From owner-freebsd-questions Tue Mar 17 12:38:05 1998 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id MAA03192 for freebsd-questions-outgoing; Tue, 17 Mar 1998 12:38:05 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from gdi.uoregon.edu (gdi.uoregon.edu [128.223.170.30]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id MAA03090 for ; Tue, 17 Mar 1998 12:37:56 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from dwhite@gdi.uoregon.edu) Received: from localhost (dwhite@localhost) by gdi.uoregon.edu (8.8.7/8.8.8) with SMTP id MAA01153; Tue, 17 Mar 1998 12:37:43 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from dwhite@gdi.uoregon.edu) Date: Tue, 17 Mar 1998 12:37:42 -0800 (PST) From: Doug White Reply-To: Doug White To: "Roger P. Johnson" cc: questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: OK. Check this out: Re: HELP! on drive Geometry and I just can't get it! Just Can't! In-Reply-To: <199803162121.PAA11643@fep.hirshfields.com> Message-ID: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Sender: owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG On Mon, 16 Mar 1998, Roger P. Johnson wrote: > Adaptec 2940AU BIOS v1.30 > ( I reset the host controller to factory defaults via > Extended BIOS Translation for DOS drives > 1GByte is ENABLED, Try turning this off and reinstalling from scratch; fdisk complaining about the geometry makes me a bit jumpy. > WARNING: A geometry of 4019/5/103 for sd0 is incorrect, using a more likely geometry. > ... > Remember: you need to enter whatever your BIOS thinks the geometry is! > ... > For SCSI, its the translation mode your controller is using. Do NOT use > "physical geometry". Never seen that. > I get the good old "Read error" message. Nothing is wrong with the FreeBSD slice or the geometry, it's just that your BIOS doesn't seem to like our boot sector. If you were trying to use booteasy I'd be more careful, but since you're not it doesn't matter. > 2. The drive geometry being changed from 4019/5/103 to 128/255/63 in > the partition editor is > not what the FAQ suggests. > Since "Extended BIOS Translation for DOS drives > 1GByte is > ENABLED", according to the FAQ, > the drive geometry to use is: > 1010 (MB)/ 7.844238 = 128.76 -> 128 cyl > 63 heads > 255 sectors > or in common notation: 128/63/255; not 128/255/63 as reported > > Does this really matter ? I think so, but I usually don't worry about these types of things except when booteasy is involved, since it has a lame-brained view of the geometry world. Doug White | University of Oregon Internet: dwhite@resnet.uoregon.edu | Residence Networking Assistant http://gladstone.uoregon.edu/~dwhite | Computer Science Major To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message