Thanks for your reply.
Landon Curt Noll wrote: > Here is what fdisk says about one of our cf drives: > > Disk /dev/sda: 16.4 GB, 16391208960 bytes > 255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 1992 cylinders > Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes > Sector size (logical/physical): 512 bytes / 512 bytes > I/O size (minimum/optimal): 512 bytes / 512 bytes > Disk identifier: 0x0003cd75 > > On that system the /boot partition is about 25 cylinders long. > > Device Boot Start End Blocks Id > System > /dev/sda1 * 1 25 194560 > 83 > Linux Partition 1 does not end on cylinder boundary. > /dev/sda2 25 1993 15809537 > 5 Extended > /dev/sda5 1906 1993 700416 82 > Linux swap / Solaris > /dev/sda6 25 1906 15109120 > 83 Linux > I can do the same but need to make sure all the data is within that first 8Mb then everything is fine. > The debian installer build the 1st partition to a non-cylinder size. > We have manually built a CF with the 1st partition exactly 25 cylinders > and that worked as well. It should not matter since the cylinder > concept in a CF card is what it is worth. :-) It does matter if the boot loader opts to use CHS geometry (when making BIOS calls) for loading sectors and the BIOS translates the CHS to LBA incorrectly (since the CF cards only know LBA at their electrical interface) to give to the card, when the cylinder number is greater than zero. Even if it gets this calculation out by a tiny amount it is enough to cause boot failure. This implies the number of heads issue (about it not being reported on bootup like it is for HDD or even smaller CF cards). This is my guess at the problem. From the lack of number of heads shown during bootup. You are the first to have reported to the list the same kind. I should try a downgrade to comBIOS 1.33 myself (as you report it works for you). Also upgrade to current debian and newer grub (as mine will be a few years old now). Thanks, Darryl _______________________________________________ Soekris-tech mailing list [email protected] http://lists.soekris.com/mailman/listinfo/soekris-tech
