Date: Thu, 7 Oct 1999 15:55:51 +1000 (EST) From: Bruce Evans <bde@zeta.org.au> To: Andrew Sherrod <ixkatl@yahoo.com> Cc: freebsd-bugs@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: i386/10862: wd.c STILL cannot recognize correct disk geometry. (WITH PATCH) Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.4.10.9910071530050.397-100000@alphplex.bde.org> In-Reply-To: <199910070340.UAA91554@freefall.freebsd.org>
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> Versions 3.2 and 3.3 both still have the same problem. > Any disk which reports 4092 instead of 16383 to > indicate use of LBA mode will not be recognized as the > proper size by wd.c. > > The fix I originally posted will work for all versions > I have examined (2.2.6 through 3.3) and should also > work for 4.0. I now understand this problem. The February 1997 version of the ATA draft added a "Set Max Address" "feature" which can be used to set (independently) the maximum CHS address and the maximum LBA address that is reported by the drive in the normal way. There is a bit to control the stickiness of the setting across hard resets. This may be useful for reserving an area of the disk for saving operating system context, or for breaking pre-1997 drivers ;). Some BIOSes apparently use this feature. > Just letting you know there is still a functional > patch for a problem which (at least in my opinion) is > a very real and annoying difficulty, especially for > new users during initial installation. Your fix works by using LBA mode so that the LBA limit is used instead of the CHS limit. This depends on the LBA limit not being gratuitously restrictive. The BIOSes that set the maximum address apparently set it just to break CHS mode, not to reserve space. If they wanted to reserve space then they would set the limits to the same value. Bruce To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-bugs" in the body of the message
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