Date: Mon, 3 Apr 2000 07:58:51 -0700 (PDT) From: Matthew Jacob <mjacob@feral.com> To: Frank Wegmann <wegmann@linguistics.ruhr-uni-bochum.de> Cc: freebsd-scsi@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Can't use 4GB 1024b/sec SCSI disk Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.4.10.10004030758400.55770-100000@beppo.feral.com> In-Reply-To: <38E89296.78012581@linguistics.ruhr-uni-bochum.de>
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This isn't a SCSI problem. This is a disklabel problem. On Mon, 3 Apr 2000, Frank Wegmann wrote: > Maybe someone on this list can be of help in this tricky issue. > > PROBLEM SUMMARY: > A Seagate ST34371N (4.3GB) at AHA 1542C on a 486 LocalBus host (64MB), > formatted with 1024 bytes per sector can be recognized but not used > under FreeBSD at all--on a (true) NeXTstation it can be used without > problem. Formatted with 512 bytes per sector yields half capacity on > both systems. > > DETAILS: > Originally I formatted it low-level with 1024 bytes per sector (for > getting out some more MB) and used it in a NeXT machine as boot disk > for years. Although it should--in theory--be possible to use it > directly under FreeBSD, this doesn't work at all. Probing the devices > (when invoking sysinstall) leads to: > > /kernel: dscheck(rda2): b_bcount 512 is not on a sector boundary (ssize > 1024) > > At startup, the disk's transliterated geometry plus capacity had been > identified correctly: > > da2 at aha0 bus 0 target 4 lun 0 > da2: <SEAGATE ST34371N 0338> Fixed Direct Access SCSI-2 device > da2: 3.333MB/s transfers (3.333MHz, offset 8) > da2: 4341MB (4445468 1024 byte sectors: 64H 32S/T 2170C) > > This is the physical layout of the drive (by querying it with the help of > the commands READ CAPACITY and MODE SENSE page 3 (format device page) and > page 4 (rigid disk layout page) -- done with a tool on the NeXT): > > 1024 bytes per sector > 86 sectors per track > 10 tracks per cylinder > 5168 cylinder per volume (including spare cylinders) > 62 spare sectors per cylinder > 0 alternate tracks per volume > 4445467 usable sectors for the disk > > If formatting via sysinstall doesn't work, why not doing the old-fashioned > way (according to 8.2.2 of the Handbook)? This is what I've got: > > # dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/rda2 bs=1k count=1 > 1+0 records in > 1+0 records out > 1024 bytes transferred in 0.004346 secs (235618 bytes/sec) > # disklabel -Brw da2 auto > disklabel: /boot/boot2 too large <-- doh, try the other way: > # disklabel /dev/rda2 | disklabel -BrR da2 /dev/stdin > > Put it in a nutshell, I currently cannot use the disk at all, if it is > formatted with 1024 bytes. I tried to reformat it low-level under FreeBSD > with camcontrol, but that doesn't help either. > > However, with 512 bytes per sector I can use *half* of the disk. Strangely > enough I then have the same number of physical sectors (4445468), but with > 512 bytes per sector I only have 2.1 GB available. At least, it would be > useable under FreeBSD, but surely this is not what I want. Finally, using > the disk with 512 bytes at my NeXT also gives me 2.1 GB (probably, because > that number of sectors is returned on querying the device at the sense mode > level). > > With the SCSI knowledge that I have, I'm at my wits end. It seems to me that > FreeBSD refuses to work with the 1024 byte/sec disk because of its uncommon > physical geometry data (nearly all disks in the PC world have 512 bytes/sec). > Might be some tweaks at the driver level could help here. As far as that > halved capacity with 512 bytes/sec is concerned, this could be the drives > fault and perhaps it could be solved by somehow (?) writing the correct > number of sectors into the mode pages. > > Could anybody help in this case? > > TIA, > Frank > > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > with "unsubscribe freebsd-scsi" in the body of the message > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-scsi" in the body of the message
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