*BSD News Article 54643


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From: rlyon@ozemail.com.au (Richard Lyon)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: HARDWARE: geometry FAQ?
Date: Wed, 08 Nov 1995 12:37:53 GMT
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References: <roy-0111952055230001@adept.cts.com> <47jae2$jqs@uriah.heep.sax.de>
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j@uriah.heep.sax.de (J Wunsch) wrote:

>Roy Lovejoy <roy@adeptsolutions.com> wrote:

>>Q2: If not, does anyone know the geometry for a CONNER 5xx meg SCSI drive?
>>(model CFA540S)

>Most likely your kernel.  Boot with -v.

>(You don't really want to know the actual geometry, only what your
>BIOS thinks the geometry were.  You would have a hard time to enter
>all the different geometry zones of your hard disk. :)
>-- 
>cheers, J"org

>joerg_wunsch@uriah.heep.sax.de -- http://www.sax.de/~joerg/ -- NIC: JW11-RIPE
>Never trust an operating system you don't have sources for. ;-)

Hi,

I installed V2.0.5 on a Conner CP3200 SCSI Drive. The supplier had
configured bios correctly and demonstrated that DOS could be installed
successfully on the drive. Before installation I did a low level
format and verify via the adaptec 1542 bios.

During the freebsd installation a default geometry was displayed which
I assumed was correct. The installation process crashed eventually.
This was very time consuming as I was installing from floppies.

I then used a DOS boot floppy to create a small DOS partition on the
hard disk. When the freebsd installation was run again a different
default geometry was displayed. I then deleted the DOS partition and
proceeded with the installation. This is the geometry I currently use.

The initial default geometry listed by freebsd would have resulted in
a disk size of 203 MB. The geometry I currently use only has 200 MB
available. The partition manger informs me I have about 3 MB spare on
the disk.

Other people running V1.X.X have apparently been able to use the full
203 MB.

I would assume FreeBSD polls the PC-BIOS requesting disk details. Then
exactly what happens will be dependent upon the type of SCSI adapter
you have installed.

Regards ...