From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Thu Oct 14 07:15:12 2004 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.FreeBSD.org (mx1.freebsd.org [216.136.204.125]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 6A2D416A4CE for ; Thu, 14 Oct 2004 07:15:12 +0000 (GMT) Received: from mproxy.gmail.com (rproxy.gmail.com [64.233.170.201]) by mx1.FreeBSD.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 1343E43D49 for ; Thu, 14 Oct 2004 07:15:12 +0000 (GMT) (envelope-from subhro.kar@gmail.com) Received: by mproxy.gmail.com with SMTP id 80so307506rnk for ; Thu, 14 Oct 2004 00:15:08 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.38.206.36 with SMTP id d36mr90126rng; Thu, 14 Oct 2004 00:15:08 -0700 (PDT) Received: by 10.38.206.40 with HTTP; Thu, 14 Oct 2004 00:15:08 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: Date: Thu, 14 Oct 2004 12:45:08 +0530 From: Subhro To: "freebsd@dreamchaser.org" In-Reply-To: <416E2142.8090909@dreamchaser.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit References: <416E2142.8090909@dreamchaser.org> cc: FreeBSD Questions Subject: Re: Disk geometry, 5.3b7 install X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.1 Precedence: list Reply-To: Subhro List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Thu, 14 Oct 2004 07:15:12 -0000 On Thu, 14 Oct 2004 00:48:34 -0600, freebsd@dreamchaser.org > 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