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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.carno.net.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.rmit.EDU.AU!news.unimelb.EDU.AU!munnari.OZ.AU!news.ecn.uoknor.edu!news.cis.okstate.edu!newsfeed.ksu.ksu.edu!news.physics.uiowa.edu!math.ohio-state.edu!uwm.edu!news.nap.net!nntp04.primenet.com!news.shkoo.com!nntp.primenet.com!news.mathworks.com!enews.sgi.com!news.uoregon.edu!mars.efn.org!usenet From: Michelle Brownsworth <michelle@efn.org> Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc Subject: Setting geometry important for SCSI disk? Date: 5 Aug 1996 06:00:07 GMT Organization: EFN Lines: 45 Message-ID: <4u42l7$ojk@mars.efn.org> NNTP-Posting-Host: dynip106.efn.org Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 1.1N (Macintosh; I; 68K) X-URL: news:comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc I was under the impression that disk geometry was irrelevant and could safely be ignored when installing on a large SCSI if the entire disk was to be allocated to FreeBSD. I did an FTP install on a Seagate ST-12550N 2.1 mb SCSI drive, which is connected to a Adaptec 2940 PCI SCSI controller. The geometry the sysinstall program came up with, and the one I used, was 2040/64/32. As I mentioned above, the entire disk was dedicated to FreeBSD. I opted to not install the boot manager, since there would be no sharing with other operating systems. I accepted most defaults, other than increasing the root partition to 132 mb, and /usr to 1802. The install seemed to go smoothly. However, when the moment of truth arrived--booting from the hard disk--I was greeted with "Missing Operating System." Boot: sd(0,a)/kernel will boot kernel on the SCSI, but we need it to auto-boot, for obvious reasons. At least I do have access to pfdisk to use for detective work if I need it. This is my first foray into installing FreeBSD on a large SCSI. I thought it would be easier than IDE, but that doesn't appear to be the case; the IDE seemed easier. If I remember correctly I used the translated cyls, trks, and secs provided by the BIOS config in the FreeBSD install program to setup the drive geometry. (But in that installation I also used the first 528K (1024 cyls) for a DOS partition and installed the boot manager.) This time out, the BIOS config is not giving up any drive info, translated or otherwise, because the Award BIOS doesn't even seem to detect the SCSI drive. The drive setup in the BIOS Config program seemed to refer to IDE drives only, so I left it alone, with no information--all zeros--for cylinder, track, and head info. I suspect this is where I went wrong, if indeed the BIOS is instrumental in booting the kernel, but I don't know how to fix it. Perhaps pfdisk? I've read a FAQ citing the same missing OS message that indicated it was caused by a geometry problem, and another that alluded to keeping the drive in "native" mode (not sure what this means), and making sure the root partition is below 1024 cylinders so the BIOS can boot the kernel from it. Certainly, this is the case in my installation, is it not so? But I swear I read where Jordan or J"org maintained that, if the entire disk is dedicated to FreeBSD, geometry can be pretty much ignored... [scratching head] \\ichelle