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From: aaronm@csi.compuserve.com (Aaron Myers)
Newsgroups: comp.os.386bsd.questions
Subject: Need help with BSDi disksetup util and disk partitions.
Date: 28 Nov 1994 01:04:18 -0500
Organization: CompuServe Incorporated
Lines: 157
Distribution: world
Message-ID: <3bbrt2$s9q@mhaaq.inhouse.compuserve.com>
NNTP-Posting-Host: mhaaq.inhouse.compuserve.com
I am trying to install BSDi's BSD/386 1.1 from the February
1994 CDROM and am having difficulty with the disksetup utility.
I have installed this distribution before without any problems,
but that system had a disk capacity which allowed me to use the
disksetup utility in the interactive mode. The system I am
trying to install on has the following hardware.
Pentium 90
16meg internal memory
mitsumi FX001 CD-ROM
US Robotics 14.4 FAX modem
Hercules Dynamite video card
1 gig IDE drive. Disk information Re: CMOS is
Interface Type: DPEA-31080
Bytes/Sector: 512
Cylinders: 2100
Heads: 16
Sectors/Track : 63
(total sectors of 2116800)
I had wanted to have the drive partitioned with 516meg of MSDOS
and 516meg of BSD (which is what my current DOS partition is
setup for). However disksetup is complaining about the disk
geometry - informing me that a fdisk partition setup for
co-residency can not make use of more than 1024 cylinders.
I ran the program with the command
#disksetup -i wd0
. . and told the program that I was setting up BSD for co-
residence and that a disklabel already exists. When I had the
program prompt the IDE controller for disk geometry I get the
following text.
>The specified geometry has more that 1024 cylinders, which
>is more than may be partitioned using the fdisk table
>required for co-residency. This geometry has been modified
>to fit within the 1024 cylinder limit imposed on the table.
>using this modified geometry reduces the number of cylinders
>from 2100 to 1024 (thus reducing the usable disk space by
>1084608 sectors.)
>If you wish to change the geometry (to specify an alternate
>mapped geometry), specify 'no' when prompted whether the
>current information is correct.
>You can also use 'disksetup -e' to allocate the unusable
>space for BSD; this requires manual calculations
>and bypasses most consistency checks.
>
>press return to continue.
QUESTION #1: How do I setup this system? Does this 1024
limitation really exist for fdisk or is this a limitation of how
BSD boots in a multi-operating system? If this is a limitation,
the documentation on disksetup seems to indicate that I can
reduce my MSDOS partition to use less than the 1024 cylinders;
tell the BSD fdisk partition to use from the end of the DOS
partition to the end of the 1024 cylinders as required by the
co-residency usage shown above; and set up the BSD partitions to
make use of the area beyond the 1024 cylinder barrier by hand
calculating the desired BSD disk segments all via disksetup -e.
Is this the correct way to proceed or can I actually use a
516meg DOS/516meg BSD setup and hand feed this to disksetup via
the -e option?
Last question with fdisk - in either of the above scenarios I am
uncertain what needs to be filled out for the fdisk table.
Running disksetup -e with my current partition setup results in
the following editable file in vi:
>#/dev/rwdoc:
>type:ST506
>disk:
>label:
>flags:
>bytes/sector: 512
>sectors/track: 63
>track/cylinders: 16
>sectors/cylinders: 1008
>cylinders: 1024
>replacement sectors/track: 0
>alternate sectors/cylinders:0
>alternate cylinders: 0
>rpm: 3600
>interleave:1
>trackskew:0
>cylinder skew: 0
>headswitch:0 #milliseconds
>track-to-track seek: 0 #milliseconds
>drive data:0
>
>8 partitions:
> # size offset fstype [fsize bsize cpg]
>c: 1032192 0 unused 0 0 #(Cyl. 1024 )
>
>
>FDISK Table:
># size offset scyl shd ssc ecyl ehd esc type
>*1 1956321 63 0 1 1 261 63 63 0x06#(DOS)
> 2
> 3
> 4
I understand the partition number, size, offset, but what are
scyl, shd, ssc, ecyl, ehd, and esc fields? The man pages for
disksetup seem to indicate that BSD only really utilizes the
offset field. Can I just leave these other fields zeros? (The
MSDOS partition values for these fields are coming up
automatically).
QUESTION #2: How do I manually fill out the BSD partition table
in the above edit file? With the 516meg MSDOS/516meg BSD setup
I was planning on, I was going to set thing up like:
c: entire disk as required by BSD
d: MSDOS partition
a: 10meg root partition (as recommended)
b: 32meg swap space
h: 474meg /usr partition (what ever is left on the disk)
As with the fdisk table, I understand the partition name, size,
offset,and fstype but what are fsize bsize and cpg fields? I
also need to know what to set the fstype for each of the above
partitions.
QUESTION #3: This may be related to some of the above issues
but when I first run disksetup, I get the following error before
the program starts:
>wd0c: hard error reading fsbn1 (wd0 bn1; cn0 tn 0 sn 1) status
>56 <rdy, seekdone,drq,err> error 10 <no_id>
>wd0: I/O error
Is this error a problem or will I be able to continue on ok?
I apologize about the length of this post but I wanted to give
as much information as possible to any knowledgeable parties.
This would appear to be just a bit more complicated to do by
hand than automatically - and I am missing just a little
understanding about some of the extra fields. Any help people
can provide will be most appreciated.
Thanks in advance
Aaron Myers
-Please respond by post or mail.
- I may also be reached via my CompuServe mail address of
- aaronm@csi.compuserve.com