Date: Sun, 23 Feb 2003 21:45:51 -0800 From: Terry Lambert <tlambert2@mindspring.com> To: Hiten Pandya <hiten@unixdaemons.com> Cc: current@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: machdep.guessed_bootdev sysctl on i386 Message-ID: <3E59B18F.3D0D4CC3@mindspring.com> References: <20030224024210.GA50286@unixdaemons.com>
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Hiten Pandya wrote: > Hello gang. Nothing big, but important... > > Can someone tell me if the machdep.guessed_bootdev sysctl is helpful at > all? I think it's a waste, and it's pretty limited and only available > on the i386. > > It currently guesses 'wd' instead of 'ad' for the dev. nodes, .e.g: > > hiten:~/> sysctl machdep.gussed_bootdev > machdep.guessed_bootdev: /dev/wd0s1a > > SCSI drives are shown right (da) but ATA drives mess up, i.e. it is > still thinking we have the 'wd' system. It's either that we nuke this > sysctl or apply the attached patch to sysctl, which has been reviewed > and tested by people on IRC with positive results. I've seen this used with FORTH code in order to automatically identify the correct device, after a failure to load modules from the wrong "guess". The "guess" comes from the BIOS. THere are some Dell systems where the BIOS doesn't set up the BX register correctly; I don't know if there are any systems besides Dell where this is an issue. -- Terry To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message
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