Date: Sun, 24 Nov 1996 17:42:57 -0800 From: Darryl Okahata <darrylo@hpnmhjw.sr.hp.com> To: "Rodney W. Grimes" <rgrimes@GndRsh.aac.dev.com> Cc: bde@zeta.org.au (Bruce Evans), current@freefall.freebsd.org, jkh@time.cdrom.com Subject: Re: 2.2-ALPHA install failure Message-ID: <199611250142.AA145216177@hpnmhjw.sr.hp.com> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Sun, 24 Nov 1996 16:55:11 PST." <199611250055.QAA00883@GndRsh.aac.dev.com>
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> > >> The data for partition 3 is:
> > >> sysid 165,(FreeBSD/NetBSD/386BSD)
> > >> start 0, size 50000 (24 Meg), flag 80
> > >> beg: cyl 0/ sector 1/ head 0;
> > >> end: cyl 1023/ sector 63/ head 255
> > > ^^ bogus (ie this means 62 sectors!!)
Are you sure? All of the documentation and source code (e.g.,
diskslice_machdep.c) that I've seen leads me to believe that the
"ending" sector is the address of the last sector in the partition. If
so, then the above means "63" sectors, not 62 (BIOS sector numbering
starts at 1, not 0).
> > >I would like to also see that corrected/changed to:
> > > The data for partition 3 is:
> > > sysid 165,(FreeBSD/NetBSD/386BSD)
> > > start 0, size 2097152 (1024 Meg), flag 80
> > > beg: cyl 0/ sector 1/ head 0;
> > > end: cyl 1023/ sector 32/ head 63
> >
> > This would not work so well. The historical_bogus_partition_table works
> > perfectly with ncr and other geometry-detecting controllers _because_
> > it is perfectly invalid. Your table is just as invalid for disks smaller
> > than 1GB and for non-SCSI disk [drivers] that can't handle either 255/63
> > or 64/32 geometries.
>
> At least my table will save your ass if this is sd1 and <1G and you decide
> to install Win95 or WinNT on your box, which will gladly partition the
> 1G-50MB in your case, AND FORMAT IT FOR YOU!!!
Hey, "enhance your calm". ;-) Until now, no one's given a good
reason why it should be changed. I'd say that this is a pretty good
reason.
However, if it's changed, we'll then have two
"historical_bogus_partition_tables" (the old one and the new one).
> > >Or atleast make size == cyl * sec * head (ie 1024*64*255 == 16711680)
> > >my reasoning is that any third party fdisk program that sees the current
> > >bogus table likes to try and ``fix it'' and usually ends up doing quite
> > >the wrong thing : -(.
Well, if the partition table must be bogus for geometry-detecting
controllers, how about changing the size to 2^32-1? Do the
geometry-detecting controllers properly detect this? I'd try this
myself, but I don't have the time.
-- Darryl Okahata
Internet: darrylo@sr.hp.com
DISCLAIMER: this message is the author's personal opinion and does not
constitute the support, opinion, or policy of Hewlett-Packard, or of the
little green men that have been following him all day.
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