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From: terry@cs.weber.edu (A Wizard of Earth C)
Subject: Re: TinyBoot/FixIt boot, hard drive won't (after install)
Message-ID: <1993Jan14.204906.12675@fcom.cc.utah.edu>
Keywords: boot, 386BSD, Problems!
Sender: news@fcom.cc.utah.edu
Organization: Weber State University (Ogden, UT)
References: <C0uoKB.CJ1@acsu.buffalo.edu>
Date: Thu, 14 Jan 93 20:49:06 GMT
Lines: 147
In article <C0uoKB.CJ1@acsu.buffalo.edu> jmsimon@acsu.buffalo.edu (JMS) writes:
>Let me start with system configuration: 486dx/33 isa, 16mb RAM, 212mb IDE
>(conner 3204), wd8003e, 2serial/1parallel, et4000 svga card, TMC1670 SCSI
>card (Future Domain), HP97544SF 316mb SCSI drive.
>
>I was having problems with install (unable to write disklabel errors) so
>played with the partitioning on my scsi drive, and moved by 10mb Linux
>root file system onto the scsi; linux is now off my ide. I reformatted the
>ide, reinstalled DOS, and left 140mb for BSD. Booted the TinyBoot disk and
>ran install; it went through, said it was installing on the drive, etc.
>
><Remove disk and hit return to reboot from hard drive>
>
>Ok. It starts to load up the kernel (gets to the npx0 at irq13 isa message)
>and then a panic: trap; a quick message that ram is being stored to a file,
>and bam, reboot.
>
>I've tried to boot the TinyBoot or FixIt flopies at this point and mount
>the hard drive, but when I 'ls -al /mnt' (after mounting it, of course :D )
>it's empty. If I try to copy a file to that partition (ie: 'cp /386bsd
>/mnt/386bsd') I get an I/O error.
>
>---- Anyone know why? Do I need a patched kernel? I'm not intending to use
>the scsi for bsd right now (eventually) but I don't want to pull it out,
>either (right now, if Linux wasn't bootable from my scsi I'd not be sending
>this news...)
>
>Any help would be greatly appreciated. I'd like to try out 386bsd, but it
>just isn't cooperating with me.
Ok, after the recent deluge of obvious "translation" problems, I've
decided to post part of the documentation update to the FAQ. I'm afraid
that a real FAQ update will have to wait a while longer -- it's so large
now that I am having to turn it into an index for other documents to let
it fit through a lot of mail gateways. Here is part of one of those
documents:
]DOS AND 386BSD COEXISTANCE AND DOS PARTITIONING
]
]
]For DOS and 386BSD to coexist, the disk *must* have a DOS partition table.
]Here is the layout for various configurations:
]
]1) Drive contents: Whole drive is 386BSD
] Boot track: Supplied by 386BSD
] OS Boot: 386BSD(wdboot/sdboot)
] DOS Partition table: Not used
],----------------------------------------------------------.
]|386BSD----> |
]`----------------------------------------------------------'
]
]2) Drive contents: Whole drive is DOS
] Boot track: Supplied by DOS (partition relative)
] OS Boot: DOS:(msdosio.sys)
] DOS Partition table: Used by primary boot
],--------.-------------------------------------------------.
]|12345678|DOS----> |
]`--------'-------------------------------------------------'
] | ^
] | |
] `--------'
]
]3) Drive contents: Whole drive is DOS (split partition)
] Boot track: Supplied by DOS (partition relative)
] OS Boot: DOS:(msdosio.sys) [one partition bootable]
] DOS Partition table: Used by primary boot
],--------.------------------------.------------------------.
]|12345678|DOS----> |EXTENDED DOS----> |
]`--------'------------------------'------------------------'
] || ^
] || |
] |`--------------------------------'
] | ^
] | |
] `--------'
]
]4) Drive contents: Drive is shared DOS/386BSD
] Boot track: Supplied by DOS (partition relative)
] OS Boot: DOS:(msdosio.sys),386BSD(wdboot/sdboot)
] DOS Partition table: Used by primary boot
],--------.------------------------.------------------------.
]|12345678|DOS----> |386BSD----> |
]`--------'------------------------'------------------------'
] || ^
] || |
] |`--------------------------------'
] | ^
] | |
] `--------'
]
]5) Drive contents: Drive is shared 386BSD/DOS
] Boot track: Supplied by DOS (partition relative)
] OS Boot: 386BSD(wdboot/sdboot),DOS:(msdosio.sys)
] DOS Partition table: Used by primary boot
],--------.------------------------.------------------------.
]|12345678|386BSD----> |DOS----> |
]`--------'------------------------'------------------------'
] || ^
] || |
] |`--------------------------------'
] | ^
] | |
] `--------'
]
]Number 5 is not a recommended configuration. This is because the process
]of "turning off translation" generally results in DOS being unable to use
]anything but the first part of the disk.
]
]The primary boot can either be supplied by DOS, or it can be a third party
]program, like "OS boot select" ("BOOTEASY" doesn't seem to work, nor
]does the OS/2 boot selector).
]
]The main problem with translated drives is the inability to store both
]translated and untranslated offsets in the DOS partition table. If the
]untranslated offset is stored, then the primary boot, which is BIOS-based,
]will be able to locate the OS boot... but the OS boot will not be able
]to locate the file system on the disk ("unable to mount" or "bad disklabel").
]
]If, on the other hand, the translated parameters are stored in the DOS
]partition table, the primary boot will not be able to locate the OS boot
](since the primary boot will be trying to find an untranslated location
]using the BIOS routines which use translated I/O.
]
]If a utility (such as ide_conf.exe) is used to insure that the BIOS agrees
]with the geometry reported by the controller (this may require the use of
]the Norton utilities or some other raw disk editor, and you must have
]either a programmable BIOS table like modern AMI BIOS, or a matching BIOS
]entry), then most boot problems will "go away".
]
]Note that since DOS requires a partition table, it is not possible to
]share a drive with any partition (ie: 386BSD) starting at track 0.
Terry Lambert
terry@icarus.weber.edu
terry_lambert@novell.com
---
Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present
or previous employers.
--
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"I have an 8 user poetic license" - me
Get the 386bsd FAQ from agate.berkeley.edu:/pub/386BSD/386bsd-0.1/unofficial
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