From owner-freebsd-questions Fri May 24 17:44:08 1996 Return-Path: owner-questions Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) id RAA23610 for questions-outgoing; Fri, 24 May 1996 17:44:08 -0700 (PDT) Received: from DGS.dgsys.com (root@dgs.dgsys.com [204.97.64.1]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) with SMTP id RAA23591 for ; Fri, 24 May 1996 17:44:04 -0700 (PDT) Received: from justine.elastica.com by DGS.dgsys.com (5.0/SMI-SVR4) id AA24129; Fri, 24 May 1996 20:41:04 -0400 Received: (from robert@localhost) by justine.elastica.com (8.7.5/8.7.3) id QAA03812; Sat, 25 May 1996 16:43:46 -0400 (EDT) Newsgroups: comp.unix.solaris,comp.os.linux.hardware,comp.os.ms-windows.nt.admin.misc, Subject: Installing Solaris 2.5 x86 on the second drive (System Commander issues solved) Cc: questions@freebsd.org From: Robert Nicholson Lines: 50 X-Newsreader: September Gnus v0.79/Emacs 19.30 Date: 25 May 1996 16:43:46 -0400 Message-Id: Posted-To: comp.unix.solaris,comp.os.linux.hardware,comp.os.ms-windows.nt.admin.misc, Sender: owner-questions@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk The following message is a courtesy copy of an article that has been posted as well. OK Some of you might have been following my problems with installing Solaris x86 on a second drive. I'm posting this to the other unix groups in the advent that somebody else can benefit from this information and if it leads to educational discussion then that's fine. OK my problem was that basically after installing Solaris 2.5 x86 on the second drive in the >512MB<1024MB area on my 4MB disk System Commander wouldn't boot from the partition despite the fact that System Commander is perfectly capable of booting from a drive other than drive 0) Unlike Solaris's boot loader. Well, it turns out that there are two ways to indicate in the OS's boot record where the boot portion of the OS begins. One way is via the Starting HSC combination and some local LBA like number. Solaris apparently uses the later where as DOS uses the former. After installing Solaris System Commander isn't aware of the boot record because it uses the HSC combination instead to locate the partition and consequently doesn't find it. So even when you tell System Commander manually about the existance of the partition it won't find the boot record consequently won't be able to boot. So, the solution I've find (by shear fluke) I might add is to use NT's Disk Administrator to write a signature to the disk. What this does is fix the _mismatch_ b/w the the two pieces of information OS's use to locate the partition. Fortuntely, NT trust the FIRST LBA figure before the HSC combination and adjust the HSC combination to match the FIRST LBA figure. I've tested this and once I write the signature I'm able to use the disk as I should be. Now this will appear a tad vague to the people who understand this stuff but rest assured it's somewhat correct. I've worked with V-Communications on this and they plan to address the problem but I thought the workaround was interesting. I'd be interested in hearing how other OS's handle this problem and _why_ Solaris puts incorrect HSC combinations after the install in the boot record. Also my terminology is probably a bit off here as I don't fully understand the issues involved and I welcome any corrections. -- "Under the circumstances I will sit down." (PGP key: send email with Subject: request pgp key)