Skip site navigation (1)Skip section navigation (2)
Date:      Sat, 30 Mar 1996 14:11:56 +1100
From:      Bruce Evans <bde@zeta.org.au>
To:        bde@zeta.org.au, terry@lambert.org
Cc:        freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.org
Subject:   Re: fdisk and partition info
Message-ID:  <199603300311.OAA22757@godzilla.zeta.org.au>

next in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
>You have lucked out, then.  The factory defaults from AT&T/NCR are
>"sparing enabled".  Mostly because the original SVR4 code's soft
>bad sectoring sucked.  8-(.

Mine seems to have come from the WD factory :-).  The Installation
Guide says "[WD1007V-SE1/SE2 ... Copyright 1989 WDC ... Part No.
79-000367-000 WD0027S 8/89]".

>> I don't see any such assumption.  I have 3 SCSI controllers: U34F,
>> BT445C and SC200.   I've only used the U34F with 64/32 geometry.
>> The BT445C and the SC200 work with assorted drives in assorted
>> translation modes giving 64/32, 128/32 and 255/63 geometries.

>What happens if you turn of translation on the things?  (yes, I
>know this is not a possibility for Adaptec).

I haven't tried it.  It should fail iff the weaker translation mode
can't handle the geometry that the partition table was configured
for.  Perhaps if the geometry isn't 64/32.

>...

>> >Right... that's why you would use directories for population.
>> 
>> Try explaining it to a user who thinks he has one disk.

>How does the same user deal with having a "C:" and "D:" drive on his
>DOS box with one disk without going into mental-meltdown?

They've had 14 years to get used to it :-).  The drive letters are
visible at all levels because there's no mount step to produce a
seamless directory tree, so users have to get used to it (SUBST
and JOIN are little used and don't work well).

>He handles it because there's a front-end program and he doesn't
>have to deal with devices at the INT 13 device ID level.

This program is called
`export EDITOR=your_favourite_editor; disklabel -e' in BSD.  It
provides the same amount of support for DOS drives as DOS fdisk
does for BSD partitions (none).

>UNIX systems export the moral equivalent of INT 13 device ID's
>(0x00 -- floppy A:, 0x01 -- floppy B:, 0x80 -- disk C:, 0x81 --
>disk D:, etc.).  The confuse comes because the user doesn't have
>a nice, clean, unified view of logical devices in UNIX (like he
>does in DOS).

I would have thought that the user doesn't have a nice, clean, unified
view of logic devicies in DOS (like he does in UNIX) :-).

Bruce



Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?199603300311.OAA22757>