From owner-freebsd-current Sat Nov 23 21:01:44 1996 Return-Path: owner-current Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) id VAA28209 for current-outgoing; Sat, 23 Nov 1996 21:01:44 -0800 (PST) Received: from GndRsh.aac.dev.com (GndRsh.aac.dev.com [198.145.92.241]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.5/8.7.3) with ESMTP id VAA28189; Sat, 23 Nov 1996 21:01:32 -0800 (PST) Received: (from rgrimes@localhost) by GndRsh.aac.dev.com (8.7.5/8.7.3) id VAA01920; Sat, 23 Nov 1996 21:00:50 -0800 (PST) From: "Rodney W. Grimes" Message-Id: <199611240500.VAA01920@GndRsh.aac.dev.com> Subject: Re: 2.2-ALPHA install failure In-Reply-To: <199611240356.OAA23972@genesis.atrad.adelaide.edu.au> from Michael Smith at "Nov 24, 96 02:26:33 pm" To: msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au (Michael Smith) Date: Sat, 23 Nov 1996 21:00:50 -0800 (PST) Cc: fenner@parc.xerox.com, msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au, freebsd-current@freebsd.org, jkh@freebsd.org, phk@freebsd.org X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4ME+ PL25 (25)] MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: owner-current@freebsd.org X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk > Bill Fenner stands accused of saying: > > In message <199611231117.VAA22545@genesis.atrad.adelaide.edu.au> you write: > > >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. > > > > Oh, how scary. (Yes, I'm using an NCR controller). If this is really true, > > then I would think that the install should mention it when it's warning you > > that you really don't want to use dangerously dedicated. > > It's not until very recently that this has been formally tested. Rod > G. is of the opinion that the problem is at least partly to do with > the synthetic geometry nominated by the installer, which is quite possible. Humm... let me see... if I get this right (I don't use sysinstall, but I have seen this X/1/1 translation thing it does) sysinstall defaults to a X/1/1 translation, and even goes so far as to write that into the MBR on a ``dangerously dedicated'' install. Well, I see the major snafu, 1024/1/1 would be the maximal value that could be stored in the MBR, giving you a 512K BIOS addressable disk space, now, gee, why oh why would that be a problem??? :-) :-) Anyone ever try to locate a FreeBSD kernel in the first .5MB of a disk? -- Rod Grimes rgrimes@gndrsh.aac.dev.com Accurate Automation, Inc. Reliable computers for FreeBSD