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Date:      Fri, 10 Mar 2000 01:56:35 -0500
From:      "Jay Oliver" <kythorn@scorched.com>
To:        <freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG>, <freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG>
Subject:   Having problems with a 40 gig IDE drive.
Message-ID:  <004301bf8a5d$c7068c70$2260e4d0@CHAOS>

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Having problems getting FreeBSD to play nice with a 40 gig IDE drive I
picked up a while back.  Originally had problems with it under linux 2.2.13,
but those were resolved as of 2.2.14.
Currently using 3.4-STABLE

dmesg output as follows:

wdc0: unit 0 (wd0): <WDC AC22500L>
wd0: 2441MB (4999680 sectors), 4960 cyls, 16 heads, 63 S/T, 512 B/S

wdc0: unit 1 (wd1): <Maxtor 94098U8>
wd1: 39082MB (80041248 sectors), 79406 cyls, 16 heads, 63 S/T, 512 B/S

Trying to use the fdisk portion of /stand/sysinstall post install
configuration informs me that the 'A geometry of 79406/16/63 for wd1 is
incorrect, using a more likely geometry.  It switches to 4982/255/63.  No
matter what I try, I cannot get this to work properly.  I have heard there
were problems with the driver in 3.x for larger drives in CHS mode, however
this drive is in LBA mode, or so the BIOS informs me anyway.

As far as I can tell, newfs claims to have finished properly, when using the
next option for setting up disk labels?  I forget the terminology, please
forgive me.. anyway, it runs newfs, and that APPEARS to finish properly,
however it gives an error.  Though I don't know how important this error, as
the handbook clearly states 'Ignore all error messages relating to being
unable to mount this new slice, and exit sysinstall, then edit /etc/fstab
and mount it'  Or something to that effect.  It's on
http://www.freebsd.org/handbook/disks.html if anyone's that interested.

I have tried creating the slice in both normal, and dangerously dedicated
mode.. the only perceivable difference thus far that I've noticed is that
going to dangerously dedicated resets any custom geometry I have inputted
with the (G) command, someone might want to look into that.

I guess my question really boils down to, is there any way out of this
problem?  I'm fairly sure that it's not a BIOS issue, as I have stated, the
drive worked flawlessly under linux 2.2.14, and windows without any special
tweaking needed although using linux is not an option at the current time.
I have the latest BIOS update for my board, I have checked before sending
this message, was released 10/19/1999.  I have heard rumors that the 4.0
RC's do not exhibit this behavior I am experiencing.  If this is true will
the changes be back-ported to the 3.X branch?  There is still a 3.5 release
on target for the relatitely near future, no?  Is there anything I can do to
make this work?  Please help

- Jay Oliver

PS, I am currently not subscribed to the -hardware list, I have tried
subscribing, but gotten no confirmation AUTH messages from majordomo yet.
As such, when/if you are replying from that list, please make sure to at
least CC me for I cannot ensure I will be subscribed to it by the time you
reply.  Hopefully I will, but nothins certain.  Had no problem subscribing
to -questions, so no need to directly send any replies to me in that case.







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