From owner-freebsd-current Sat Nov 23 11:49:28 1996 Return-Path: owner-current Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) id LAA10003 for current-outgoing; Sat, 23 Nov 1996 11:49:28 -0800 (PST) Received: from godzilla.zeta.org.au (godzilla.zeta.org.au [203.2.228.19]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) with ESMTP id LAA09988; Sat, 23 Nov 1996 11:49:22 -0800 (PST) Received: (from bde@localhost) by godzilla.zeta.org.au (8.8.3/8.6.9) id GAA03345; Sun, 24 Nov 1996 06:36:36 +1100 Date: Sun, 24 Nov 1996 06:36:36 +1100 From: Bruce Evans Message-Id: <199611231936.GAA03345@godzilla.zeta.org.au> To: msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au, stesin@gu.net Subject: Re: 2.2-ALPHA install failure Cc: fenner@parc.xerox.com, freebsd-current@FreeBSD.org, jkh@FreeBSD.org, phk@FreeBSD.org Sender: owner-current@FreeBSD.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk >> > You are using an NCR controller, or some other SCSI controller that >> > reads the partition table out of the MBR. The 'dangerously dedicated' >> > mode won't work with these controllers, as they become _very_ confused >> > by it. >> >> I've been using NCR's for 2 years and even now a box with one >> is near me installed a while ago. Each and every such a box >> with just any HDD brand was installed in a 'dangerously dedicated' >> fascion and it just worked. > >*shrug* Bruce recently posted the results of some tests he performed, >which matched with my empirical observations that the NCR BIOS reads >the contents of the MBR and reports its geometry to match. They pick a default geometry when they become confused. I think it follows the rules posted by Darryl Okahata. The number of heads and sectors/track is chosen to make the number of cylinders <= 1024 if possible. >I've lost cou8nt of the number of NCR-using systems I've installed; >I'm sure that I've used the DD option before and it's worked, but I've >certainly had more than a few cases where users have selected it and >been bitten. They get bitten when they can't remember the geometry and tell FreeBSD another geometry, or when they move the drive to a lesser controller than can't support the geometry. Bruce