Date: Sat, 17 Nov 2001 17:52:19 -0800 From: Peter Wemm <peter@wemm.org> To: Doug White <dwhite@resnet.uoregon.edu> Cc: Matthew Emmerton <matt@gsicomp.on.ca>, Sandeep Joshi <sandeepj@research.bell-labs.com>, hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Tracking down "BTX halted" Message-ID: <20011118015219.568D338CC@overcee.netplex.com.au> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.4.33.0111171240040.98991-100000@resnet.uoregon.edu>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
Doug White wrote:
> On Fri, 16 Nov 2001, Matthew Emmerton wrote:
>
> > > There is a bug in Adaptec BIOSen that they will not tolerate DD disks.
> >
> > Which controllers have this bug? I've got a whole bunch of 7880 and 79xx
> > controllers with disks running in DD mode and never have had this problem.
>
> Happens to me on L440GX+ boards.
It happens randomly all over the place. I think it also depends on the
default bios settings too.. ie: whether you've got Large Drive support on
or off, and what mode it is in.
FWIW, this puts a legal geometry back into boot1:
+++ boot1.s 2001/11/18 01:42:26
@@ -353,7 +353,7 @@
.fill 0x30,0x1,0x0
part4: .byte 0x80, 0x00, 0x01, 0x00
- .byte 0xa5, 0xff, 0xff, 0xff
+ .byte 0xa5, 0xfe, 0xff, 0xff # 1023 cyl, 255 heads, 63 sec
.byte 0x00, 0x00, 0x00, 0x00
.byte 0x50, 0xc3, 0x00, 0x00 # 50000 sectors long, bleh
But that stops the MBR kernel code from recognizing it as a bogus DD table
and it will try to interpret it, thinking that you only have a 25 meg
drive.
I wish we could take this crud out with a shotgun. If somebody
is going to boot off a disk, obey the rules with a real MBR and fdisk
table. If somebody doesn't want a fdisk table, then dont fudge around
with a fake one, and dont pretend that it is bootable.
Cheers,
-Peter
--
Peter Wemm - peter@FreeBSD.org; peter@yahoo-inc.com; peter@netplex.com.au
"All of this is for nothing if we don't go to the stars" - JMS/B5
To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org
with "unsubscribe freebsd-hackers" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?20011118015219.568D338CC>