Date: Sat, 23 May 1998 09:06:36 -0700 From: Mike Smith <mike@smith.net.au> To: Eivind Eklund <eivind@yes.no> Cc: hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Weird behaviour in BootEasy Message-ID: <199805231606.JAA00949@antipodes.cdrom.com> In-Reply-To: Your message of "Fri, 22 May 1998 22:35:52 %2B0200." <19980522223552.03137@follo.net>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
> I just switched my system to use a different bootdrive (a DPT RAID > array, actually) than I had before, and got the following behaviour: > > On a standard boot, BootEasy won't go to BSD, displaying 'F?' when I > select the BSD partiton. This typically means that the disk geometry is messed up, ie. the geometry used when constructing the disk layout is different to the geometry that the BIOS is using when BootEasy attempts to load the MBR. > However, if I select F5 for booting to > another drive (even though I don't have another bootable drive), then > reboot, and _then_ press F2 when booteasy appears, it boots and works > fine. Sounds like the DPT is playing games changing its reported geometry based on what's on the drive. The fact that F5 appears indicates that it's reporting more than one BIOS disk, which suggests that there's some ugly stuff going on. > Let me repeat the exact steps to get it to work: > 1. Boot until I reach booteasy > 2. Press F5 > 3. Reboot What happens when you press F5, before rebooting? > 4. Continue until I reach booteasy > 5. Press F2 > 6. Boot normally from the FreeBSD bootblocks. > > If I reboot after this, I again get the F? when it tries to > auto-select the BSD partition (or if I press F2 without having pressed > F5 first). The FreeBSD driver probably nukes some state in the DPT that tells it that it's changed its mind about the geometry. > The BIOS and FreeBSD mostly agrees on disk layout - the BIOS believes > there to be 1024 cylinders, not 1954 as below. Many BIOSsen won't accept > 1024. And many adapters refuse to report > 1024 for that reason. > Any clues? Or should I just re-install BootEasy and see if it goes > away? (It seems like such an interesting little problem... :-) Reinstalling BootEasy won't change anything - it contains no geometry state at all. The situation basically results from you having moved the disk from one controller with one BIOS translation to another. The fact that the DPT learns the disk geometry and lets you boot at all is an added bonus; normally you wouldn't be able to do that. -- \\ Sometimes you're ahead, \\ Mike Smith \\ sometimes you're behind. \\ mike@smith.net.au \\ The race is long, and in the \\ msmith@freebsd.org \\ end it's only with yourself. \\ msmith@cdrom.com 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?199805231606.JAA00949>