Date: Mon, 30 Oct 2000 17:23:44 -0700 (MST) From: Fred Clift <fclift@verio.net> To: Doug White <dwhite@resnet.uoregon.edu> Cc: Paul Saab <paul@mu.org>, Mike Smith <msmith@mass.osd.bsdi.com>, freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG, hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Really odd "BTX halted" problem booting FreeBSD on VALinux hardware Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.4.21.0010301715070.28195-100000@vespa.orem.iserver.com> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.4.21.0010291800190.54838-100000@resnet.uoregon.edu>
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I've messed with these a lot and I'm pretty sure that the bios is trying to be 'compatible' with the geometry information it finds on the disk, Theoretically, if you set up a disk with one brand X disk controller, you'll get a different fake CHS mapping than you would with a brand Y controller. So, say you set up a machine and fdisk/label all your disks, then your controller dies, you go to the store and find that no identical one is available, you buy another one because you're uh, under pressure to get the machine working. With older controllers, things may not work right if the geometry was different than expected on the disk. So, theoretically a controller could read the geometry it finds there and then use whatever it finds as the right mapping. I think where the motherboard you mention gets hosed is when it tries to read the geometry and finds the bogus boot1 stuff there. Shrug. For me, I didn't even need 2 disks to make it fail -- single disk, and you cant even boot a floppy (or the disk) when it finds a partition table. I'll definitely switch to non-dangerous installs if/when the patch that was posted gets put in. In fact, I'll probably start using it anyway :) Fred > The Adaptec BIOS is doing something really fugly when it doesn't find > proper partition tables on the disks. > > It does it if ANY of the disks are done 'dangerously dedicated.' > > The easy solution: always put proper partitions on your disks. > The hard solution: figure out what nastiness Adaptec is doing and slap > their hand. -- Fred Clift - fclift@verio.net -- Remember: If brute force doesn't work, you're just not using enough. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message
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