions of a slice. MS has some things called extended partitions which are not the same thing at all. Anyway, the point where you first need to see the free space is in the step dealing with the slices which is done with fdisk(8). As for the disk geometry issue, it normally does not matter. That is the BIOS complaining. You want to just let it go ahead and build things and try to ignore that error message. Once it gets past loading the boot sector from a slice, FreeBSD no longer used the BIOS. It handles everything itself. There are exceptions to this response, but go ahead (once you get the free space issue figured out) and try it and see if it works. It won't hurt anything and if it works, you're home free. If it doesn't then you have some more exploring to do.I am not quite sure what because although I have frequently seen that message - almost all the time, I have never had it not work to just go ahead and slice, partition and build and ignore the message. That is with both IDE(SATA) and SCSI(SAS). So, your real problem is finding that elusive free slice space or freeing up a slice number to use for it. Good luck, jerry > > Mi laptop is Intel Core2 Duo and the Hard Disk is SATA 200 Gb Toshiba > MK2035GSS-(S1). > > Thank you. > ___ > freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Disk Geometry
Hello list, this is my first post here. My problem is: I've installed the OS in my laptop in this order, Win XP and Debian GNU/Linux. I'm trying to dive into the freebsd world from many years in GNU/Linux. When i start the installation, when i have to enter in the disk partition section an error appears saying that the disk geometry is not valid and, anyway, I can not see the free disk space that i left free after the other OS. My scope is keep working the three OS. How can i know the correct disk geometry? What am i doing wrong? Mi laptop is Intel Core2 Duo and the Hard Disk is SATA 200 Gb Toshiba MK2035GSS-(S1). Thank you. ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: hidden disk geometry on Compaq Presario V2000
On Thu, Oct 25, 2007 at 12:19:27AM -0700, [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > Lorin Lund <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > I have a Compaq Presario Notebook in the V2000 series. > > I just replaced the hard drive because the original was getting > > disk errors. > > > > I have a WD Scorpio 120 GB. When I try to load FreeBSD I get an > > error message when I get to the partition the disk stage. It > > says my disk geometry is wrong. It says I need to use whatever > > numbers my BIOS uses. But my BIOS doesn't show the disk geometry > > numbers anywhere I can see. How can I proceed? How can I find > > out what disk geometry to use? Is this just the usual whining it almost always does in fdisk? If so, try just ignoring it. I always get it putting out an error message that the settings will not work with the geometry but it always does. If it is something else, then this comment doesn't apply - but try just going ahead. jerry > > One method, which I think may be mentioned in the Handbook, is to > boot the Windows install CD (that presumably came with the Presario) > and use its fdisk to create a small partition. You don't need to > actually install Windows, just create a partition as if you were > going to install it. Then boot the FreeBSD CD and sysinstall will > figure out the geometry from the Windows master boot record. > ___ > freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: hidden disk geometry on Compaq Presario V2000
Lorin Lund <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I have a Compaq Presario Notebook in the V2000 series. > I just replaced the hard drive because the original was getting > disk errors. > > I have a WD Scorpio 120 GB. When I try to load FreeBSD I get an > error message when I get to the partition the disk stage. It > says my disk geometry is wrong. It says I need to use whatever > numbers my BIOS uses. But my BIOS doesn't show the disk geometry > numbers anywhere I can see. How can I proceed? How can I find > out what disk geometry to use? One method, which I think may be mentioned in the Handbook, is to boot the Windows install CD (that presumably came with the Presario) and use its fdisk to create a small partition. You don't need to actually install Windows, just create a partition as if you were going to install it. Then boot the FreeBSD CD and sysinstall will figure out the geometry from the Windows master boot record. ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
hidden disk geometry on Compaq Presario V2000
I have a Compaq Presario Notebook in the V2000 series. I just replaced the hard drive because the original was getting disk errors. I have a WD Scorpio 120 GB. When I try to load FreeBSD I get an error message when I get to the partition the disk stage. It says my disk geometry is wrong. It says I need to use whatever numbers my BIOS uses. But my BIOS doesn't show the disk geometry numbers anywhere I can see. How can I proceed? How can I find out what disk geometry to use? ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: FreeBSD 6.0 && fdisk = bad disk geometry ?
Theorem <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> writes: > I'm having trouble setting up a new RAID5 array. It's a RocketRAID > 1740 with 4x 500G disks, in RAID5 this gives approx. 1.5T of space. > It looks like it's operating properly on /dev/da0 . > > Unfortunately, when I go to FDISK this via /usr/sbin/sysinstall I see > the same error over and over and over trying to set my disk to the > right cycls / heads / sectors. > > here are 2 screenshots of the messages : > > http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y260/theorem21/manual_set_err.jpg > http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y260/theorem21/repeat_set_err.jpg > > Even trying to set the disk manually gives the "repeat_set_err.jpg", > so I can't possibly have a correct disk geometry. > > Can anyone help me out ? Any suggestions are welcome, I don't know if > ignoring this is the best option. There is more information in the FAQ, but yes, you should be able to ignore it if the system seems to be working fine. ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
FreeBSD 6.0 && fdisk = bad disk geometry ?
I'm having trouble setting up a new RAID5 array. It's a RocketRAID 1740 with 4x 500G disks, in RAID5 this gives approx. 1.5T of space. It looks like it's operating properly on /dev/da0 . Unfortunately, when I go to FDISK this via /usr/sbin/sysinstall I see the same error over and over and over trying to set my disk to the right cycls / heads / sectors. here are 2 screenshots of the messages : http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y260/theorem21/manual_set_err.jpg http://i7.photobucket.com/albums/y260/theorem21/repeat_set_err.jpg Even trying to set the disk manually gives the "repeat_set_err.jpg", so I can't possibly have a correct disk geometry. Can anyone help me out ? Any suggestions are welcome, I don't know if ignoring this is the best option. Thanks, theorem ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: Disk Geometry Errors.
Lisandro Grullon wrote: The current setup I got in the machine is using 2 SATA (200GB each) with the raid controller that is build into the motherboard (tyan S2885). I wanted to add additional space and I got a Areca 1120 which could hold another 8 sata drives. I only have a 5 bay enclosure so I went ahead and I orderd 5 (300GB) drives. I configure the controller to use Raid 5 with 4 drives and keep 1 as spare in case of a failure. The problem that is bothering me is that the OS works great with the RAID 1 configuration. When I boot into FBSD it all goes ok and I loging and everything , but when I try configuring the RAID 5 disk set using sysinstall> fdisk I get the disk geometry error right after selecting the disk set. I am not sure, but is there a way to find out the disk geometry that the controller bios is assuming is the correct one. If there is a way to find that information our, I can just use the "G" option in fdisk and input the correct disk geometry myself. What aproach is the best one to take in my case. Thank you. Lisandro What's still not apparent to me is what the real trouble is. I regularly see the "geometry incorrect" message from sysinstall, but have not had it fail to write. I'm pretty sure that's what I'm hearing from Jerry McAllister's response, also. I guess my question for Lisandro is, "can't you just ignore the error, do the write, and be OK?" Of course, I think that if that were the case, this thread would have been over a few posts ago. As for the "G" option, I can't say it's made any difference for me... Have we seen any diagnostic information? Could we see the relevant section of /var/run/dmesg.boot? How about `ls -l /dev/ad* /dev/ar* /dev/da*` ? `bsdlabel /dev/foo` ? Kevin Kinsey -- Reactor error - core dumped! ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: Disk Geometry Errors.
Usually you have to set RAID configurations in the SATA card's BIOS.
Once its BIOS thinks you have a RAID configuration you have a chance
of proceeding.
(Note that the AGP drivers for that motherboard MAY have problems. The
W-s drivers certainly did when we got one here to setup. I finally
tracked down the problem and it's been a wonderful card ever since. We
have an LSILogic SATA card in it. And that had to be setup in the BIOS
to make it happy. The problem was with AMD supplied AGP drivers.)
{^_^}
- Original Message -
From: "Lisandro Grullon" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
The current setup I got in the machine is using 2 SATA (200GB each) with the
raid controller that is build into the motherboard (tyan S2885). I wanted to
add additional space and I got a Areca 1120 which could hold another 8 sata
drives. I only have a 5 bay enclosure so I went ahead and I orderd 5 (300GB)
drives. I configure the controller to use Raid 5 with 4 drives and keep 1 as
spare in case of a failure. The problem that is bothering me is that the OS
works great with the RAID 1 configuration. When I boot into FBSD it all goes
ok and I loging and everything , but when I try configuring the RAID 5 disk
set using sysinstall> fdisk I get the disk geometry error right after
selecting the disk set. I am not sure, but is there a way to find out the
disk geometry that the controller bios is assuming is the correct one. If
there is a way to find that information our, I can just use the "G" option
in fdisk and input the correct disk geometry myself. What aproach is the
best one to take in my case. Thank you. Lisandro
On 5/25/06, Lisandro Grullon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Is interesting, this is what reca repply back to me. I think areca should
add some sort of utility in the controller to find out the disk geometry
information in the fly and stop blamming FBSD.
Dear Sir,
This is Kevin Wang from Areca Technology, Tech-Support Team.
regarding your problem, it looks like a FreeBSD bug, here is a discussion
i
found in google :
http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/showthread.php?t=429394
Best Regards,
Kevin Wang
Areca Technology Tech-support Division
Tel : 886-2-87974060 Ext. 223
Fax : 886-2-87975970
Http://www.areca.com.tw <http://www.areca.com.tw/>
Ftp://ftp.areca.com.tw <ftp://ftp.areca.com.tw/>
On 5/24/06, Lisandro Grullon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> Hi Kevin and thanks for repplyng, sysinstall does not crach at all, the
> problem is that the information is not retain by the label. I keep getting
> that contact "Disk Geometry" error when I try fdisk into the volume/drive.
> Any ideas what is happening. let me know what other information you may need
> to assist me further.
>
>
> On 5/24/06, Kevin Kinsey < [EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> >
> > Lisandro Grullon wrote:
> > > Good Morning,
> > >
> > > Last night I was trying installing a new Areca controller 1120 8
> > ports
> > > using a 5 bay (300GB seagate) drives Raid 5. The main OS is install
> > using the
> > > SATA controller in RAID 1 configuration of the mother board, the
> > addition of
> > > last night was a separate controller I install.The install when good
> > and I
> > > installed my modules in the kernel, now my problem is when I try to
> > > partition the volume using fdisk/label with system install it is
> > giving me
> > > nasty disk geometry incorrect error, can anyone tell me what is this
> > all
> > > about? Thank you.
> >
> > We'd probably need some more information. Does sysinstall crash?
> > Does the fdisk information get written to disk anyway? The label?
> >
> > KDK
> >
> > --
> > Zero Mostel: That's it baby! When you got it, flaunt it! Flaunt it!
> > -- Mel Brooks, The Producers
> >
> >
>
>
> --
> Lisandro Grullon
> New York City College of Technology
> Division of Continuing Education
> Director of Network Operations
> Lisandro Office:1718-552-1178
> Lisandro E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> "The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at
> once.".
>
--
Lisandro Grullon
New York City College of Technology
Division of Continuing Education
Director of Network Operations
Lisandro Office:1718-552-1178
Lisandro E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
"The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once.".
--
Lisandro Grullon
New York City College of Technology
Division of Continuing Education
Director of Network Operations
Lisandro Office:1718-552-1178
Lisandro E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
"The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once.".
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Re: Disk Geometry Errors.
The current setup I got in the machine is using 2 SATA (200GB each) with the raid controller that is build into the motherboard (tyan S2885). I wanted to add additional space and I got a Areca 1120 which could hold another 8 sata drives. I only have a 5 bay enclosure so I went ahead and I orderd 5 (300GB) drives. I configure the controller to use Raid 5 with 4 drives and keep 1 as spare in case of a failure. The problem that is bothering me is that the OS works great with the RAID 1 configuration. When I boot into FBSD it all goes ok and I loging and everything , but when I try configuring the RAID 5 disk set using sysinstall> fdisk I get the disk geometry error right after selecting the disk set. I am not sure, but is there a way to find out the disk geometry that the controller bios is assuming is the correct one. If there is a way to find that information our, I can just use the "G" option in fdisk and input the correct disk geometry myself. What aproach is the best one to take in my case. Thank you. Lisandro On 5/25/06, Lisandro Grullon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Is interesting, this is what reca repply back to me. I think areca should add some sort of utility in the controller to find out the disk geometry information in the fly and stop blamming FBSD. Dear Sir, This is Kevin Wang from Areca Technology, Tech-Support Team. regarding your problem, it looks like a FreeBSD bug, here is a discussion i found in google : http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/showthread.php?t=429394 Best Regards, Kevin Wang Areca Technology Tech-support Division Tel : 886-2-87974060 Ext. 223 Fax : 886-2-87975970 Http://www.areca.com.tw <http://www.areca.com.tw/> Ftp://ftp.areca.com.tw <ftp://ftp.areca.com.tw/> On 5/24/06, Lisandro Grullon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Hi Kevin and thanks for repplyng, sysinstall does not crach at all, the > problem is that the information is not retain by the label. I keep getting > that contact "Disk Geometry" error when I try fdisk into the volume/drive. > Any ideas what is happening. let me know what other information you may need > to assist me further. > > > On 5/24/06, Kevin Kinsey < [EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > Lisandro Grullon wrote: > > > Good Morning, > > > > > > Last night I was trying installing a new Areca controller 1120 8 > > ports > > > using a 5 bay (300GB seagate) drives Raid 5. The main OS is install > > using the > > > SATA controller in RAID 1 configuration of the mother board, the > > addition of > > > last night was a separate controller I install.The install when good > > and I > > > installed my modules in the kernel, now my problem is when I try to > > > partition the volume using fdisk/label with system install it is > > giving me > > > nasty disk geometry incorrect error, can anyone tell me what is this > > all > > > about? Thank you. > > > > We'd probably need some more information. Does sysinstall crash? > > Does the fdisk information get written to disk anyway? The label? > > > > KDK > > > > -- > > Zero Mostel: That's it baby! When you got it, flaunt it! Flaunt it! > > -- Mel Brooks, The Producers > > > > > > > -- > Lisandro Grullon > New York City College of Technology > Division of Continuing Education > Director of Network Operations > Lisandro Office:1718-552-1178 > Lisandro E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > "The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at > once.". > -- Lisandro Grullon New York City College of Technology Division of Continuing Education Director of Network Operations Lisandro Office:1718-552-1178 Lisandro E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] "The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once.". -- Lisandro Grullon New York City College of Technology Division of Continuing Education Director of Network Operations Lisandro Office:1718-552-1178 Lisandro E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] "The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once.". ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: Disk Geometry Errors.
From: "Jerry McAllister" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
One thing that comes to mind, as I read below, is that it appears you
setup the drives for RAID 1. Then you transplanted to them to a RAID 5
controller. "Of course" the partition data will be wrong. The hidden
blocks the two RAID controllers use are probably different and the
method of storage for RAID 5 is quite different from that used by RAID 1.
(Worse yet, you may have managed to hose the drives so that any data
on them is gone.)
{^_^} Joanne
- Original Message -
From: "Lisandro Grullon" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Hi Kevin and thanks for repplyng, sysinstall does not crach at all, the
problem is that the information is not retain by the label. I keep getting
that contact "Disk Geometry" error when I try fdisk into the volume/drive.
Any ideas what is happening. let me know what other information you may need
to assist me further.
I didn't follow all of this thread, so I may be missing something, but
check the FAQs and the list archives. Geometry error messages and
apparent (but not actual) mismatched have been discussed many times.
Nowdays disk geometry as used by the OS is generally "virtual" and does
not exactly reflect the actual physical geometry. In other words, from
the point of view of how you use it, unless you are creating special driver
code, the geometry is fiction and, as long as it works, take what the OS
says and ignore any messages from fdisk.
Now, if it is truly failing, you have non-fictional problems.
That is the lecture I was getting ready to deliver when I noticed
RAID 5 and RAID 1 with different controllers. RAID 5 and RAID 1 are
not compatible. And there is a good chance that two different breeds
of RAID firmware would store meta data for disk format differently.
{^_-} (Heck, I have seen two Promise cards that store it differently
or seemed to.)
On 5/24/06, Kevin Kinsey <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
> Lisandro Grullon wrote:
> > Good Morning,
> >
> > Last night I was trying installing a new Areca controller 1120 8 ports
> > using a 5 bay (300GB seagate) drives Raid 5. The main OS is install
> using the
> > SATA controller in RAID 1 configuration of the mother board, the
> addition of
> > last night was a separate controller I install.The install when good and
> I
> > installed my modules in the kernel, now my problem is when I try to
> > partition the volume using fdisk/label with system install it is giving
> me
> > nasty disk geometry incorrect error, can anyone tell me what is this all
> > about? Thank you.
>
> We'd probably need some more information. Does sysinstall crash?
> Does the fdisk information get written to disk anyway? The label?
>
> KDK
>
> --
> Zero Mostel: That's it baby! When you got it, flaunt it! Flaunt it!
> -- Mel Brooks, The Producers
>
>
--
Lisandro Grullon
New York City College of Technology
Division of Continuing Education
Director of Network Operations
Lisandro Office:1718-552-1178
Lisandro E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
"The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once.".
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Re: Disk Geometry Errors.
>
> One thing that comes to mind, as I read below, is that it appears you
> setup the drives for RAID 1. Then you transplanted to them to a RAID 5
> controller. "Of course" the partition data will be wrong. The hidden
> blocks the two RAID controllers use are probably different and the
> method of storage for RAID 5 is quite different from that used by RAID 1.
>
> (Worse yet, you may have managed to hose the drives so that any data
> on them is gone.)
>
> {^_^} Joanne
> - Original Message -
> From: "Lisandro Grullon" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>
> Hi Kevin and thanks for repplyng, sysinstall does not crach at all, the
> problem is that the information is not retain by the label. I keep getting
> that contact "Disk Geometry" error when I try fdisk into the volume/drive.
> Any ideas what is happening. let me know what other information you may need
> to assist me further.
I didn't follow all of this thread, so I may be missing something, but
check the FAQs and the list archives. Geometry error messages and
apparent (but not actual) mismatched have been discussed many times.
Nowdays disk geometry as used by the OS is generally "virtual" and does
not exactly reflect the actual physical geometry. In other words, from
the point of view of how you use it, unless you are creating special driver
code, the geometry is fiction and, as long as it works, take what the OS
says and ignore any messages from fdisk.
Now, if it is truly failing, you have non-fictional problems.
jerry
>
> On 5/24/06, Kevin Kinsey <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> >
> > Lisandro Grullon wrote:
> > > Good Morning,
> > >
> > > Last night I was trying installing a new Areca controller 1120 8 ports
> > > using a 5 bay (300GB seagate) drives Raid 5. The main OS is install
> > using the
> > > SATA controller in RAID 1 configuration of the mother board, the
> > addition of
> > > last night was a separate controller I install.The install when good and
> > I
> > > installed my modules in the kernel, now my problem is when I try to
> > > partition the volume using fdisk/label with system install it is giving
> > me
> > > nasty disk geometry incorrect error, can anyone tell me what is this all
> > > about? Thank you.
> >
> > We'd probably need some more information. Does sysinstall crash?
> > Does the fdisk information get written to disk anyway? The label?
> >
> > KDK
> >
> > --
> > Zero Mostel: That's it baby! When you got it, flaunt it! Flaunt it!
> > -- Mel Brooks, The Producers
> >
> >
>
>
> --
> Lisandro Grullon
> New York City College of Technology
> Division of Continuing Education
> Director of Network Operations
> Lisandro Office:1718-552-1178
> Lisandro E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
> "The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once.".
>
> ___
> freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list
> http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions
> To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
> ___
> freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list
> http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions
> To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
>
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Re: Disk Geometry Errors.
Is interesting, this is what reca repply back to me. I think areca should add some sort of utility in the controller to find out the disk geometry information in the fly and stop blamming FBSD. Dear Sir, This is Kevin Wang from Areca Technology, Tech-Support Team. regarding your problem, it looks like a FreeBSD bug, here is a discussion i found in google : http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/showthread.php?t=429394 Best Regards, Kevin Wang Areca Technology Tech-support Division Tel : 886-2-87974060 Ext. 223 Fax : 886-2-87975970 Http://www.areca.com.tw <http://www.areca.com.tw/> Ftp://ftp.areca.com.tw <ftp://ftp.areca.com.tw/> On 5/24/06, Lisandro Grullon <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Hi Kevin and thanks for repplyng, sysinstall does not crach at all, the problem is that the information is not retain by the label. I keep getting that contact "Disk Geometry" error when I try fdisk into the volume/drive. Any ideas what is happening. let me know what other information you may need to assist me further. On 5/24/06, Kevin Kinsey <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > Lisandro Grullon wrote: > > Good Morning, > > > > Last night I was trying installing a new Areca controller 1120 8 ports > > using a 5 bay (300GB seagate) drives Raid 5. The main OS is install > using the > > SATA controller in RAID 1 configuration of the mother board, the > addition of > > last night was a separate controller I install.The install when good > and I > > installed my modules in the kernel, now my problem is when I try to > > partition the volume using fdisk/label with system install it is > giving me > > nasty disk geometry incorrect error, can anyone tell me what is this > all > > about? Thank you. > > We'd probably need some more information. Does sysinstall crash? > Does the fdisk information get written to disk anyway? The label? > > KDK > > -- > Zero Mostel: That's it baby! When you got it, flaunt it! Flaunt it! > -- Mel Brooks, The Producers > > -- Lisandro Grullon New York City College of Technology Division of Continuing Education Director of Network Operations Lisandro Office:1718-552-1178 Lisandro E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] "The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once.". -- Lisandro Grullon New York City College of Technology Division of Continuing Education Director of Network Operations Lisandro Office:1718-552-1178 Lisandro E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] "The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once.". ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: Disk Geometry Errors.
One thing that comes to mind, as I read below, is that it appears you
setup the drives for RAID 1. Then you transplanted to them to a RAID 5
controller. "Of course" the partition data will be wrong. The hidden
blocks the two RAID controllers use are probably different and the
method of storage for RAID 5 is quite different from that used by RAID 1.
(Worse yet, you may have managed to hose the drives so that any data
on them is gone.)
{^_^} Joanne
- Original Message -
From: "Lisandro Grullon" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Hi Kevin and thanks for repplyng, sysinstall does not crach at all, the
problem is that the information is not retain by the label. I keep getting
that contact "Disk Geometry" error when I try fdisk into the volume/drive.
Any ideas what is happening. let me know what other information you may need
to assist me further.
On 5/24/06, Kevin Kinsey <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Lisandro Grullon wrote:
> Good Morning,
>
> Last night I was trying installing a new Areca controller 1120 8 ports
> using a 5 bay (300GB seagate) drives Raid 5. The main OS is install
using the
> SATA controller in RAID 1 configuration of the mother board, the
addition of
> last night was a separate controller I install.The install when good and
I
> installed my modules in the kernel, now my problem is when I try to
> partition the volume using fdisk/label with system install it is giving
me
> nasty disk geometry incorrect error, can anyone tell me what is this all
> about? Thank you.
We'd probably need some more information. Does sysinstall crash?
Does the fdisk information get written to disk anyway? The label?
KDK
--
Zero Mostel: That's it baby! When you got it, flaunt it! Flaunt it!
-- Mel Brooks, The Producers
--
Lisandro Grullon
New York City College of Technology
Division of Continuing Education
Director of Network Operations
Lisandro Office:1718-552-1178
Lisandro E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
"The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once.".
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Re: Disk Geometry Errors.
Hi Kevin and thanks for repplyng, sysinstall does not crach at all, the problem is that the information is not retain by the label. I keep getting that contact "Disk Geometry" error when I try fdisk into the volume/drive. Any ideas what is happening. let me know what other information you may need to assist me further. On 5/24/06, Kevin Kinsey <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Lisandro Grullon wrote: > Good Morning, > > Last night I was trying installing a new Areca controller 1120 8 ports > using a 5 bay (300GB seagate) drives Raid 5. The main OS is install using the > SATA controller in RAID 1 configuration of the mother board, the addition of > last night was a separate controller I install.The install when good and I > installed my modules in the kernel, now my problem is when I try to > partition the volume using fdisk/label with system install it is giving me > nasty disk geometry incorrect error, can anyone tell me what is this all > about? Thank you. We'd probably need some more information. Does sysinstall crash? Does the fdisk information get written to disk anyway? The label? KDK -- Zero Mostel: That's it baby! When you got it, flaunt it! Flaunt it! -- Mel Brooks, The Producers -- Lisandro Grullon New York City College of Technology Division of Continuing Education Director of Network Operations Lisandro Office:1718-552-1178 Lisandro E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] "The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once.". ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: Disk Geometry Errors.
Lisandro Grullon wrote: Good Morning, Last night I was trying installing a new Areca controller 1120 8 ports using a 5 bay (300GB seagate) drives Raid 5. The main OS is install using the SATA controller in RAID 1 configuration of the mother board, the addition of last night was a separate controller I install.The install when good and I installed my modules in the kernel, now my problem is when I try to partition the volume using fdisk/label with system install it is giving me nasty disk geometry incorrect error, can anyone tell me what is this all about? Thank you. We'd probably need some more information. Does sysinstall crash? Does the fdisk information get written to disk anyway? The label? KDK -- Zero Mostel: That's it baby! When you got it, flaunt it! Flaunt it! -- Mel Brooks, The Producers ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Disk Geometry Errors.
Good Morning, Last night I was trying installing a new Areca controller 1120 8 ports using a 5 bay (300GB seagate) drives Raid 5. The main OS is install using the SATA controller in RAID 1 configuration of the mother board, the addition of last night was a separate controller I install.The install when good and I installed my modules in the kernel, now my problem is when I try to partition the volume using fdisk/label with system install it is giving me nasty disk geometry incorrect error, can anyone tell me what is this all about? Thank you. -- Lisandro Grullon New York City College of Technology Division of Continuing Education Director of Network Operations Lisandro Office:1718-552-1178 Lisandro E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] "The only reason for time is so that everything doesn't happen at once.". ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
nanobsd-based installation on Soekris net4801 (disk geometry problem)
A quick question: This weekend, I have decided to reinstall my Soekris net4801 since the 80GB disk in it, after running continuously for almost 3 years now, has reported a few read errors last week. So I promptly decided to replace the disk. I didn't have another FreeBSD machine to build a new nanobsd configuration, so I used the nanobsd package at http://people.freebsd.org/~phk/nanobsd/soekris_4x26 to put on a 64MB flash card that I had handy, and I added sysinstall to it. This boots fine, and allows me to run the installation properly. However, the resulting system will not boot from the disk, since I cannot figure the right geometry for the Fujitsu MVH2060AT 60GB drive. The documentation says the drive reports 16383/16/63, the Soekris boot screen reports "Xlt 1024-255-63", fdisk recommends "7296/255/63" because it claims not to like the "116280-16-63" that it finds on the disk... Sigh. Bottom line is that the installation appears to work, but I am unable to then boot from the harddisk (the boot loader complains it cannot find /boot/loader). Any suggestions? Thanks Denis F. ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
sysinstall/fdisk and the disk geometry
Hi at all. My question is simple. My laptop is a 1513lmi Acer, it has a TOSHIBA MK6025GAS disk with 117210240 LBA sectors. When I install Freebsd 5.3, Sysinstall, in the Fdisk submenu,state the geometry 116280/16/63 then translate automatically this geometry to 7296/255/63. But both when I use the 5.3-RELEASE-amd64-disc2 and when I use a installed system, Fdisk find the geometry 116280/16/63 and doesn't translate automatically this geometry to 7296/255/63. So: When I use Fdisk, have I to change the geometry from 116280/16/63 to 7296/255/63? Sysinstall, partitioning, use Fdisk then: why is there this difference? Is there a more exhaustive documentation about Fdisk and Sysinstall that the man pages? Thank you Bye Giuseppe ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: Disk Geometry
Thanks Kevin, This is quite helpful, only I have a fairly unusual disk structure, since the disk was originally a dual boot system with windows XP which I eventually converted into a full ufs drive. So all the BSD partitions are located on what was originally the second half of the disk. Is there anyway I can escape out of the automount prompt and run fdisk, or anything. I've been trying everything I can think of. Thanks, Dan. Kevin Kinsey wrote: Dan Simmonds wrote: I have a relatively new installation of FreeBSD 5.3 which I have been running as a file server. Recently we had a power outage and when I booted up the machine again, instead of a normal boot sequence I was given an "automount" prompt. I understand that I have to mount a disk slice and fsck my hard drive (I think this is right, please correct me if I'm wrong), only its been a while since I sliced up my hard drive and I've forgotten what the disk looks like. Is there anyway of investigating the disk geometry from this automount prompt? The only commands I seem to have available are mount commands. Thanks, Dan. (Hi, Dan ... this probably needs to go over to [EMAIL PROTECTED], where more experience folks will see it, so I'm redirecting the CC there...) Ouch! I hope your disk can recover. Once you get this grassfire out, be sure and check your backup strategies The *only* command you can enter isn't even really a command, it's simply the answer to the question "where the heck is /boot?" which is something the system desperately needs to know. IIRC (and who knows, it has been a little while since I saw this one, thank Deity) it gives you a hint or two about what to do. The usual boot device is /dev/ad0s1 (for IDE drives) or /dev/da0s1 (for SCSI) and the filesystem type is normally ufs (but that could vary, ufs2 for example). Once you get in, you will want to fsck and attempt to remount your slices; you probably won't have access to a lot of normal tools (for at least two reasons I can think of: one being that some of them are on the /usr partition, and the other being that $PATH is not set, so even stuff in /bin and /sbin will *say* "not found", just call 'em by the full path /sbin/fsck, /sbin/mount, etc.) If everything fscks clean, try rebooting again to return to multi-user (normal) mode. Good luck. Kevin Kinsey ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: Disk Geometry
Kevin Kinsey wrote: Dan Simmonds wrote: I have a relatively new installation of FreeBSD 5.3 which I have been running as a file server. Recently we had a power outage and when I booted up the machine again, instead of a normal boot sequence I was given an "automount" prompt. I understand that I have to mount a disk slice and fsck my hard drive (I think this is right, please correct me if I'm wrong), only its been a while since I sliced up my hard drive and I've forgotten what the disk looks like. Is there anyway of investigating the disk geometry from this automount prompt? The only commands I seem to have available are mount commands. Thanks, Dan. (Hi, Dan ... this probably needs to go over to [EMAIL PROTECTED], where more experience folks will see it, so I'm redirecting the CC there...) Ouch! I hope your disk can recover. Once you get this grassfire out, be sure and check your backup strategies The *only* command you can enter isn't even really a command, it's simply the answer to the question "where the heck is /boot?" which is something the system desperately needs to know. IIRC (and who knows, it has been a little while since I saw this one, thank Deity) it gives you a hint or two about what to do. The usual boot device is /dev/ad0s1 (for IDE drives) or /dev/da0s1 (for SCSI) and the filesystem type is normally ufs (but that could vary, ufs2 for example). Once you get in, you will want to fsck and attempt to remount your slices; you probably won't have access to a lot of normal tools (for at least two reasons I can think of: one being that some of them are on the /usr partition, and the other being that $PATH is not set, so even stuff in /bin and /sbin will *say* "not found", just call 'em by the full path /sbin/fsck, /sbin/mount, etc.) If everything fscks clean, try rebooting again to return to multi-user (normal) mode. Good luck. Kevin Kinsey ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" Being that this is a file server, its probably a good assumption that he's using raid which would be ar0s1a by default. Also specifically you'll want to do: fsck / mount / swapon -a /bin/cat /etc/fstab for each of your partitions other then / fsck /usr fsck /tmp ... etc mount -a exit [normal boot should continue] If you don't want fsck to ask you questions you can use the fsck -y command (answer yes to all questions) Be sure the check the lost+found in the root of each slice for recovered inodes. -- END - Philip M. Gollucci Senior Developer - Liquidity Services Inc. Phone: 202.467.6868 x 268 E-Mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Web:http://www.liquidation.com ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: Disk Geometry
Dan Simmonds wrote: I have a relatively new installation of FreeBSD 5.3 which I have been running as a file server. Recently we had a power outage and when I booted up the machine again, instead of a normal boot sequence I was given an "automount" prompt. I understand that I have to mount a disk slice and fsck my hard drive (I think this is right, please correct me if I'm wrong), only its been a while since I sliced up my hard drive and I've forgotten what the disk looks like. Is there anyway of investigating the disk geometry from this automount prompt? The only commands I seem to have available are mount commands. Thanks, Dan. (Hi, Dan ... this probably needs to go over to [EMAIL PROTECTED], where more experience folks will see it, so I'm redirecting the CC there...) Ouch! I hope your disk can recover. Once you get this grassfire out, be sure and check your backup strategies The *only* command you can enter isn't even really a command, it's simply the answer to the question "where the heck is /boot?" which is something the system desperately needs to know. IIRC (and who knows, it has been a little while since I saw this one, thank Deity) it gives you a hint or two about what to do. The usual boot device is /dev/ad0s1 (for IDE drives) or /dev/da0s1 (for SCSI) and the filesystem type is normally ufs (but that could vary, ufs2 for example). Once you get in, you will want to fsck and attempt to remount your slices; you probably won't have access to a lot of normal tools (for at least two reasons I can think of: one being that some of them are on the /usr partition, and the other being that $PATH is not set, so even stuff in /bin and /sbin will *say* "not found", just call 'em by the full path /sbin/fsck, /sbin/mount, etc.) If everything fscks clean, try rebooting again to return to multi-user (normal) mode. Good luck. Kevin Kinsey ___ freebsd-questions@freebsd.org mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Solved: Lost MBR/wrong disk geometry
Erik Norgaard wrote: Jeremy Faulkner wrote: 'fdisk -B' didn't work? Nope :-( I have installed gpart, it complians* dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/ad0 bs=512 count=32 fdisk -BI ad0 dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/ad0s1 bs=512 count=32 bsdlabel -w -B ad0s1 did the job. I think I shouldn't have specified -w in the last command because it created a root partition taking the whole disk which I then had to delete. But, at least I'm up booting :-) Cheers, Erik -- Ph: +34.666334818 web: www.locolomo.org S/MIME Certificate: http://www.locolomo.org/crt/2004071206.crt Subject ID: A9:76:7A:ED:06:95:2B:8D:48:97:CE:F2:3F:42:C8:F2:22:DE:4C:B9 Fingerprint: 4A:E8:63:38:46:F6:9A:5D:B4:DC:29:41:3F:62:D3:0A:73:25:67:C2 ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: Lost MBR/wrong disk geometry
Jeremy Faulkner wrote: 'fdisk -B' didn't work? Nope :-( I have installed gpart, it complians* * Warning: partition(FreeBSD/NetBSD/386BSD) starts beyond disk end. Partition(FreeBSD/NetBSD/386BSD): invalid primary OK. and then guessed an empty partition table... ? Thanks, Erik -- Ph: +34.666334818 web: www.locolomo.org S/MIME Certificate: http://www.locolomo.org/crt/2004071206.crt Subject ID: A9:76:7A:ED:06:95:2B:8D:48:97:CE:F2:3F:42:C8:F2:22:DE:4C:B9 Fingerprint: 4A:E8:63:38:46:F6:9A:5D:B4:DC:29:41:3F:62:D3:0A:73:25:67:C2 ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: Lost MBR/wrong disk geometry
Erik Norgaard wrote: Hi, It appears that I have screwed my disk (60GB) thoroughly. I had used the sample install.cfg for sysinstall but it has "partition=exclusive" and not "all". I did dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/ad0 count=1k as explained in the faq, and the exclusive partioning was gone. I can run sysinstall, slice up the disk and install stuff. But on reboot the system doesn't find a usefull mbr. I can boot up a rescue disk, mount the partitions, read data stored and use any programs installed. But I can't recover or create a new mbr with dd if=/boot/mbr of=/dev/ad0 or with /boot/boot0, or use fdisk to manually set slices and active slice, run sysinstall and choose a bootmanager or similar. Please, how to I get back an mbr and a working partition table? Thanks! Cheers, Erik 'fdisk -B' didn't work? -- Jeremy Faulkner <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Resume: http://www.gldis.ca/gldisater/resume.html ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Lost MBR/wrong disk geometry
Hi, It appears that I have screwed my disk (60GB) thoroughly. I had used the sample install.cfg for sysinstall but it has "partition=exclusive" and not "all". I did dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/ad0 count=1k as explained in the faq, and the exclusive partioning was gone. I can run sysinstall, slice up the disk and install stuff. But on reboot the system doesn't find a usefull mbr. I can boot up a rescue disk, mount the partitions, read data stored and use any programs installed. But I can't recover or create a new mbr with dd if=/boot/mbr of=/dev/ad0 or with /boot/boot0, or use fdisk to manually set slices and active slice, run sysinstall and choose a bootmanager or similar. Please, how to I get back an mbr and a working partition table? Thanks! Cheers, Erik PS: When sysinstall ran first, it complained about a wrong geometry, 116280/16/63 and tried to rewrite it to 7296/255/63. The bios reports 28728/16/255 and the label on the disk sais 16383/16/63. Accepting the geometry from sysinstall would make the installation complete but on reboot the system booted up with the old geometry. On my laptop my disk (40GB) has geometry 77520/16/63 so I hacked up sysinstall to accept the geomtry (a simple change). With this I can slice up the disk and install the system. I don't know if this is right, but from my current state, I'd say that the only thing is the mbr not being written correctly to the disk... -- Ph: +34.666334818 web: www.locolomo.org S/MIME Certificate: http://www.locolomo.org/crt/2004071206.crt Subject ID: A9:76:7A:ED:06:95:2B:8D:48:97:CE:F2:3F:42:C8:F2:22:DE:4C:B9 Fingerprint: 4A:E8:63:38:46:F6:9A:5D:B4:DC:29:41:3F:62:D3:0A:73:25:67:C2 ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: disk geometry confussion
On Thu, 07 Oct 2004 21:23:38 +0200, Alex de Kruijff wrote > On Thu, Oct 07, 2004 at 02:30:51PM -0400, Chuck Swiger wrote: > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > > >Please enlighten me. What way I should follow? > > > > First, make sure you've updated your machine to the most recent BIOS. > > Next, check the BIOS config about your disk drives, and if there exists an > > option to allow you to choose LBA mode rather than C/H/S, use LBA mode. > > > > NeXT, try using MS-DOS fdisk to create a small DOS partition. The re-run > > the FreeBSD installation, which now ought to see the partition table as > > your system wants it. Don't try to re-enter the partition table info > > yourself unless you know exactly what you are doing. > > > > If this doesn't work, provide more details (which version of FreeBSD, what > > you computer hardware is, and what your partition table looks like). > > I have had the same problem with FreeBSD-5.2, WD 250G. > Windows would install fine, but FreeBSD gave problems with > fdisk. I finaly reached a solution afther trying lot of > things, but never knew what I did. > Here is what I did. I stopped trying with on-disk sysinstall, I put the installation cd into the drive, booted from it and used that one. I saw the same warning, it and proceeded with immediate write. Now, I don't really know what is the difference between the installation cd sysinstal and the installed on disk, but it worked for me even though it was not the most elegant solution... -- Piotr Smyrak [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: Disk geometry, 5.3b7 install
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: [ ... ] The only problem is that the geometry was reported as bad by sysinstall, and implied I needed to change it. When you access a drive in LBA mode, the BIOS reports a "fake" geometry. This is the warning you see, but you probably do not need to change anything, just create a new FreeBSD partition in the unused space. Yet the partition step appears to have changed it already, or is assuming it will be changed. The installer is displaying the existing partition table as it is on the disk, which shows an NTFS filesystem (presumably Windows). Your job is to add a new partition to hold FreeBSD. I don't understand what the situation is: sysinstall reported geometry as 155061/16/63 and said it was bad then partitioning assumes it will be 9729/255/63 Do I actually have to run pfdisk to change it from 155061/16/63 to 9729/255/63? No. One more question: The installation notes say the root partition must be below cylinder 1024. If I want a largish (8G) partition for windows, how do I accomplish this? This limitation was a problem with older BIOSes which depended on booting using the pre-LBA C/H/S style geometry. I believe even that issue could be solved by using a boot manager like GAG, but I doubt you'll run into this problem either if your BIOS understands LBA. -- -Chuck ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: Disk geometry, 5.3b7 install
Subhro wrote: On Thu, 14 Oct 2004 02:03:21 -0600, [EMAIL PROTECTED] The only problem is that the geometry was reported as bad by sysinstall, and implied I needed to change it. Yet the partition step appears to have changed it already, or is assuming it will be changed. I don't understand what the situation is: sysinstall reported geometry as 155061/16/63 and said it was bad then partitioning assumes it will be 9729/255/63 Ignore the warning and proceed with the install. The partitioning utility had already guessed the correct values and will proceed it. BTW may I have the part number of the drive? I would like to check the hardware literature. Seagate ST380013AS http://www.seagate.com/support/disc/manuals/sata/cuda7200_sata_pm.pdf Thanks again. Gary ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: Disk geometry, 5.3b7 install
On Thu, 14 Oct 2004 02:03:21 -0600, [EMAIL PROTECTED] > The only problem is that the geometry was reported as bad by > sysinstall, and implied I needed to change it. > Yet the partition step appears to have changed it already, or is > assuming it will be changed. > I don't understand what the situation is: > sysinstall reported geometry as 155061/16/63 and said it was bad > then partitioning assumes it will be 9729/255/63 Ignore the warning and proceed with the install. The partitioning utility had already guessed the correct values and will proceed it. BTW may I have the part number of the drive? I would like to check the hardware literature. > Do I actually have to run pfdisk to change it from 155061/16/63 to > 9729/255/63? No you dont need to do it. > > One more question: > > The installation notes say the root partition must be below cylinder > 1024. This one was valid for old BIOSses which blindly believed the fact that all kinds of bootable partitions MUST start under cylinder 1024. This does not hold true if the onboard BIOS is not older than 3 years. > Thanks, You are most welcome Regards S. -- Subhro Sankha Kar School of Information Technology Block AQ-13/1 Sector V ZIP 700091 India ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: Disk geometry, 5.3b7 install
Subhro wrote: When I boot off a CD (image created from downloaded iso image), start the install, and go to allocate the freebsd slice, it reports 155061/16/63 ad4 and says the geometry is invalid What does the sticker on top of the drive say about its geometry. I would like to explicitly instruct fdisk to use the Geometry on the sticker but only if fdisk or anyone else complains during the install. There is nothing about geometry on the drive itself. The official specs from Seagate say it reports a default logical geometry of 16383/16/63, but that only covers 8G... There is no other mention of geometry in the specs; it simply says that using LBA the sectors are addressed 0...n-1 If I go ahead and attempt to partition, I see Geometry ad4 9729 cylinders/255 heads/63 sectors = 156296385 sectors (76316MB) Offset Size(St)End Name PType Desc SubType Flags 0 63 62 --12 unused 0 63 16386237 16386299 ad4s1 4 NTFS/HPFS/QNX 7 16386300 139915188 156301487 --12 unused 0 This one is fine. Whats the problem? You can just make up the slice from the unsed free space starting from offset 16386300. The only problem is that the geometry was reported as bad by sysinstall, and implied I needed to change it. Yet the partition step appears to have changed it already, or is assuming it will be changed. I don't understand what the situation is: sysinstall reported geometry as 155061/16/63 and said it was bad then partitioning assumes it will be 9729/255/63 Do I actually have to run pfdisk to change it from 155061/16/63 to 9729/255/63? One more question: The installation notes say the root partition must be below cylinder 1024. If I want a largish (8G) partition for windows, how do I accomplish this? Do I have to make 4 partitions, a small one for booting windows, a small one for freebsd's root, and then a larger one for the rest of windows and another larger one for the rest of freebsd? e.g. cylpartitionuse 1- 511 1windows boot 512-1023 2freebsd / 1024-1500 3windows additional stuff 1501-9729 4freebsd filesystems other than / Thanks, Gary ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: Disk geometry, 5.3b7 install
On Thu, 14 Oct 2004 00:48:34 -0600, [EMAIL PROTECTED] > When I boot off a CD (image created from downloaded iso image), > start the install, and go to allocate the freebsd slice, it reports > 155061/16/63 ad4 > and says the geometry is invalid > What does the sticker on top of the drive say about its geometry. I would like to explicitly instruct fdisk to use the Geometry on the sticker but only if fdisk or anyone else complains during the install. > If I go ahead and attempt to partition, I see > Geometry ad4 9729 cylinders/255 heads/63 sectors = 156296385 sectors >(76316MB) > Offset Size(St)End Name PType Desc SubType Flags >0 63 62 --12 unused 0 > 63 16386237 16386299 ad4s1 4 NTFS/HPFS/QNX 7 > 16386300 139915188 156301487 --12 unused 0 > This one is fine. Whats the problem? You can just make up the slice from the unsed free space starting from offset 16386300. > F1 help suggests running tools/pfdisk, for which there appears to be > no documentation, but which appears to be a very old tool applicable > only to disks smaller than 8G and not using LBA. Nopes thats not right. It does apply to the modern drives well. > > Questions: > > 1. Is the geometry (155061/16/63) really invalid? > Given the 1024 cyl limitation, it doesn't look to me like the > modified geometry (9729/255/63) assumed? by fdisk is any better, > since both 155061 and 9729 are > 1024. > In any case, the drive uses LBA, so why is this an issue and > even being reported? Well, I already answered the first part. Regarding the reporting, there can be many reasons why it is reaported. One of the most common reason is that, the BIOS does not allow LBA transparently. Also FreeBSD had the reputation (or should I say ill reputation?) of getting information directly from the hardware and nopt rely on BIOS whenever it can. > 2. Do I really want to reset it? Is that even relevant when LBA > is being used? I would reset it only if someone complains during install. > 3. Is pfdisk and geometry even relevant for disks > 8G? > As far as I know it is. > Thanks for any insights, You are welcome Regards S. -- Subhro Sankha Kar School of Information Technology Block AQ-13/1 Sector V ZIP 700091 India ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Disk geometry, 5.3b7 install
Hi all, Trying to install 5.3b7 on the second slice of a Seagate ST380013AS SATA 80G drive. Drive was originally partitioned from NT to have an 8G NTFS slice at the front, with the rest left open for FBSD. When I boot off a CD (image created from downloaded iso image), start the install, and go to allocate the freebsd slice, it reports 155061/16/63 ad4 and says the geometry is invalid If I go ahead and attempt to partition, I see Geometry ad4 9729 cylinders/255 heads/63 sectors = 156296385 sectors (76316MB) Offset Size(St)End Name PType Desc SubType Flags 0 63 62 --12 unused 0 63 16386237 16386299 ad4s1 4 NTFS/HPFS/QNX 7 16386300 139915188 156301487 --12 unused 0 F1 help suggests running tools/pfdisk, for which there appears to be no documentation, but which appears to be a very old tool applicable only to disks smaller than 8G and not using LBA. Questions: 1. Is the geometry (155061/16/63) really invalid? Given the 1024 cyl limitation, it doesn't look to me like the modified geometry (9729/255/63) assumed? by fdisk is any better, since both 155061 and 9729 are > 1024. In any case, the drive uses LBA, so why is this an issue and even being reported? 2. Do I really want to reset it? Is that even relevant when LBA is being used? 3. Is pfdisk and geometry even relevant for disks > 8G? Decided to abort the install until I had this straightened out, but I'm guessing I should just forge ahead and disregard the geometry complaints? Thanks for any insights, Gary ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: disk geometry confussion
On Thu, Oct 07, 2004 at 02:30:51PM -0400, Chuck Swiger wrote: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: > >Please enlighten me. What way I should follow? > > First, make sure you've updated your machine to the most recent BIOS. > Next, check the BIOS config about your disk drives, and if there exists an > option to allow you to choose LBA mode rather than C/H/S, use LBA mode. > > NeXT, try using MS-DOS fdisk to create a small DOS partition. The re-run > the FreeBSD installation, which now ought to see the partition table as > your system wants it. Don't try to re-enter the partition table info > yourself unless you know exactly what you are doing. > > If this doesn't work, provide more details (which version of FreeBSD, what > you computer hardware is, and what your partition table looks like). I have had the same problem with FreeBSD-5.2, WD 250G. Windows would install fine, but FreeBSD gave problems with fdisk. I finaly reached a solution afther trying lot of things, but never knew what I did. -- Alex Please copy the original recipients, otherwise I may not read your reply. WWW: http://www.kruijff.org/alex/FreeBSD/ ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: disk geometry confussion
[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote: Please enlighten me. What way I should follow? First, make sure you've updated your machine to the most recent BIOS. Next, check the BIOS config about your disk drives, and if there exists an option to allow you to choose LBA mode rather than C/H/S, use LBA mode. NeXT, try using MS-DOS fdisk to create a small DOS partition. The re-run the FreeBSD installation, which now ought to see the partition table as your system wants it. Don't try to re-enter the partition table info yourself unless you know exactly what you are doing. If this doesn't work, provide more details (which version of FreeBSD, what you computer hardware is, and what your partition table looks like). -- -Chuck ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
disk geometry confussion
Hi, I had a disk failure recently, and bought a new drive afterwards. it is 80GB WD800BB model. I went on with a fast install to restore my ability to work. I created a small slice in the leading gigas. Now I wanted to go on with slicing the disk, but I got stuck. When I get to sysinstall's fdisk I get a warning that my geometry is incorrect and an explanation as follows: you need to enter whatever your BIOS thinks the geometry is! For IDE, it's what you were told in BIOS setup. (...) _Do NOT use phisical geometry._ The BIOS recognizes my disk as: 38309/16/255. The fdisk when started claims 155061/16/63 is wrong, when I follow and press G to setup the correct values, it presents me with 9729/255/63. I tried all of them, but I always get the incorrect geometry message and whenever I try to write changes to disk, I get: ERROR: Unable to write data to disk ad0 Disk partition write returned an error status OK, so here it states smth contrary to the sysinstall warning: http://groups.google.com/groups?hl=pl&lr=&selm=3ee36290%241%40news. broadpark.no ...that I should follow with disk CHS values. I got them from WD site (16383/16/63), and these are the only ones fdisk do not complain when entered, but! it is the contrary to what the fdisk warning states when run: (...) _Do NOT use phisical geometry._ Please enlighten me. What way I should follow? TIA, -- Piotr Smyrak [EMAIL PROTECTED] ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: incorrect disk geometry warning using 3ware controler
On Sun, Aug 22, 2004 at 01:28:54PM +0800, FreeBSD Daemon wrote: > Dear list > > I bought a 3ware 7500-4LP controller and 4x 200GB IDE disks to go with > it. > Now installing FreeBSD 4.10 I get a warring that the disk geometry > (72963cyls/255heads/63sectrors) is wrong. > Can I ignore this warning safely? As a general rule, if it works after wards, but warning can be ignored. -- Brooks -- Any statement of the form "X is the one, true Y" is FALSE. PGP fingerprint 655D 519C 26A7 82E7 2529 9BF0 5D8E 8BE9 F238 1AD4 pgpvopXHWTT0e.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: incorrect disk geometry warning using 3ware controler
Yes. On Sunday 22 August 2004 01:28 am, FreeBSD Daemon wrote: > Dear list > > I bought a 3ware 7500-4LP controller and 4x 200GB IDE disks to go with > it. > Now installing FreeBSD 4.10 I get a warring that the disk geometry > (72963cyls/255heads/63sectrors) is wrong. > Can I ignore this warning safely? > > TIA > > zheyu > > ___ > [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions > To unsubscribe, send any mail to > "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
incorrect disk geometry warning using 3ware controler
Dear list I bought a 3ware 7500-4LP controller and 4x 200GB IDE disks to go with it. Now installing FreeBSD 4.10 I get a warring that the disk geometry (72963cyls/255heads/63sectrors) is wrong. Can I ignore this warning safely? TIA zheyu ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: Disk geometry salad...
Ok. Thanks for the answers. ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: Disk geometry salad...
>From a high level view, it means you don't have access to 4.6 meg of data space on a 40 gig hard drive. That represents 1/1 of the disk space you do have available to you. Don't worry about it, install the OS and enjoy FreeBSD. > > 2) When installing FreeBSD, sysinstall warns that a geometry of the > > first drive (1) as it detects it (77545/16/63) is incorrect and > > can't be used. It automatically replaces the values with > > 4865/255/63. The problem is that after replacing the geometry with > > 4865/255/63 the number of LBA sectors (as listed in the Disk Slice > > editor) becomes lower than the manufacturer spec (78,156,225 instead > > of 78,165,360). What does this mean? ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: Disk geometry salad...
Robert Storey wrote: You've encountered a well-known bug in the installer. I've experienced it too and so have many others. During the install, when you're in the fdisk partition editor, just hitting "g" is usually all you have to do to correct the bug. If you've already installed, I'm not sure what you can do to correct the bug other than go back and reinstall, this time hitting "g". There might be another way to change disk geometry without doing that, but I don't know how (anybody reading this know?). After complaining about an incorrect geometry, sysinstall (or Fdisk) automatically enters the values it finds 'more appropriate' as the geometry. Hitting 'g' simply opens a dialog where I'm supposed to enter the geometry manually. ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: Disk geometry salad...
> > 2) When installing FreeBSD, sysinstall warns that a geometry of the > > first drive (1) as it detects it (77545/16/63) is incorrect and > > can't be used. It automatically replaces the values with > > 4865/255/63. The problem is that after replacing the geometry with > > 4865/255/63 the number of LBA sectors (as listed in the Disk Slice > > editor) becomes lower than the manufacturer spec (78,156,225 instead > > of 78,165,360). What does this mean? You've encountered a well-known bug in the installer. I've experienced it too and so have many others. During the install, when you're in the fdisk partition editor, just hitting "g" is usually all you have to do to correct the bug. If you've already installed, I'm not sure what you can do to correct the bug other than go back and reinstall, this time hitting "g". There might be another way to change disk geometry without doing that, but I don't know how (anybody reading this know?). You might want to take a look at the following article, the geometry bug is discussed about 1/3 down from the top: http://distrowatch.com/dwres.php?resource=review-freebsd regards, Robert ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: Disk geometry salad...
On Tue, 01 Jun 2004 13:37:49 +0200, roman wrote: >> > I have two Western Digital hard drives, (1) WD400BB (40GB) and (2) > WD300BB (30GB) and an Asus CUS-L2C motherboard (Intel 815EP chipset). > The manufacturer website doesn't provide the CHS geometry for the > drives, but lists the number of LBA sectors for each drive. For (1) it's > 78,165,360 sectors * 512 bytes resulting in about 40.02 GB. For (2) it's > 58,633,344 sectors * 512 bytes resulting in about 30.02 GB. > > On the first drive I currently have Windows XP, the second drive is empty. > > Western Digital's diagnostic utility for Windows detects the CHS > geometry of the drives as (1) 4865/255/63 and (2) 3649/255/63 and > confirms that the number of LBA sectors is identical to the manufacturer > specification. > > FreeBSD 5.2.1 detects the CHS geometry (When it boots, there's a listing > of the hard drives and the CHS geometry, but no LBA sectors) as (1) > 77545/16/63 and (2) 58168/16/63. > > I have several questions regarding this. > > 1) What is the difference between a geometry of 58168/16/63 and > 3649/255/63, why did the diagnostic utility detect the latter form, > while FreeBSD detected the former (Also, Linux 2.4 detects the geometry > as 3649/255/63)? >> The c/h/s data format used to pass a disk sector address to an ATA disk drive permits at most 65536 cylinders, 16 heads and 255 sectors per track. The data format used by an ATA disk to report its c/h/s geometry permits at most 65535 cylinders. It also reports its sector capacity and maximum addressable LBA block number in 32 bit fields. This geometry is usually somewhat artificial and may be changed by the host system. The c/h/s data format used to pass a disk sector address to a BIOS disk service routine permits at most 1024 cylinders, 255 heads and 63 sectors per track. In order to maximize the number of disk sectors that can be addressed using the BIOS interface, a BIOS often reports a disk geometry different than what the disk reports to the BIOS and uses that "BIOS" geometry when interpreting disk addresses specified in BIOS function calls. A BIOS geometry usually has 255 heads and 63 sectors per track because that produces the largest addressable disk size. >From the information you have provided I cannot be certain how the numbers you report were generated, but I can speculate. The ATA disk might report a default geometry with 16 heads and 63 sectors per track because those numbers can be used with both ATA and BIOS geometries. The ATA disk cannot report more than 65535 cylinders, but it can report the actual disk capacity in sectors. If FreeBSD were to divide the ATA disk capacity by the cylinder size (#heads * #sectors), it might conclude that the 40GB drive has 77545 cylinders. Since such a large cylinder number cannot be specified in c/h/s format, the driver must be using LBA format when issuing read/write commands. If you divide the 40 GB drive capacity by the typical BIOS cylinder size, you get 4865 cylinders. That is probably where the disk geometry "4865/255/63" comes from. Since cylinder numbers above 1023 cannot be passed to BIOS function calls, the "extended" BIOS functions which use 28 bit LBA addressing must be used to access the entire drive. The common FreeBSD bootstrap program uses the BIOS disk functions with c/h/s addressing by default and therefore cannot access more than 1024*255*63 sectors, a little under 8 GB, unless it is reconfigured with the "boot0cfg" command to use the extended BIOS disk functions. It is often hard to tell exactly what a particular BIOS and bootstrap configuration are doing. You may be able to avoid confusing bootstrap problems by keeping all disk partitions used for booting inside the first 1024*255*63 sectors. >> > 2) When installing FreeBSD, sysinstall warns that a geometry of the > first drive (1) as it detects it (77545/16/63) is incorrect and can't be > used. It automatically replaces the values with 4865/255/63. The problem > is that after replacing the geometry with 4865/255/63 the number of LBA > sectors (as listed in the Disk Slice editor) becomes lower than the > manufacturer spec (78,156,225 instead of 78,165,360). What does this mean? >> Sysinstall, which probably uses BIOS geometry, apparently knows that a geometry with so many cylinders cannot be correct. It apparently guessed 255 heads and 63 sectors per track and computed the largest number of cylinders that would produce a disk capacity that did not exceed the capacity specified by the original geometry. Since you can't have a fraction of a cylinder, you often lose access to a few sectors when you convert the disk geometry. This beats getting an I/O error because you rounded the number of cylinders up instead of down. I don't know why sysinstall seems to
Disk geometry salad...
Hi, I would like to try FreeBSD but recently I've encountered several problems with the detection of my hard drives' geometry, so I have a few questions. I hope this is the right place to ask... First I would like to say that my understanding of this issue is minor, so if my questions seem stupid, I apologize in advance. I have two Western Digital hard drives, (1) WD400BB (40GB) and (2) WD300BB (30GB) and an Asus CUS-L2C motherboard (Intel 815EP chipset). The manufacturer website doesn't provide the CHS geometry for the drives, but lists the number of LBA sectors for each drive. For (1) it's 78,165,360 sectors * 512 bytes resulting in about 40.02 GB. For (2) it's 58,633,344 sectors * 512 bytes resulting in about 30.02 GB. On the first drive I currently have Windows XP, the second drive is empty. Western Digital's diagnostic utility for Windows detects the CHS geometry of the drives as (1) 4865/255/63 and (2) 3649/255/63 and confirms that the number of LBA sectors is identical to the manufacturer specification. FreeBSD 5.2.1 detects the CHS geometry (When it boots, there's a listing of the hard drives and the CHS geometry, but no LBA sectors) as (1) 77545/16/63 and (2) 58168/16/63. I have several questions regarding this. 1) What is the difference between a geometry of 58168/16/63 and 3649/255/63, why did the diagnostic utility detect the latter form, while FreeBSD detected the former (Also, Linux 2.4 detects the geometry as 3649/255/63)? 2) When installing FreeBSD, sysinstall warns that a geometry of the first drive (1) as it detects it (77545/16/63) is incorrect and can't be used. It automatically replaces the values with 4865/255/63. The problem is that after replacing the geometry with 4865/255/63 the number of LBA sectors (as listed in the Disk Slice editor) becomes lower than the manufacturer spec (78,156,225 instead of 78,165,360). What does this mean? 3) I tried installing FreeBSD on the second drive. Sysinstall didn't complain about the geometry of 58168/16/63 and I was able to install. The interesting thing is that when I started the installation program of Fedora Core Linux (Had to check something, and it was FC1 which means 2.4 kernel) it complained about an incorrect partition table that was generated by a tool that didn't have the right BIOS geometry. When I reinstalled FreeBSD on the same drive, but changed the geometry from 58168/16/63 to 3649/255/63, and launched the Fedora Core setup again - it didn't complain! Why is that? ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: 5.2.1 sysinstall disk geometry problem
> > When scripting sysinstall, it still halts with an > > error about my disk > > geometry. The problem is, even if I specify the > > geometry that FreeBSD > > wants to use by setting the geometry= variable, I > > still get the error. > > Even when you use the exact values your BIOS thinks it is? I am pretty sure it was still happening even then. Unfortunately, I had several other minor problems and it was easy enough to hack sysinstall so I did not bother to really check. If I have some time I will go back and look into it again. -Don ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: 5.2.1 sysinstall disk geometry problem
> When scripting sysinstall, it still halts with an > error about my disk > geometry. The problem is, even if I specify the > geometry that FreeBSD > wants to use by setting the geometry= variable, I > still get the error. > > Everything else in sysinstall is being scripted > correctly. The only > problems I am having are disk related. Can anyone > shed any light on this > subject? > > Thanks, > -Don Even when you use the exact values your BIOS thinks it is? Jorn ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: 5.2.1 sysinstall disk geometry problem
> the very same happened to me with a maxtor hard drive > and it happened to be a bad cable > > check jumper settings, cables, controlers etc It wasn't a jumper problem as it happened with a number of hard disks. I simply commented out the code in sysinstall that generated the error and supplied the geometry through the geometry directive in install.cfg. I was also calling diskPartitionEditor and diskPartitionWrite. If I just called diskPartitionEditor and left the rest for install commit most of the other problems I was having went away. -Don ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: 5.2.1 sysinstall disk geometry problem
> When scripting sysinstall, it still halts with an > error about my disk > geometry. The problem is, even if I specify the > geometry that FreeBSD > wants to use by setting the geometry= variable, I > still get the error. > > Everything else in sysinstall is being scripted > correctly. The only > problems I am having are disk related. Can anyone > shed any light on this > subject? > > Thanks, > -Don > Hi there the very same happened to me with a maxtor hard drive and it happened to be a bad cable check jumper settings, cables, controlers etc jorge _ Do You Yahoo!? Información de Estados Unidos y América Latina, en Yahoo! Noticias. Visítanos en http://noticias.espanol.yahoo.com ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
5.2.1 sysinstall disk geometry problem
Ok last problem I am having: When scripting sysinstall, it still halts with an error about my disk geometry. The problem is, even if I specify the geometry that FreeBSD wants to use by setting the geometry= variable, I still get the error. Everything else in sysinstall is being scripted correctly. The only problems I am having are disk related. Can anyone shed any light on this subject? Thanks, -Don ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: disk geometry issues during sysinstall of 5.2.1
I have found that if you just hit "g", it will report the correct disk geometry and fix the problem without any further intervention. Ideally, it would be better if this disk geometry bug gets fixed, but for the time being, hitting "g" is a quick and dirty fix that works for most people. I wouldn't just ignore the error message and install - I have indeed messed up my disk geometry that way and had to spend some time getting it back to the correct settings. regards, Robert On Wed, 3 Mar 2004 14:06:04 -0800 "Goodleaf, John M" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Also, does it really matter? I've poked around the web and it seems > like a lot of folks have encountered this and simply chosen to ignore > it. Certainly there doesn't seem to be a definitive answer out there > that I've seen. ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
disk geometry issues during sysinstall of 5.2.1
Hello, I have a fairly new test machine configured on an Intel 875 (yes, the ICH5 controller) board. I have a standard ATA-133 drive and two SATA drives, Maxtor 80GB. They are not configured as a RAID device. Here's the thing: When I try to install FBSD, I get the apparently common disk geometry problem warnings for each drive (with the Boot Mgr MBR setting, and yes, including the parallel ATA drive). It instructs me to enter correct geometry, as reported by the BIOS. But the BIOS on this board doesn't report a geometry. I've scoured those stupid BIOS screens and haven't found anything, nor has a search of the product manual. How do I get the "correct" BIOS settings? Also, does it really matter? I've poked around the web and it seems like a lot of folks have encountered this and simply chosen to ignore it. Certainly there doesn't seem to be a definitive answer out there that I've seen. "Turn on LBA" isn't really an issue for the still-bleeding 875PBZ. In the 5-CURRENT installation that currently exists on the machineI regularly get crashes and kernel panics that are disk-related (I don't have those error messages handy; I'm not expecting anyone to divine the answer?). Moreover, I have gotten two hangs during installation using the 5.2.1 bootonly iso. I don't really know why as it's a true hang--no error messages--but it occurs shortly after filesystems are written and distro extraction begins. My working hypothesis is that my PITA ICH5 controllers are fighting FBSD's (new) twitchy SATA code. I dunno. Whaddaya think? -J ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: passing disk geometry parameters to the kernel at boot time
> > Hi > > I'm having problems with FreeBSD 5.2-RELEASE getting > the proper disk geometry. > When I was installing I passed the correct info and > installed, but once I rebooted the info is wiped off > and again it has the wrong geometry what makes my > system very "crashy" Time for you to do some searching.This has been covered in detail several times in the last 3 or 4 months. Someone write a very helpful description of disk geometry and posted it about a month ago. If you can find that, it might help you understand. But, basically, most of the time, the numbers you see are "virtual" and you don't want to change what the system thinks even if it isn't consistent from one utility to the next and the utilities such as fdisk make little remarks in their output. You should be going by sector _count_ from the beginning of the disk and ignoring cyl/head/sector values except in some very special situations. This is true when you slice and parititon and then especially when you boot. jerry > > PS: is there a way to do this in lilo or grub??? > thanks in advance > > Jorge > > _ > Do You Yahoo!? > Información de Estados Unidos y América Latina, en Yahoo! Noticias. > Visítanos en http://noticias.espanol.yahoo.com > ___ > [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" > ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
passing disk geometry parameters to the kernel at boot time
Hi I'm having problems with FreeBSD 5.2-RELEASE getting the proper disk geometry. When I was installing I passed the correct info and installed, but once I rebooted the info is wiped off and again it has the wrong geometry what makes my system very "crashy" PS: is there a way to do this in lilo or grub??? thanks in advance Jorge _ Do You Yahoo!? Información de Estados Unidos y América Latina, en Yahoo! Noticias. Visítanos en http://noticias.espanol.yahoo.com ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
RE: FDisk won't detect or accept correct disk geometry from
I would certainly be checking the positions on the ribbon. I was caught by this myself - should have known better, doh! For ATA-100+ cables, the black connector is master and the grey is slave. Not an issue for older and slower ATA modes, but a gotcha for ATA-100+. ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: FDisk won't detect or accept correct disk geometry from BIOS
I wrote the message to which you replied, not Michael Clark. See my comments in-line. From: Hendrik Hasenbein <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: Michael Clark <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> CC: 'Keith Kelly' <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, Derrick Ryalls <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, freebsd-bugs <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, 'freebsd-questions ORG' <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: FDisk won't detect or accept correct disk geometry from BIOS Date: Sat, 24 Jan 2004 09:57:18 +0100 Michael Clark wrote: I configure the two devices that way (CD-ROM as slave, hard drive as master), sysinstall refuses to mount the CD, giving me an error about "CD/DVD drive not found!". It's worth noting that no other OS I've run on this same PC ever had any trouble finding the CD-ROM drive when it was configured as the slave. Strange. That you got that problems. I've been always using a CDROM on slave. Never had a problem there. Did you look if the BIOS was able to autodetect the cdrom on boot? Do you use cable select on one of them? Of course the BIOS auto-detected the CD-ROM fine -- the configuration had always worked with all other operating systems and software I had used on this PC. It didn't matter whether I used cable select or explicitly jumpered the devices as master/slave. In either case, if the CD-ROM was the slave, sysinstall failed to detect the CD-ROM. To get around _that_ problem, I had to configure the CD-ROM as the master and the hard drive as the slave. With the CD-ROM as the master, sysinstall is able to actually detect the CD/DVD drive, but then I run into this nonsense with fdisk refusing to detect or accept the correct disk geometry for the hard drive. It's worth noting that I've never had to manually specify hard drive geometry settings in the installer for any other OS I've installed on this PC. They figured it out automatically and worked fine. Another time: Just turn on LBA. LBA is already on on all my devices, and has been from the start. This is most definitely NOT the problem. Besides which, I already explained my findings on another thread on these aliases.. So far, I'm really disappointed by FreeBSD. If FreeBSD lacks the logic or detection to automatically figure all these things out and just work, that is a serious bug (whether due to a programmer mistake or poor software design). I've _never_ had this much trouble getting an operating system installed on this particular PC. It's due to poor hardware design in history. It's equally due to poor software design. If Windows and Linux can deal with the hardware fine, then FreeBSD should be able to also. If I can't get things working within about 1 more hour of tinkering, I'm going to abandon FreeBSD entirely, put my machine back together, and just use the drive as an extra NTFS filesystem for my personal files under Windows XP. That explains, why you don't want to switch from auto to LBA. Sometimes auto is the right thing, but most times you have to think of the right setting, because auto is just a default. (Example: If I leave all values set to auto in my bios, my system is going to creep literally, because some components wont interact correct) When people argue that Windows is easier, and that *nix isn't ready for the desktop, this is *exactly* the kind of problem that they are talking about. I hope any actual FreeBSD developers on these aliases wake up and take notice. The real problem is that we still work around design flaws which exist in hardware for a decade. Everybody uses his/her personal best workaround and sometimes they are in conflict. No, the real problem is a lack of thorough testing on a variety of hardware configurations, and a lack of developer interest in solving problems encountered by people other than themselves. Hendrik _ Get a FREE online virus check for your PC here, from McAfee. http://clinic.mcafee.com/clinic/ibuy/campaign.asp?cid=3963 ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: FDisk won't detect or accept correct disk geometry from BIOS
Michael Clark wrote: I configure the two devices that way (CD-ROM as slave, hard drive as master), sysinstall refuses to mount the CD, giving me an error about "CD/DVD drive not found!". It's worth noting that no other OS I've run on this same PC ever had any trouble finding the CD-ROM drive when it was configured as the slave. Strange. That you got that problems. I've been always using a CDROM on slave. Never had a problem there. Did you look if the BIOS was able to autodetect the cdrom on boot? Do you use cable select on one of them? To get around _that_ problem, I had to configure the CD-ROM as the master and the hard drive as the slave. With the CD-ROM as the master, sysinstall is able to actually detect the CD/DVD drive, but then I run into this nonsense with fdisk refusing to detect or accept the correct disk geometry for the hard drive. It's worth noting that I've never had to manually specify hard drive geometry settings in the installer for any other OS I've installed on this PC. They figured it out automatically and worked fine. Another time: Just turn on LBA. So far, I'm really disappointed by FreeBSD. If FreeBSD lacks the logic or detection to automatically figure all these things out and just work, that is a serious bug (whether due to a programmer mistake or poor software design). I've _never_ had this much trouble getting an operating system installed on this particular PC. It's due to poor hardware design in history. If I can't get things working within about 1 more hour of tinkering, I'm going to abandon FreeBSD entirely, put my machine back together, and just use the drive as an extra NTFS filesystem for my personal files under Windows XP. That explains, why you don't want to switch from auto to LBA. Sometimes auto is the right thing, but most times you have to think of the right setting, because auto is just a default. (Example: If I leave all values set to auto in my bios, my system is going to creep literally, because some components wont interact correct) When people argue that Windows is easier, and that *nix isn't ready for the desktop, this is *exactly* the kind of problem that they are talking about. I hope any actual FreeBSD developers on these aliases wake up and take notice. The real problem is that we still work around design flaws which exist in hardware for a decade. Everybody uses his/her personal best workaround and sometimes they are in conflict. Hendrik ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
RE: FDisk won't detect or accept correct disk geometry from BIOS
don't complain. Your not committing... -Original Message- From: Keith Kelly [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Friday, January 23, 2004 7:49 PM To: Derrick Ryalls Cc: freebsd-bugs; 'freebsd-questions ORG' Subject: Re: FDisk won't detect or accept correct disk geometry from BIOS > My thought here is to double check that the drive is in the master > position on the ribbon. Yeah, you would _think_ that would be the way to configure things. But when I configure the two devices that way (CD-ROM as slave, hard drive as master), sysinstall refuses to mount the CD, giving me an error about "CD/DVD drive not found!". It's worth noting that no other OS I've run on this same PC ever had any trouble finding the CD-ROM drive when it was configured as the slave. To get around _that_ problem, I had to configure the CD-ROM as the master and the hard drive as the slave. With the CD-ROM as the master, sysinstall is able to actually detect the CD/DVD drive, but then I run into this nonsense with fdisk refusing to detect or accept the correct disk geometry for the hard drive. It's worth noting that I've never had to manually specify hard drive geometry settings in the installer for any other OS I've installed on this PC. They figured it out automatically and worked fine. If I just let fdisk use its suggested defaults for the geometry and proceed with the install, then when the system reboots off the hard drive I get "Missing operating system". It's worth noting that I've never seen that severe of an error following any other OS installation claiming it was successful. So far, I'm really disappointed by FreeBSD. If FreeBSD lacks the logic or detection to automatically figure all these things out and just work, that is a serious bug (whether due to a programmer mistake or poor software design). I've _never_ had this much trouble getting an operating system installed on this particular PC. If I can't get things working within about 1 more hour of tinkering, I'm going to abandon FreeBSD entirely, put my machine back together, and just use the drive as an extra NTFS filesystem for my personal files under Windows XP. When people argue that Windows is easier, and that *nix isn't ready for the desktop, this is *exactly* the kind of problem that they are talking about. I hope any actual FreeBSD developers on these aliases wake up and take notice. ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" CONFIDENTIALITY NOTE: This electronic transmission, including all attachments, is directed in confidence solely to the person(s) to whom it is addressed, or an authorized recipient, and may not otherwise be distributed, copied or disclosed. The contents of the transmission may also be subject to intellectual property rights and all such rights are expressly claimed and are not waived. If you have received this transmission in error, please notify the sender immediately by return electronic transmission and then immediately delete this transmission, including all attachments, without copying, distributing or disclosing same. ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: FDisk won't detect or accept correct disk geometry from BIOS
> My thought here is to double check that the drive is in the master > position on the ribbon. Yeah, you would _think_ that would be the way to configure things. But when I configure the two devices that way (CD-ROM as slave, hard drive as master), sysinstall refuses to mount the CD, giving me an error about "CD/DVD drive not found!". It's worth noting that no other OS I've run on this same PC ever had any trouble finding the CD-ROM drive when it was configured as the slave. To get around _that_ problem, I had to configure the CD-ROM as the master and the hard drive as the slave. With the CD-ROM as the master, sysinstall is able to actually detect the CD/DVD drive, but then I run into this nonsense with fdisk refusing to detect or accept the correct disk geometry for the hard drive. It's worth noting that I've never had to manually specify hard drive geometry settings in the installer for any other OS I've installed on this PC. They figured it out automatically and worked fine. If I just let fdisk use its suggested defaults for the geometry and proceed with the install, then when the system reboots off the hard drive I get "Missing operating system". It's worth noting that I've never seen that severe of an error following any other OS installation claiming it was successful. So far, I'm really disappointed by FreeBSD. If FreeBSD lacks the logic or detection to automatically figure all these things out and just work, that is a serious bug (whether due to a programmer mistake or poor software design). I've _never_ had this much trouble getting an operating system installed on this particular PC. If I can't get things working within about 1 more hour of tinkering, I'm going to abandon FreeBSD entirely, put my machine back together, and just use the drive as an extra NTFS filesystem for my personal files under Windows XP. When people argue that Windows is easier, and that *nix isn't ready for the desktop, this is *exactly* the kind of problem that they are talking about. I hope any actual FreeBSD developers on these aliases wake up and take notice. ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
RE: FDisk won't detect or accept correct disk geometry from BIOS
> > I don't know. I've never had to change away from "Auto" to > get any other OS > to install or boot from any of my hard drives, though, so I > really doubt > that is the problem. I'm quite confident the problem must > lie with FreeBSD > itself, in the form of a bug or a lack of hardware support. > Although my > integrated IDE controller and all other basic hardware is on > the FreeBSD > supported hardware list. > Not the best solution, but have you thought of using the Gag boot loader to get around this? (sourceforge) > > > > > [ ... ] > > > I definitely do not have hardware issues, because Linux, > Windows XP, > > > Windows 2000, BeOS, and SkyOS have all worked fine at various > > > points, and Windows XP > > > continues to work fine :-) > > > > Your error message reflects a BIOS-level failure to find a bootable > > partition. > > > > Do you already have a bootable partition on the system, and > are trying > > to install FreeBSD in a second partition? If so, which > partition is > > marked active? > > No. The hard drive is the only hard drive attached (I > detached my two other > drives with WinXP and data files on them, so they couldn't > get inadvertently > hosed during installation... those two devices were on the > primary IDE > chain. I moved the blank hard drive and the CD-ROM drive, > which were on the > secondary IDE chain, onto the primary IDE chain to try to get FreeBSD > installed that way. There's currently nothing on the > secondary IDE chain). > And, I did ensure in all my attempts that I marked the single > full-disk > slice I created with fdisk as bootable. My thought here is to double check that the drive is in the master position on the ribbon. ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: FDisk won't detect or accept correct disk geometry from BIOS
On Thu, 22 Jan 2004 14:24:19 -0800 "Keith Kelly" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> probably wrote: > Thanks for your thoughtful and helpful reply. I should have given more > technical details. > > I already tried (with both 4.9 and 5.1) letting the FreeBSD install proceed > with fdisk's geometry value assumptions, and what I always get is a > non-bootable hard drive that gives the "Missing operating system" error at > boot. > > The hard drive is IDE, not SCSI. It is a Maxtor UltraMax 40GB ATA/100 drive > purchased shy of two years ago. The "physical geometry" reported by Maxtor > in the specs for the drive is different from the geometry my BIOS reports > that it has auto-detected and is using to address the drive. And both of > *those* geometries are different from the one that fdisk keeps trying to > assume. >From the web page, I learnt the 3 geometries you have. $ bc -l -q 155061*16*63*512 80026361856 9729*255*63*512 80023749120 38309*16*255*512 80025968640 So which of them is not 80G (modulo the ``rounding error'', which is, as you can see, negative, I mean, neither BIOS nor FreeBSD think the drive to be larger than it is according to its specs, so it cann't cause real trouble)? After reading your further posts, I realized it wasn't *your* geometry :). Could you please post `all of them', like in the webpage? No, don't tell me the difference between them makes it impossible to boot from the drive. The mbr is at the beginning of the drive, not at the end:) I own just the same model drive (this means the same as in the webpage), and I never had a geometry problem with any FreeBSD version I tried (4.4, 4.7, 4.8, 5.2-RC2). FWIW, here is my fdisk output. > $ fdisk /dev/ad2 > *** Working on device /dev/ad2 *** > parameters extracted from in-core disklabel are: > cylinders=9729 heads=255 sectors/track=63 (16065 blks/cyl) > > Figures below won't work with BIOS for partitions not in cyl 1 > parameters to be used for BIOS calculations are: > cylinders=9729 heads=255 sectors/track=63 (16065 blks/cyl) BTW, you could try fiddling with the `packet' option of boot0, but that would take a fixit floppy/CD. # boot0cfg -o packet /dev/whatever might help you (it enables the bootloader to use LBA packet mode). > I've already read all the FAQs, handbooks, and support sites I could find > regarding FreeBSD and disk geometry. None of them have contained any > information specific to IDE drives (they all seem SCSI-centric), and none of > them have clearly explained all the background context about how drive > geometries work. In short - they (geometries) don't. Physical geometry doesn't exist. Only the number of sectors (should be marked `LBA addressable', or something like that,on the drive) matters on modern drives. Satisfied? P.S. Now, who cc'd it to bugs@:)? -- DoubleF "This is a test of the Emergency Broadcast System. If this had been an actual emergency, do you really think we'd stick around to tell you?" pgp0.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: FDisk won't detect or accept correct disk geometry from BIOS
Keith Kelly wrote: OK, but if the auto mode uses the wrong C/H/S translation, this default may be the source of your problem. What happens when you switch from using "auto" to explicitly using "LBA"? I don't know. I've never had to change away from "Auto" to get any other OS to install or boot from any of my hard drives, though, so I really doubt that is the problem. I'm quite confident the problem must lie with FreeBSD itself, in the form of a bug or a lack of hardware support. Although my integrated IDE controller and all other basic hardware is on the FreeBSD supported hardware list. No, the problem doesn't lie with FreeBSD. The problem is in the long line of kept compatibilities since the first Intel-PC. There is no need for an addressing mode besides LBA if you are using current hardware (And this current being a long time). The problem first came when the hard drives hit the first CHS barrier: The manufacturing companies chose different formulas to converted the real CHS to the BIOS CHS values. So until the get used to a common formula or the Linear Block Adressing you couldnt even swap harddrives from one system to another of another IDE board manufacturer. SCSI got more luck on this platform since most manufactures used the adaptec formula and NCR had its own, but could detect if an adaptec formula was used. Back to your systems problem. The BIOS assumes you a different alignment on the harddrive than the system. ONLY if you choose ONE addressing mode you get predictable results and that should be LBA, since it is used in modern ATA-commands. Other addressing modes should only be used for older drives which cant use LBA. I hope there will be a time when the CHS conversions get dropped from BIOS, but I doubt that. Choosing one mode enforces the correct conversion on each system. I definitely do not have hardware issues, because Linux, Windows XP, Windows 2000, BeOS, and SkyOS have all worked fine at various points, and Windows XP continues to work fine :-) Lucky you. Haven't been so lucky, but LBA solved it. Hendrik ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: FDisk won't detect or accept correct disk geometry from BIOS
"Keith Kelly" wrote: > > On Jan 22, 2004, at 5:24 PM, Keith Kelly wrote: > > > I already tried (with both 4.9 and 5.1) letting the FreeBSD install > > > proceed > > > with fdisk's geometry value assumptions, and what I always get is a > > > non-bootable hard drive that gives the "Missing operating system" > > > error at > > > boot. > > > > Sufficiently old motherboards and BIOS versions don't understand the > > LBA addressing mode used by modern drives, and are limited to seeing > > approx 8.4 GB using the classic C/H/S values. See whether the BIOS > > lets you configure the drive to LBA mode rather than "automatic", > > "C/H/S", or "extended C/H/S" mode. If it doesn't, check to see whether > > there is a BIOS update available for your hardware. > > The motherboard is not old. It is an MSI KT4 Ultra motherboard, if I > remember the model number correctly off the top of my head, for the Athlon > XP architecture. The BIOS doesn't even explicitly list what mode (LBA, CHS, > extended CHS) it is using to address the drive -- I just set it to "Auto", > it detects the device name, and fills out a small listing telling me the > C/H/S geometry it is using. The motherboard is already running the latest > available BIOS update from MSI. From: "Christopher Turner" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > I have two 40Gig Seagate Baracuda IV's. > > The physical drive is 1023/256/63 > The BIOS detects it at 1024/255/63 I have an 80G Seagate (ST380024A) attached to an old MB (pentium socket 7(?)) with an AMI BIOS. Seagate specify the logical geometry (for Barracuda ATA V drives) as 16383/16/63. This is also what the BIOS auto-detects the drive as. (Note this corresponds to only 8G.) I used this as the BIOS setting to install FreeBSD. However, FreeBSD (4.8) wouldn't boot from the drive until I dropped the BIOS heads setting down (to 16383/15/63). FreeBSD happily ignored this setting change which was done after FreeBSD had been installed. I had assumed that this was a bug in the BIOS. I wonder now whether there is some quirk in FreeBSD's boot managers/loaders that is affected by BIOS settings (perhaps with specific BIOSes)? The AMI BIOS has LBA, Block mode and 32-bit mode settings enabled. To further add to the curiosity, fdisk reports the drive as 9729/255/63 (which is 5103 sectors short of the drive's full capacity). dmesg.boot, however, shows: ad0: 76319MB [155061/16/63] at ata0-master WDMA2 which corresponds to the drive's full capacity. Wayne ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: FDisk won't detect or accept correct disk geometry from BIOS
Inline. - Original Message - From: "Charles Swiger" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Keith Kelly" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: "freebsd-questions ORG" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, January 22, 2004 3:27 PM Subject: Re: FDisk won't detect or accept correct disk geometry from BIOS > On Jan 22, 2004, at 6:04 PM, Keith Kelly wrote: > > The motherboard is not old. It is an MSI KT4 Ultra motherboard, if I > > remember the model number correctly off the top of my head, for the > > Athlon > > XP architecture. The BIOS doesn't even explicitly list what mode > > (LBA, CHS, > > extended CHS) it is using to address the drive -- I just set it to > > "Auto", > > it detects the device name, and fills out a small listing telling me > > the > > C/H/S geometry it is using. The motherboard is already running the > > latest > > available BIOS update from MSI. > > OK, but if the auto mode uses the wrong C/H/S translation, this default > may be the source of your problem. What happens when you switch from > using "auto" to explicitly using "LBA"? I don't know. I've never had to change away from "Auto" to get any other OS to install or boot from any of my hard drives, though, so I really doubt that is the problem. I'm quite confident the problem must lie with FreeBSD itself, in the form of a bug or a lack of hardware support. Although my integrated IDE controller and all other basic hardware is on the FreeBSD supported hardware list. > > [ ... ] > > I definitely do not have hardware issues, because Linux, Windows XP, > > Windows > > 2000, BeOS, and SkyOS have all worked fine at various points, and > > Windows XP > > continues to work fine :-) > > Your error message reflects a BIOS-level failure to find a bootable > partition. > > Do you already have a bootable partition on the system, and are trying > to install FreeBSD in a second partition? If so, which partition is > marked active? No. The hard drive is the only hard drive attached (I detached my two other drives with WinXP and data files on them, so they couldn't get inadvertently hosed during installation... those two devices were on the primary IDE chain. I moved the blank hard drive and the CD-ROM drive, which were on the secondary IDE chain, onto the primary IDE chain to try to get FreeBSD installed that way. There's currently nothing on the secondary IDE chain). And, I did ensure in all my attempts that I marked the single full-disk slice I created with fdisk as bootable. > > -- > -Chuck > > ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: FDisk won't detect or accept correct disk geometry from BIOS
No -- no floppy in the floppy drive, and no CD in the CD-ROM drive. Only disk devices attached are the one hard drive, the CD-ROM, and the floppy, and in the BIOS boot sequence, only the one hard drive is set as the boot device. I *did* mark the slice I created using fdisk during FreeBSD install as bootable, and I *did* have the installer write (I've tried it both ways) either a standard MBR or install the BootMgr to the hard drive. There are no other partitions or OSes or anything on the hard drive, but it was previously running WinXP and that booted fine. And just for kicks, I was still able to boot off a DOS floppy, format the hard drive as a system device and put a minimal DOS install on it, and boot fine off the hard drive into DOS. - Original Message - From: "Jerry McAllister" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Keith Kelly" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: "Chris Pressey" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, January 22, 2004 3:35 PM Subject: Re: FDisk won't detect or accept correct disk geometry from BIOS > > > > Yes, I tried it both ways (installing BootMgr, and installing a standard > > MBR). > > I just thought of one more awful thing which has happened to me > on a number of occasions, way embarrassingly too many times. > > You don't happen to have a floppy disk in the floppy drive or possibly > a non-bootable CD in the CD drive do you. That is where I see > that message most often. If you tried to install using the two > floppies, for example and didn't pull the second one out before > rebooting, it would do that. The same would be true if you put > one of the other CDs in the set to load some things. > > I'm still guessing something to do with the MBRs and boot blocks > and whatever you called the 'a' partition in the slice, etc though. > > jerry > > > > > - Original Message - > > From: "Chris Pressey" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > To: "Keith Kelly" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > Sent: Thursday, January 22, 2004 2:38 PM > > Subject: Re: FDisk won't detect or accept correct disk geometry from > > BIOS > > > > > > > On Thu, 22 Jan 2004 14:24:19 -0800 > > > "Keith Kelly" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > > > > Thanks for your thoughtful and helpful reply. I should have given > > > > more technical details. > > > > > > > > I already tried (with both 4.9 and 5.1) letting the FreeBSD install > > > > proceed with fdisk's geometry value assumptions, and what I always > > > > get is a non-bootable hard drive that gives the "Missing operating > > > > system" error at boot. > > > > > > Hi Keith, > > > > > > Just to be sure - did you elect to install BootMgr (or a regular boot > > > record) on the drive when sysinstall asks? > > > > > > -Chris > > > > > ___ > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list > > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-bugs > > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" > > > > ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: FDisk won't detect or accept correct disk geometry from BIOS
> > Yes, I tried it both ways (installing BootMgr, and installing a standard > MBR). I just thought of one more awful thing which has happened to me on a number of occasions, way embarrassingly too many times. You don't happen to have a floppy disk in the floppy drive or possibly a non-bootable CD in the CD drive do you. That is where I see that message most often. If you tried to install using the two floppies, for example and didn't pull the second one out before rebooting, it would do that. The same would be true if you put one of the other CDs in the set to load some things. I'm still guessing something to do with the MBRs and boot blocks and whatever you called the 'a' partition in the slice, etc though. jerry > > - Original Message - > From: "Chris Pressey" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "Keith Kelly" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Thursday, January 22, 2004 2:38 PM > Subject: Re: FDisk won't detect or accept correct disk geometry from BIOS > > > > On Thu, 22 Jan 2004 14:24:19 -0800 > > "Keith Kelly" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > > > Thanks for your thoughtful and helpful reply. I should have given > > > more technical details. > > > > > > I already tried (with both 4.9 and 5.1) letting the FreeBSD install > > > proceed with fdisk's geometry value assumptions, and what I always > > > get is a non-bootable hard drive that gives the "Missing operating > > > system" error at boot. > > > > Hi Keith, > > > > Just to be sure - did you elect to install BootMgr (or a regular boot > > record) on the drive when sysinstall asks? > > > > -Chris > > > ___ > [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-bugs > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" > ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: FDisk won't detect or accept correct disk geometry from BIOS
On Jan 22, 2004, at 6:04 PM, Keith Kelly wrote: The motherboard is not old. It is an MSI KT4 Ultra motherboard, if I remember the model number correctly off the top of my head, for the Athlon XP architecture. The BIOS doesn't even explicitly list what mode (LBA, CHS, extended CHS) it is using to address the drive -- I just set it to "Auto", it detects the device name, and fills out a small listing telling me the C/H/S geometry it is using. The motherboard is already running the latest available BIOS update from MSI. OK, but if the auto mode uses the wrong C/H/S translation, this default may be the source of your problem. What happens when you switch from using "auto" to explicitly using "LBA"? [ ... ] I definitely do not have hardware issues, because Linux, Windows XP, Windows 2000, BeOS, and SkyOS have all worked fine at various points, and Windows XP continues to work fine :-) Your error message reflects a BIOS-level failure to find a bootable partition. Do you already have a bootable partition on the system, and are trying to install FreeBSD in a second partition? If so, which partition is marked active? -- -Chuck ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: FDisk won't detect or accept correct disk geometry from BIOS
> > Thanks for your thoughtful and helpful reply. I should have given more > technical details. > > I already tried (with both 4.9 and 5.1) letting the FreeBSD install proceed > with fdisk's geometry value assumptions, and what I always get is a > non-bootable hard drive that gives the "Missing operating system" error at > boot. > > The hard drive is IDE, not SCSI. It is a Maxtor UltraMax 40GB ATA/100 drive > purchased shy of two years ago. The "physical geometry" reported by Maxtor > in the specs for the drive is different from the geometry my BIOS reports > that it has auto-detected and is using to address the drive. And both of > *those* geometries are different from the one that fdisk keeps trying to > assume. > > I've already read all the FAQs, handbooks, and support sites I could find > regarding FreeBSD and disk geometry. None of them have contained any > information specific to IDE drives (they all seem SCSI-centric), and none of > them have clearly explained all the background context about how drive > geometries work. I guess there is a "physical geometry" provided by the > drive manufacturer, and then different geometries (all of which may be > valid) your BIOS might use to address the drive depending on the mode it is > using (LBA, etc). As far as I can tell, the geometry values a user is > supposed to feed to fdisk are the values that the BIOS reports that it is > using to address the drive, but I'm not even sure if that is correct because > the documentation is so impenetrable. And of course many users are running > into this issue where the drive geometries reported and used by their BIOS > are simply rejected by fdisk as "invalid" whenever they try to enter them > into fdisk, which makes no sense to me. > I will definitely agree with one thing at least: I wish all this were much better documented. There are lots of pieces of documentation in various places - some up-to-date, and some obsolete and some sort of in between. It is very hard to sort out the differences. I think a lot of the problem is historical but as things have been cleaned up over the years the documentation did not keep up and not everything was overhauled along the way, just tweaked as needed. Plus, part of the problem is no-one out there who has written documentation understands the entire thing from front to back, just the parts they have worked on. I could be wrong on this, but it really looks like that. I really wish one of these geniuses would do a complete documentation of disk layout and mapping to whatever and flag bytes and boot blocks and MBRs and... This disk geometry thing is not unique to FreeBSD. The confusion exists in all OSen that make use of PCs and PC BIOSs even in MS though they try to keep that covered up. Anyway, I think you will get the missing OS message if you have not correctly installed some sort of boot block on the device. If you are single booting, you can make one big slice and then you don't need to have the MBR, just a standard boot block. If you are dual booting you have to have BOTH an MBR and then in the bootable slice, a boot block. Also, the system expects root to be in the bootable slice and to be partition 'a' in the bootable slice. (I understand you can do heroics and fudge that, but don't bother trying) The machine I am typing on right now has an IDE disk (even though most of ours have SCSI) and the Physical geometry does not match what fdisk says. It is dual booted with WinXP (actually 3-booted if you consider the vendor maintenance slice). It installs, boots and runs just fine. I don't think that the system would even be able to complete a write to the disk at slicing, partitioning and installing time if the geometry was not working out. It is just too basic to everything the install does.I think you need to look for the problem some other place, such as MBRs or partitions or something. Hopefully someone out there can offer some more useful suggestions. jerry > > > - Original Message - > From: "Jerry McAllister" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > To: "Keith Kelly" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Cc: "freebsd-questions" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; > <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > Sent: Thursday, January 22, 2004 12:44 PM > Subject: Re: FDisk won't detect or accept correct disk geometry from BIOS > > > > > > > > Please see this page: > > > http://lantech.geekvenue.net/chucktips/jason/chuck/1044789670/index_html > > > > > > This is exactly the problem I am having now whenever I try to install > > > either > > > FreeBSD 4.9 or 5.1. Clearly, a lot of other users out there are having > > >
Re: FDisk won't detect or accept correct disk geometry from BIOS
See comments in-line. - Original Message - From: "Charles Swiger" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Keith Kelly" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: "freebsd-questions" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, January 22, 2004 2:56 PM Subject: Re: FDisk won't detect or accept correct disk geometry from BIOS > On Jan 22, 2004, at 5:24 PM, Keith Kelly wrote: > > I already tried (with both 4.9 and 5.1) letting the FreeBSD install > > proceed > > with fdisk's geometry value assumptions, and what I always get is a > > non-bootable hard drive that gives the "Missing operating system" > > error at > > boot. > > Sufficiently old motherboards and BIOS versions don't understand the > LBA addressing mode used by modern drives, and are limited to seeing > approx 8.4 GB using the classic C/H/S values. See whether the BIOS > lets you configure the drive to LBA mode rather than "automatic", > "C/H/S", or "extended C/H/S" mode. If it doesn't, check to see whether > there is a BIOS update available for your hardware. The motherboard is not old. It is an MSI KT4 Ultra motherboard, if I remember the model number correctly off the top of my head, for the Athlon XP architecture. The BIOS doesn't even explicitly list what mode (LBA, CHS, extended CHS) it is using to address the drive -- I just set it to "Auto", it detects the device name, and fills out a small listing telling me the C/H/S geometry it is using. The motherboard is already running the latest available BIOS update from MSI. > It may be the case that this doesn't resolve the issue. You can try to > create a small (say 32MB) DOS partition using classic MS-DOS 6.x or a > utility from the drive manufacturer, and verify whether you can boot > into that. If you can't and still get the "missing OS" error, you've > got hardware issues and should consider replacing your MB. I definitely do not have hardware issues, because Linux, Windows XP, Windows 2000, BeOS, and SkyOS have all worked fine at various points, and Windows XP continues to work fine :-) > If you can > boot to a DOS partition on the hard disk, then try installing FreeBSD > to the remaining space, leaving the DOS partition intact. This will > give you a better shot of using a geometry that your BIOS is able to > boot. > > [ The only hardware I've seen which required that kind of thing was a > no-name P133 grade machine... ] > > -- > -Chuck > > ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: FDisk won't detect or accept correct disk geometry from BIOS
Yes, I tried it both ways (installing BootMgr, and installing a standard MBR). - Original Message - From: "Chris Pressey" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Keith Kelly" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, January 22, 2004 2:38 PM Subject: Re: FDisk won't detect or accept correct disk geometry from BIOS > On Thu, 22 Jan 2004 14:24:19 -0800 > "Keith Kelly" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > > > Thanks for your thoughtful and helpful reply. I should have given > > more technical details. > > > > I already tried (with both 4.9 and 5.1) letting the FreeBSD install > > proceed with fdisk's geometry value assumptions, and what I always > > get is a non-bootable hard drive that gives the "Missing operating > > system" error at boot. > > Hi Keith, > > Just to be sure - did you elect to install BootMgr (or a regular boot > record) on the drive when sysinstall asks? > > -Chris > ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: FDisk won't detect or accept correct disk geometry from BIOS
On Jan 22, 2004, at 5:24 PM, Keith Kelly wrote: I already tried (with both 4.9 and 5.1) letting the FreeBSD install proceed with fdisk's geometry value assumptions, and what I always get is a non-bootable hard drive that gives the "Missing operating system" error at boot. Sufficiently old motherboards and BIOS versions don't understand the LBA addressing mode used by modern drives, and are limited to seeing approx 8.4 GB using the classic C/H/S values. See whether the BIOS lets you configure the drive to LBA mode rather than "automatic", "C/H/S", or "extended C/H/S" mode. If it doesn't, check to see whether there is a BIOS update available for your hardware. It may be the case that this doesn't resolve the issue. You can try to create a small (say 32MB) DOS partition using classic MS-DOS 6.x or a utility from the drive manufacturer, and verify whether you can boot into that. If you can't and still get the "missing OS" error, you've got hardware issues and should consider replacing your MB. If you can boot to a DOS partition on the hard disk, then try installing FreeBSD to the remaining space, leaving the DOS partition intact. This will give you a better shot of using a geometry that your BIOS is able to boot. [ The only hardware I've seen which required that kind of thing was a no-name P133 grade machine... ] -- -Chuck ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: FDisk won't detect or accept correct disk geometry from BIOS
On Thu, 22 Jan 2004 14:24:19 -0800 "Keith Kelly" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > Thanks for your thoughtful and helpful reply. I should have given > more technical details. > > I already tried (with both 4.9 and 5.1) letting the FreeBSD install > proceed with fdisk's geometry value assumptions, and what I always > get is a non-bootable hard drive that gives the "Missing operating > system" error at boot. Hi Keith, Just to be sure - did you elect to install BootMgr (or a regular boot record) on the drive when sysinstall asks? -Chris ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: FDisk won't detect or accept correct disk geometry from BIOS
Thanks for your thoughtful and helpful reply. I should have given more technical details. I already tried (with both 4.9 and 5.1) letting the FreeBSD install proceed with fdisk's geometry value assumptions, and what I always get is a non-bootable hard drive that gives the "Missing operating system" error at boot. The hard drive is IDE, not SCSI. It is a Maxtor UltraMax 40GB ATA/100 drive purchased shy of two years ago. The "physical geometry" reported by Maxtor in the specs for the drive is different from the geometry my BIOS reports that it has auto-detected and is using to address the drive. And both of *those* geometries are different from the one that fdisk keeps trying to assume. I've already read all the FAQs, handbooks, and support sites I could find regarding FreeBSD and disk geometry. None of them have contained any information specific to IDE drives (they all seem SCSI-centric), and none of them have clearly explained all the background context about how drive geometries work. I guess there is a "physical geometry" provided by the drive manufacturer, and then different geometries (all of which may be valid) your BIOS might use to address the drive depending on the mode it is using (LBA, etc). As far as I can tell, the geometry values a user is supposed to feed to fdisk are the values that the BIOS reports that it is using to address the drive, but I'm not even sure if that is correct because the documentation is so impenetrable. And of course many users are running into this issue where the drive geometries reported and used by their BIOS are simply rejected by fdisk as "invalid" whenever they try to enter them into fdisk, which makes no sense to me. - Original Message - From: "Jerry McAllister" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Keith Kelly" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Cc: "freebsd-questions" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, January 22, 2004 12:44 PM Subject: Re: FDisk won't detect or accept correct disk geometry from BIOS > > > > Please see this page: > > http://lantech.geekvenue.net/chucktips/jason/chuck/1044789670/index_html > > > > This is exactly the problem I am having now whenever I try to install > > either > > FreeBSD 4.9 or 5.1. Clearly, a lot of other users out there are having > > this > > problem too. FDisk absolutely refuses to accept the correct geometry > > values > > (the ones my BIOS tells me it is using to address the disk), instead > > insisting on using some values that are not even close to correct. Then > > after installation completes and I try to boot, I get a "missing > > operating > > system" message, which is no surprise given that the disk was addressed > > by > > the installer using the wrong geometry settings. > > Of about 100 to 110 FreeBSD systems we have up and going, I have never > had the fdisk reported geometry match the BIOS reported information > but I have never had a system fail to install and boot by just ignoring > the whole issue and letting it (sysinstall, fdisk, etc) do its own thing > as long as I didn't try to tinker with the geometry. This has been with > both SCSI and IDE disks, but mostly SCSI and almost entirely on mainstream > hardware such as what comes with Dell, Compaq, etc, not homebuilts. > The FreeBSD versions have been most of 3.xx through most of 4.xx. I > haven't tried any 5.xx yet but the person in the box (cubicle) next to > me has 5.1 going and sees the same thing. > > There have been lots of things written about this. I don't know which > ones apply in your case. But, the geometries on recent disks and > recent versions of software (recent = in the last 6 or 7 years) are > all "virtual" as far as I can see.So, just try letting it fly > and without trying to tinker or reconcile what appears to be a conflict. > > jerry ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: FDisk won't detect or accept correct disk geometry from BIOS
> > Please see this page: > http://lantech.geekvenue.net/chucktips/jason/chuck/1044789670/index_html > > This is exactly the problem I am having now whenever I try to install either > FreeBSD 4.9 or 5.1. Clearly, a lot of other users out there are having this > problem too. FDisk absolutely refuses to accept the correct geometry values > (the ones my BIOS tells me it is using to address the disk), instead > insisting on using some values that are not even close to correct. Then > after installation completes and I try to boot, I get a "missing operating > system" message, which is no surprise given that the disk was addressed by > the installer using the wrong geometry settings. Of about 100 to 110 FreeBSD systems we have up and going, I have never had the fdisk reported geometry match the BIOS reported information but I have never had a system fail to install and boot by just ignoring the whole issue and letting it (sysinstall, fdisk, etc) do its own thing as long as I didn't try to tinker with the geometry. This has been with both SCSI and IDE disks, but mostly SCSI and almost entirely on mainstream hardware such as what comes with Dell, Compaq, etc, not homebuilts. The FreeBSD versions have been most of 3.xx through most of 4.xx. I haven't tried any 5.xx yet but the person in the box (cubicle) next to me has 5.1 going and sees the same thing. There have been lots of things written about this. I don't know which ones apply in your case. But, the geometries on recent disks and recent versions of software (recent = in the last 6 or 7 years) are all "virtual" as far as I can see.So, just try letting it fly and without trying to tinker or reconcile what appears to be a conflict. jerry > > Why the hell doesn't FDisk properly read the geometry settings from the BIOS > in the first place (so that don't have to look them up and enter them myself > during install), and why the hell doesn't it accept the correct values when > I enter them? Isn't there *ANY* way to force it to accept the values I give > it? > > I have a hard time imagining how this could be considered "low priority" or > "not important" by the developers of the system. This is clearly a major > defect in either documentation (if this is user error, a LOT of users are > having the problem, so documentation must be deficient), or a major defect > in the code. > > DISCLAIMER: I don't know if you folks are like the Linux community, but > don't tell me to "find the bug and fix it yourself", or to "quit whining". > It's perfectly reasonable for a user of a piece of software to expect it to > work right. I'm not a developer, and shouldn't have to be. That's why > *other* people are developers, so that I don't have to be. > > - Keith F. Kelly > ___ > [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-bugs > To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" > ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: FDisk won't detect or accept correct disk geometry from BIOS
On Thursday 22 January 2004 20:41, Keith Kelly wrote: > Please see this page: > http://lantech.geekvenue.net/chucktips/jason/chuck/1044789670/index_html > [snip rant] > DISCLAIMER: I don't know if you folks are like the Linux community, but > don't tell me to "find the bug and fix it yourself", or to "quit whining". > It's perfectly reasonable for a user of a piece of software to expect it to > work right. I'm not a developer, and shouldn't have to be. That's why > *other* people are developers, so that I don't have to be. I don't think a "you folks" attitude will get you anywhere and if you're not a developer you probably should consider changing your emailaddress as it doesn't really fit your attitude (or in fact - maybe it does). What would be useful is to post the BIOS vendor you're using, motherboard make and harddisk, along with the reported values by the BIOS and fdisk. Preferably use the form located at after having read the bug-writing guidelines: http://www.freebsd.org/send-pr.html That makes sure it's entered into the bug tracking system. Also know that: 120GB on a harddisk cover means 120 * 1000 * 1000 * 1000 bytes, which equals 111.75 GB in the rest of computerland. -- Melvyn === FreeBSD sarevok.webteckies.org 5.2-CURRENT FreeBSD 5.2-CURRENT #3: Tue Dec 30 14:31:47 CET 2003 [EMAIL PROTECTED]:/usr/obj/usr/src/sys/SAREVOK_NOAPM_NODEBUG i386 === pgp0.pgp Description: signature
FDisk won't detect or accept correct disk geometry from BIOS
Please see this page: http://lantech.geekvenue.net/chucktips/jason/chuck/1044789670/index_html This is exactly the problem I am having now whenever I try to install either FreeBSD 4.9 or 5.1. Clearly, a lot of other users out there are having this problem too. FDisk absolutely refuses to accept the correct geometry values (the ones my BIOS tells me it is using to address the disk), instead insisting on using some values that are not even close to correct. Then after installation completes and I try to boot, I get a "missing operating system" message, which is no surprise given that the disk was addressed by the installer using the wrong geometry settings. Why the hell doesn't FDisk properly read the geometry settings from the BIOS in the first place (so that don't have to look them up and enter them myself during install), and why the hell doesn't it accept the correct values when I enter them? Isn't there *ANY* way to force it to accept the values I give it? I have a hard time imagining how this could be considered "low priority" or "not important" by the developers of the system. This is clearly a major defect in either documentation (if this is user error, a LOT of users are having the problem, so documentation must be deficient), or a major defect in the code. DISCLAIMER: I don't know if you folks are like the Linux community, but don't tell me to "find the bug and fix it yourself", or to "quit whining". It's perfectly reasonable for a user of a piece of software to expect it to work right. I'm not a developer, and shouldn't have to be. That's why *other* people are developers, so that I don't have to be. - Keith F. Kelly ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: Disk geometry
On Wed, 24 Sep 2003 22:02:31 +0200 "radu.florin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> probably wrote: > On Wed, 24 Sep 2003 16:20:42 -0500, Andrew L. Gould <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > wrote: > > > On Wednesday 24 September 2003 03:09 pm, Sergey "DoubleF" Zaharchenko > > wrote: > >> On Wed, 24 Sep 2003 17:11:49 +0200 "radu.florin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > probably wrote: > >> > Hi, > >> > > >> > I'm testing the coexistence of Win95, Linux Slackware and Free BSD 5.1 > >> > on a single physical disk PC ( P133, 16Mo RAM, 3 GO dd). > >> > Just the time to see if I can boot to the OS I want to use. > >> > Then to install on a PC with 384 Mo RAM a 40 Go dd > >> > On the P133 I'm testing, all is working fine with Win and Slack. > >> #boot0cfg -o nopacket /dev/ad0BUGS This line should, of course, read #boot0cfg -o nopacket /dev/ad0 (it was a mispaste from the man) > >> > >> (replace ad0 with the harddrive). man 8 boot0cfg for details. It says: > >> > >> man> Use of the `packet' option may cause `boot0' to fail, depending > >> on > >> the man> nature of BIOS support. > >> > >> HTH > I use for install purpose the floppies kern.flp, mfsroot.flp and > drivers.flp (for my CD ) > During the install I did'nt met "security" floppie proposal to initiate in > case of boot pb. > As soon as install is finished, the only way to exit the install menu is > to...reboot. > So what floppy can I use to try the boot0cfg routine you propose ? I always have one diskette for such special cases;). Try googling for a "RIP diskette image", that's the one I am using. AFAIR it has boot0cfg; if it doesn't, you can at least boot from it into a usable system (even MC is there!), mount your / and /usr and run the boot0cfg binary which is in /usr/sbin. Example (FreeBSD is on ad0 on first slice): #mount /dev/ad0s1a /mnt #mount /dev/ad0s1e /mnt/usr #/mnt/usr/boot0cfg -o nopacket /dev/ad0 HTH -- DoubleF Remember the golden rule: Those that have the gold make the rules. pgp0.pgp Description: PGP signature
Re: Disk geometry
On Wed, 24 Sep 2003 16:20:42 -0500, Andrew L. Gould <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: On Wednesday 24 September 2003 03:09 pm, Sergey "DoubleF" Zaharchenko wrote: On Wed, 24 Sep 2003 17:11:49 +0200 "radu.florin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> probably wrote: > Hi, > > I'm testing the coexistence of Win95, Linux Slackware and Free BSD 5.1 > on a single physical disk PC ( P133, 16Mo RAM, 3 GO dd). > Just the time to see if I can boot to the OS I want to use. > Then to install on a PC with 384 Mo RAM a 40 Go dd > On the P133 I'm testing, all is working fine with Win and Slack. > Slack boot lets me go to Win or Linux without any problem. > I installed also a minimal FreeBSD in good conditions. > But I have no access at it... > Slack boot don't see it. > And if I accept-when installing Free BSD - one of his boots (MBR or SB) > I can't have no Win, no Slack, neither FreeBSD. It displays the usual > choice F1, F2... but no one works (just screaming). > It seems to be a dd geometry problem. No. It is the BIOS that seems to be the problem. It might be unable to do packet interface which is by default required by BootEasy. You could try booting from a FreeBSD floppy and running #boot0cfg -o nopacket /dev/ad0BUGS (replace ad0 with the harddrive). man 8 boot0cfg for details. It says: man> Use of the `packet' option may cause `boot0' to fail, depending on the man> nature of BIOS support. HTH I may be way off here, but were the bootable partitions for each operating set as bootable in the partitioning section of the installation procedures? Yesterday, I reinstalled Win2K on a portion of the 1st hard drive of my desktop. (FreeBSD is on the 2nd hard drive.) I then executed /stand/sysinstall in FreeBSD to mark the Win2K partition as bootable and load the FreeBSD boot loader into the MBR. Later, I installed NetBSD on the last part of the 1st hard drive, leaving the MBR alone during NetBSD installation. When I rebooted, the FreeBSD boot loader showed the partitions for each operating system; but would only boot Win2K and FreeBSD. I had to go back to /stand/sysinstall in FreeBSD to mark the NetBSD partition as bootable. Now I can boot all 3 operating systems (one at a time, of course!) . Best of luck, Andrew Gould Thank you Sergey and Andrew. For Andrew: I set bootable all the partitions (OS) but the result is the same, so: when I set BSD boot, F1,F2, etc screaming and not working. when I set Standard MBR boot I get "INVALID PARTITION TABLE" For Sergey: I use for install purpose the floppies kern.flp, mfsroot.flp and drivers.flp (for my CD ) During the install I did'nt met "security" floppie proposal to initiate in case of boot pb. As soon as install is finished, the only way to exit the install menu is to...reboot. So what floppy can I use to try the boot0cfg routine you propose ? After repairing the MBR I have two OS operating (Win and Slack) and one(SBD) installed but closed. Newbie question, perhaps. Thank you -- Using M2, Opera's revolutionary e-mail client: http://www.opera.com/m2/ ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: Disk geometry
On Wednesday 24 September 2003 03:09 pm, Sergey "DoubleF" Zaharchenko wrote: > On Wed, 24 Sep 2003 17:11:49 +0200 "radu.florin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> probably wrote: > > Hi, > > > > I'm testing the coexistence of Win95, Linux Slackware and Free BSD 5.1 > > on a single physical disk PC ( P133, 16Mo RAM, 3 GO dd). > > Just the time to see if I can boot to the OS I want to use. > > Then to install on a PC with 384 Mo RAM a 40 Go dd > > On the P133 I'm testing, all is working fine with Win and Slack. > > Slack boot lets me go to Win or Linux without any problem. > > I installed also a minimal FreeBSD in good conditions. > > But I have no access at it... > > Slack boot don't see it. > > And if I accept-when installing Free BSD - one of his boots (MBR or SB) > > I can't have no Win, no Slack, neither FreeBSD. It displays the usual > > choice F1, F2... but no one works (just screaming). > > It seems to be a dd geometry problem. > > No. It is the BIOS that seems to be the problem. It might be unable to > do packet interface which is by default required by BootEasy. You could > try booting from a FreeBSD floppy and running > > #boot0cfg -o nopacket /dev/ad0BUGS > > (replace ad0 with the harddrive). man 8 boot0cfg for details. It says: > > man> Use of the `packet' option may cause `boot0' to fail, depending on > the man> nature of BIOS support. > > HTH I may be way off here, but were the bootable partitions for each operating set as bootable in the partitioning section of the installation procedures? Yesterday, I reinstalled Win2K on a portion of the 1st hard drive of my desktop. (FreeBSD is on the 2nd hard drive.) I then executed /stand/sysinstall in FreeBSD to mark the Win2K partition as bootable and load the FreeBSD boot loader into the MBR. Later, I installed NetBSD on the last part of the 1st hard drive, leaving the MBR alone during NetBSD installation. When I rebooted, the FreeBSD boot loader showed the partitions for each operating system; but would only boot Win2K and FreeBSD. I had to go back to /stand/sysinstall in FreeBSD to mark the NetBSD partition as bootable. Now I can boot all 3 operating systems (one at a time, of course!) . Best of luck, Andrew Gould ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: Disk geometry
On Wed, 24 Sep 2003 17:11:49 +0200 "radu.florin" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> probably wrote: > > Hi, > > I'm testing the coexistence of Win95, Linux Slackware and Free BSD 5.1 > on a single physical disk PC ( P133, 16Mo RAM, 3 GO dd). > Just the time to see if I can boot to the OS I want to use. > Then to install on a PC with 384 Mo RAM a 40 Go dd > On the P133 I'm testing, all is working fine with Win and Slack. > Slack boot lets me go to Win or Linux without any problem. > I installed also a minimal FreeBSD in good conditions. > But I have no access at it... > Slack boot don't see it. > And if I accept-when installing Free BSD - one of his boots (MBR or SB) > I can't have no Win, no Slack, neither FreeBSD. It displays the usual > choice F1, F2... but no one works (just screaming). > It seems to be a dd geometry problem. No. It is the BIOS that seems to be the problem. It might be unable to do packet interface which is by default required by BootEasy. You could try booting from a FreeBSD floppy and running #boot0cfg -o nopacket /dev/ad0BUGS (replace ad0 with the harddrive). man 8 boot0cfg for details. It says: man> Use of the `packet' option may cause `boot0' to fail, depending on the man> nature of BIOS support. HTH -- DoubleF Create problems for which only you have the answer. pgp0.pgp Description: PGP signature
Disk geometry
Hi, I'm testing the coexistence of Win95, Linux Slackware and Free BSD 5.1 on a single physical disk PC ( P133, 16Mo RAM, 3 GO dd). Just the time to see if I can boot to the OS I want to use. Then to install on a PC with 384 Mo RAM a 40 Go dd On the P133 I'm testing, all is working fine with Win and Slack. Slack boot lets me go to Win or Linux without any problem. I installed also a minimal FreeBSD in good conditions. But I have no access at it... Slack boot don't see it. And if I accept-when installing Free BSD - one of his boots (MBR or SB) I can't have no Win, no Slack, neither FreeBSD. It displays the usual choice F1, F2... but no one works (just screaming). It seems to be a dd geometry problem. The sfdsk of Slack, displays so the partitions: Disk /dev/hda: 785 cylinders, 128 heads, 63 sectors/track Units = cylinders of 4128768 bytes, blocks of 1024 bytes, counting from 0 Device Boot Start End #cyls#blocks Id System /dev/hda1 0+207 208- 838624+ 6 FAT16 end: (c,h,s) expected (207,127,63) found (1023,13,63) partition ends on cylinder 1023, beyond the end of the disk /dev/hda2208 216-9- 32634 82 Linux swap start: (c,h,s) expected (208,0,1) found (1023,255,63) end: (c,h,s) expected (216,11,63) found (1023,14,63) partition ends on cylinder 1023, beyond the end of the disk /dev/hda3 *216+470- 254- 1023907+ a5 FreeBSD start: (c,h,s) expected (216,12,1) found (1023,255,63) end: (c,h,s) expected (470,4,63) found (1023,14,63) partition ends on cylinder 1023, beyond the end of the disk /dev/hda4470+785- 316- 1272442+ 83 Linux start: (c,h,s) expected (470,5,1) found (1023,255,63) end: (c,h,s) expected (785,79,63) found (1023,14,63) partition ends on cylinder 1023, beyond the end of the disk /dev/hda5216+281- 66- 262144 /dev/hda6281+289- 9- 32768 /dev/hda7289+354- 66- 262144 /dev/hda8 354+419- 66- 262144 /dev/hda9419+470- 51- 204707+ --- -- - - I don't have valuable data on this system, so I can wipe of all the OS and start to re-partition. In that case what tool to use ? The old MS fdisk ? Is it necessary to choose some particular parameters ? Thank you for a suggestion, Florin Using M2, Opera's revolutionary e-mail client: http://www.opera.com/m2/ ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: disk geometry problem
On Thu, 2003-06-12 at 15:47, prodigy wrote: > I got a problem with installation of freebsd v.4.8 > I cannot get past the boot manager's F? prompt after installation. Where and How can > I find out exact disc geometry. You can get it in 2 ways: a) From the system BIOS b) From the FreeBSD install CD, when setting up your partitions (it reports the disk geometry at the top of the screen) Hope this helps, -- Adam <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
disk geometry problem
Dear freebsd.org: I got a problem with installation of freebsd v.4.8 I cannot get past the boot manager's F? prompt after installation. Where and How can I find out exact disc geometry. Could you help me, please? Thank you for response. Martin ___ [EMAIL PROTECTED] mailing list http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions To unsubscribe, send any mail to "[EMAIL PROTECTED]"
Re: different disk geometry
it is OK for 4.7 but my old 5.0 installation says that 79780xxx - is invalid, so using more likely geometry - 5005 and while trying to modify anything using sysinstall fdisk i get write error! is this a bug of 5.0-release? - Original Message - From: "Nathan Kinkade" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Thursday, February 20, 2003 8:50 PM Subject: Re: different disk geometry On Thu, Feb 20, 2003 at 05:57:47PM +0300, Michael Soboleff wrote: > I have 40Gb IBM IDE drive, while booting freebsd 4.7 shows > me 79780/16/63 geometry, > but! sysinstall gives me another numbers : 5005/255/63. The > QUESTION is it OK? Both are logical geometries. They are roughly equivalent: 79780 * 16 * 63 = 80418240 addressable sectors, or ~40GB 5005 * 255 * 63 = 80405325 addressable sectors, or ~40GB The first figure (79780/16/63) is the disk geometry that is probably printed on the label on the front of the disk and is conformant with the ATA standard. The second figure (5005/255/63) is probably the geometry that your BIOS is using. Either way, as long as the machine works then you shouldn't have to worry. Nathan -- GPG Public Key ID: 0x4250A04C gpg --keyserver pgp.mit.edu --recv-keys 4250A04C http://63.105.21.156/gpg_nkinkade_4250A04C.asc To Unsubscribe: send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
[Fwd: Re: different disk geometry]
Original Message From: - Thu Feb 20 14:28:55 2003 X-Mozilla-Status: 0001 X-Mozilla-Status2: Message-ID: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Date: Thu, 20 Feb 2003 14:28:50 -0500 From: northern snowfall <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (X11; U; SunOS sun4u; en-US; rv:0.9.4.1) Gecko/20020518 Netscape6/6.2.3 X-Accept-Language: en-us MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Michael Soboleff <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: different disk geometry References: <000901c2d8f0$6e8fe570$[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=KOI8-R; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit I have 40Gb IBM IDE drive, while booting freebsd 4.7 shows me 79780/16/63 geometry, but! sysinstall gives me another numbers : 5005/255/63. The QUESTION is it OK? Usually, what sysinstall gives is ok. Just make sure the number of sectors that sysinstall perceives is the same as or under the actual sector number. You can check by doing: 79780 * 16 * 63 = 80,418,240 sectors (512eight-bit octets each) 5005 * 255 * 63 = 80,405,325 sectors Any array of proper C/H/S can be given. What actually happens here is that Sysinstall determines the total amount of sectors on the disk (most likely in LBA mode), then determines the C/H/S based on most-likely-candidate mapping. 63 is maximum value for sectors per head. 255 is the maximum value for heads per cylinder. Thus, (Total_Sectors / (nHeads * nSectors)) = nCyls. If you are unhappy with Sysinstall's chosen mapping due to loss of X number of sectors, consult your hard disk's documentation to determine the valid C/H/S value or total sector number. Edit as appropriate. As a side note, don't give a number that exceeds the total number of sectors on the disk. The driver may attempt to access these sectors expecting OK from the controller, but, receiving ERROR. This may cause the driver to tell you something more malicious is occuring than is not, causing trouble down the road. Don To Unsubscribe: send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
Re: different disk geometry
On Thu, Feb 20, 2003 at 05:57:47PM +0300, Michael Soboleff wrote: > I have 40Gb IBM IDE drive, while booting freebsd 4.7 shows > me 79780/16/63 geometry, > but! sysinstall gives me another numbers : 5005/255/63. The > QUESTION is it OK? Both are logical geometries. They are roughly equivalent: 79780 * 16 * 63 = 80418240 addressable sectors, or ~40GB 5005 * 255 * 63 = 80405325 addressable sectors, or ~40GB The first figure (79780/16/63) is the disk geometry that is probably printed on the label on the front of the disk and is conformant with the ATA standard. The second figure (5005/255/63) is probably the geometry that your BIOS is using. Either way, as long as the machine works then you shouldn't have to worry. Nathan -- GPG Public Key ID: 0x4250A04C gpg --keyserver pgp.mit.edu --recv-keys 4250A04C http://63.105.21.156/gpg_nkinkade_4250A04C.asc msg20035/pgp0.pgp Description: PGP signature
different disk geometry
I have 40Gb IBM IDE drive, while booting freebsd 4.7 shows me 79780/16/63 geometry, but! sysinstall gives me another numbers : 5005/255/63. The QUESTION is it OK? To Unsubscribe: send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
disk geometry problem
I have a very strange disk geometry problem: i have 3 OS installed on my PC (freebsd 5.0, freebsd 4.7 and win xp), after doing some operations with 'partition magic' in windows and reboot i found 2 of 3 OS inacessible to choose from freebsd boot loader and! sysinstall fdisk configurator tells me what my disc geometry (79780/16/63) is invalid... my hdd is IBM IC35L040AVVA07-0 Can you tell me what to do now? ... thx anyway To Unsubscribe: send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
Trying to diagnose/fix/workaround disk geometry problem
This may be deja vu if you've been tracking comp.unix.bsd.freebsd. . . . The short version: FreeBSD 4.x is not detecting my hard disk geometry even remotely correctly. It reports a wildly inflated cylinder count. I have tried out several Linux distributions on this hard drive and none of them have had any problem of this sort. The long version: Some horribly long-winded background . . . A few months back, I had tried to install FreeBSD 4.5. The install went rough, and it took several tries to get FreeBSD actually installed. FreeBSD was reading the disk geometry badly, reading some garbage where a cylinder count should have been, and calculating a disk capacity about an order of magnitude higher than what it really was. To finally get a running (or at least walking FreeBSD system), I ended up writing a bogus partition table, containing an entry for a BSD slice the size of my hard drive, and an entry saying that had several gigabytes of unused space behind the BSD slice. Not long after, I decided to nuke my FreeBSD install, and go back to what I was running before. Recently, I wanted to see if FreeBSD 4.7 wouldn't have the ugly disk geometry problems that the 4.5 install did. Someone suggested that I make some FreeBSD boot floppies, boot from them, and see what happens. I could always pull the floppy out and reboot before anything got written to disk. So I did just that, and found out that FreeBSD 4.7 still had the geometry problem. I've been experimenting with the boot floppy install, rerunning the following routine: boot from floppy, see if the cylinder count of the disk geometry is garbage, and rebooting before committing to the install. Somewhere in that routine, I've either twiddled BIOS settings to see if FreeBSD would detect the geometry right, or with fdisk to see if I could manage to write a valid partition table. No luck with the BIOS, and no luck with fdisk. I can tell fdisk what the correct disk geometry is, but I've yet to figure out how to change the partition table entries so that they are consistent with the corrected geometry. Relevant hardware specs: Hard drive: Quantum Fireball, IDE, 20 GB Motherboard: iWill KA266plus, with an ALI15X3 chipset. FYI, the BIOS has not been upgraded, revision is 32402A On to the current problem . . . One of the guys in this newsgroup pointed out that I could look at whatever kernel messages FreeBSD was leaving behind during the install by pressing Scroll Lock and using the Page Up key to scroll up to the messages. I found the following: ad0: hard error reading fsbn 0-3 trying PIO mode ad0: hard error reading fsbn 0-3 status=51 error=04 ad0: 883634010175MB [16955114026566160/17/63] at ata0-master PIO4 My hard drive is in reality only 20GB. After getting those error messages, I reran the install and captured the error messages again, but they were slightly different. Here they are: ad0: hard error reading fsbn 0-3 trying PIO mode ad0: hard error reading fsbn 0-3 status=51 error=04 ad0: 4363134873600047MB <}UyN~U}!~IEzA~M~ |M?1>5?!?!~!?!~!?!?!~!> [8343324202738466/17/63] at ata0-master PIO4 Note that the reported hard drive capacity and cylinder count are different than what they were the last time. That's consistent with my experience in installing FreeBSD 4.5. The reported cylinder count was always inflated, but not always the same as before. As I said before, Linux has (and continues to) work fine with my hard drive, so I know there aren't any catastrophic problems with the hard drive. Obviously this does not rule out latent problems. In case this is useful, here are the relevant snippets from *Linux's* dmesg: ALI15X3: chipset revision 196 ALI15X3: not 100% native mode: will probe irqs later ide0: BM-DMA at 0xe000-0xe007, BIOS settings: hda:DMA, hdb:DMA ide1: BM-DMA at 0xe008-0xe00f, BIOS settings: hdc:pio, hdd:pio hda: QUANTUM FIREBALLP LM20.5, ATA DISK drive hdb: Pioneer CD-ROM ATAPI Model DR-A04S 0105, ATAPI CD/DVD-ROM drive ide: Assuming 33MHz system bus speed for PIO modes; override with idebus=xx ide0 at 0x1f0-0x1f7,0x3f6 on irq 14 hda: 40132503 sectors (20548 MB) w/1900KiB Cache, CHS=2498/255/63, (U)DMA ide-floppy driver 0.99.newide Partition check: hda: hda1 hda2 hda3 The disk geometry reported by Linux is consistent with the geometry reported by the BIOS setup. __ Do you Yahoo!? Yahoo! Mail Plus - Powerful. Affordable. Sign up now. http://mailplus.yahoo.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
[Q] Disk geometry problems
Hiya I've just built a server based around an Epox KT333 mmotherboard and Athlon processor. I booted from the 4.7 CD, but when I went to the slice editor sysinstall complained that my disk geometery was incorrect and it was using its own values. I tried using 'G' to set the geometry to the BIOS values but sysinstall rejected them. It wouldn't have bothered me that much, but the machine wouldn't boot into FreeBSD after the installation. It just went away for a while, then gave the 'missing system disk' error. Although it's possible that booting is failing for some reason other than the geometry issue, has anyone else run into a similar problem before? The BIOS's idea of the disk geometry: Cyl 28733 Head 16 Precomp 0 Landing Zone 28732 Sector 255 FreeBSD says: Cyl 7297 Head 255 Sector 63 I could try setting the BIOS geometry to the FreeBSD geometry (which would require switching from LBA mode to CHS), is this likely to make any difference? Cheers, --Jon http://www.witchspace.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
