From owner-freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG Mon May 4 21:44:19 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 53F5A1065670 for ; Mon, 4 May 2009 21:44:19 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd@wcubed.net) Received: from mail.datausa.com (mail.datausa.com [216.150.220.220]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with SMTP id E959F8FC12 for ; Mon, 4 May 2009 21:44:18 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from freebsd@wcubed.net) Received: (qmail 81184 invoked by uid 89); 4 May 2009 15:16:59 -0600 Received: from c-76-25-231-251.hsd1.co.comcast.net (HELO ?10.0.1.137?) (76.25.231.251) by mail.datausa.com with SMTP; 4 May 2009 15:16:59 -0600 Message-ID: <49FF5B63.40302@wcubed.net> Date: Mon, 04 May 2009 15:17:23 -0600 From: Brad Waite User-Agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.19) Gecko/20081209 Lightning/0.9 Thunderbird/2.0.0.19 Mnenhy/0.7.6.666 MIME-Version: 1.0 To: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org Content-Type: text/plain; charset=UTF-8 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Subject: Broken drive geometry / partitions on 7.2 install X-BeenThere: freebsd-questions@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: User questions List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Mon, 04 May 2009 21:44:19 -0000 Hi all, I was trying to install 7.2 RELEASE on top of a previous 6.4 RELEASE I'd set up (but not deployed). The server has a 40MB Intel service partition and the rest of the drive for FreeBSD. Here's what greeted me when doing the fdisk from the install CD: Disk name: da0 FDISK Partition Editor DISK Geometry: 2209 cyls/255 heads/63 sectors = 35487585 sectors (17327MB) Offset Size(ST) End Name PType Desc Subtype Flags 0 63 62 - 12 unused 0 63 64197 64259 da0as1 4 Compaq Diagnostic 18 64260 3013499 3077758 - 12 unused 0 3077758 64197 3141955 da0cs1 4 Compaq Diagnostic 18 3141956 32345629 354875584 - 12 unused 0 It says there's 2 service partition slices (type 18) and no FreeBSD slice. Remember, I had successfully installed 6.4 on this drive and was able to boot into both the service partition and FreeBSD. I ended up deleting all the partitions and recreating them by hand. I first created the service partition slice with a size of 80262 (which is what /sbin/fdisk under 6.4 reported), and the FBSD slice with a size of 35407260 (the remaining space). After doing that, I was able to install 7.2 just fine and boot into it. I was also able to boot into the Intel service partition, since I hadn't blown over any of the original slice. However, this is what I get from /usr/sbin/sysinstall's fdisk now: Disk name: da0 FDISK Partition Editor DISK Geometry: 2209 cyls/255 heads/63 sectors = 35487585 sectors (17327MB) Offset Size(ST) End Name PType Desc Subtype Flags 0 63 62 - 12 unused 0 63 64197 64259 da0s1 4 Compaq Diagnostic 18 64260 35423325 35487584 da0s2 8 freebsd 165 And /sbin/fdisk reports the same: ******* Working on device /dev/da0 ******* parameters extracted from in-core disklabel are: cylinders=2209 heads=255 sectors/track=63 (16065 blks/cyl) Figures below won't work with BIOS for partitions not in cyl 1 parameters to be used for BIOS calculations are: cylinders=2209 heads=255 sectors/track=63 (16065 blks/cyl) Media sector size is 512 Warning: BIOS sector numbering starts with sector 1 Information from DOS bootblock is: The data for partition 1 is: sysid 18 (0x12),(Compaq diagnostics) start 63, size 64197 (31 Meg), flag 0 beg: cyl 0/ head 1/ sector 1; end: cyl 3/ head 254/ sector 63 The data for partition 2 is: sysid 165 (0xa5),(FreeBSD/NetBSD/386BSD) start 64260, size 35423325 (17296 Meg), flag 80 (active) beg: cyl 4/ head 0/ sector 1; end: cyl 1023/ head 254/ sector 63 Notice that I have only 2 slices, but the service partition slice is 64194 blocks instead of the 80262. On top of this, when I boot from the 7.2 install CD again, fdisk shows the same screwed-up setup with 2 Compaq Diag slices with no FBSD slice. What on earth is happening? Is my drive geometry hosed? Is this some sort of weird LBA issue? I'm nervous about configuring and deploying this machine acting as it is. I also have an identical machine that's reporting the same thing. Thanks.