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Date:      Tue, 06 Aug 1996 09:10:15 -0400
From:      Gary Chrysler <tcg@ime.net>
To:        Chuck Robey <chuckr@glue.umd.edu>
Cc:        Annelise Anderson <andrsn@andrsn.stanford.edu>, Steve Marmer <ids@interlog.com>, questions@FreeBSD.org
Subject:   Re: Panic mounting root
Message-ID:  <32074437.67E@ime.net>
References:  <Pine.OSF.3.95.960805131945.11075C-100000@ginger.eng.umd.edu>

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Chuck Robey wrote:
> 
> On Mon, 5 Aug 1996, Annelise Anderson wrote:
> 
> > On Mon, 5 Aug 1996, Gary Chrysler wrote:
> >
> > > Steve Marmer wrote:
> > > >
> > > > I get a panic on boot, after all the hardware stuff, about the inability
> > > > to mount root.
> > > >
> > > > Hardware: 4G Quantum Atlas FastWide Scsi-2
> > > >           AHA1542CF FAST SCSI-2
> > > >           (using a 6?-50 pin adapter)
> > > >
> > > > I have enabled the AHA1542 option "Translate Drives >1G".  Since newfs
> > > > worked I assume the problems with this have been fixed.  My disk starts
> > > > with a 950Meg DOS partition (slice).  The next "slice" is 1G FreeBSD.
> > > > I've been pretty careful ensuring the root part'n is fully below the
> > > > magic 1G boundary.  Have I not been careful enough?  Could something else
> > > > be the problem?
> > > >
> > > > Thanks for any and all help...
> > >
> > > Not to start a war! I know some dissagree!
> > >
> > > But bootable partitions *must* be under cylinder 1024. (504M)
> > > This is a limitation of the PC System BIOS boot code!
> >
> > I think this refers only to IDE/EIDE drives.  I have a 2.1G Conner
> > fast scsi 2 installed as a second hard drive on an Adaptec 1542CF,
> > and FreeBSD is running in the *last* 660 mb. on that drive (booting
> > from the OS/2 boot manager).
> 
> Actually, it applies to both, but scsi drives all support more flexible
> remapping of sectors to make them all fit under 1024 cylinders, so they
> don't feel the pinch.  BTW, the whole partition DOES NOT have to be under
> 1024 cylinders, just the boot sector of that partition.
> 

Chuck, While we're on the subject I'd like to clear this up in
my mind.

A FreeBSD slice is:	Sections of a partition??
So properly stated:	Only the root slice needs to be under 1024.
			(If needed :)
Is that about how it works.. I never fully understood the slice.
The need to fully understand hasn't came upon me yet.. :)

I'm not a SCSI guru, But it is my understanding that SCSI's access
in a LBA method.
ie:	c:0 h:0 s:0 = LBA 0
	c:0 h:0 s:1 = LBA 1
	etc ...
	etc ...

It is also my understanding that most OS's (Advanced OS's) also use
a LBA method.
So if your drive uses CHS, The bios has to translate OS calls
to/from CHS to write/read.

But like I said, I'm no guru on the internals of disk IO.
I welcome the knowledge though.

-Enjoy
Gary
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