*BSD News Article 74382


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From: j@uriah.heep.sax.de (J Wunsch)
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: Promise EIDE controler & freeBSD
Date: 21 Jul 1996 21:56:57 GMT
Organization: Private BSD site, Dresden
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Ola Lundberg <ola.lundberg@uhreg.mil.se> wrote:

> I got a promise EIDE 2300+ controller on my machine and are trying to
> install freeBSD.

This one has a BIOS that is known to not work together with FreeBSD.
Sorry, you _must_ disable it if you want FreeBSD.  (Nobody ever
analyzed or fixed this problem.)

> ..., but as it is the BIOS
> who give me support to large disks (breaking the 540MB limit) i can only
> use 540MB on my 3 1GB disks..No god..!!

FreeBSD doesn't use the BIOS at all except for booting.  As long as
your root file system (or exactly: the file /kernel) resides entirely
below the ficticous cylinder 1024, you can use your disks with FreeBSD
nevertheless.  (FreeBSD can access IDE disks of at least 31.5 GB, or
even 127.5 GB for disks that must never be shared with the BIOS.
That's the register-level limitation of the WD-1003/1007 interface.)

-- 
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. ;-)