Re: Disk geometry error (Fag 14.6)

[Venice Miazza <veniceam@yahoo.com>]

No, I fixed the ending head, but I it still hangs on
reboot. And my root directory fits in the first 806
cylinders.

Okay, more info (please excuse typos, I got the info
by hand before typing it):

i386 machine
AMD Athlon Processor
Winmodem
PheonixBIOS

_BIOS info_:

[Main]
Legacy Diskett A: 1.44 Mb 3 1/2
Primary Master - Maxtor 54610H6-(PM)
Primary Slave - None
Secondary Master - SAMSUNG CD-R/RW DRIVE(SM)
Secondary Slave - Pioneer DVD-ROM ATAPI Model-

Installed Memory - 128 MB / 133 MHz
Memory Bank 0 - 128 MB SDRAM
Memory Bank 1 - Not installed
Core Revision - 2.00 09/19/00

[Primary Master [Maxtor 54610H69(PM)]]
Type - Auto
 CHS Format
Cylinders - 17475
Heads - 15
Sectors - 63
Maximum Capacity - 8455 MB
 LBA Format
Total Sectors - 90045648
Maximum Capacity - 46103 MB

Multi-Sector Transfers - 16 Sectors
LBA Mode Control - Enabled
32 Bit I/0 - Enabled
Transfer Mode - FPIO 4 / DMA 2
Ultra DMA Mode - Mode 4

[Primary Slave [None]]
Type - Auto

Multi-Sector Transfers - Disabled
LBA Mode Control - Disabled
32 Bit I/O - Enabled
Transfer Mode - Standard
Ultra DMA Mode - Disabled
SMART Monitoring - Disabled

[Secondary Master [SAMSUNG CD-R/RW DRIVE(SM)]]
Type - Auto

Multi-Sector Transfers - Disabled
LBA Mode Control - Disabled
32 Bit I/O - Enabled
Transfer Mode - FPIO 4 / DMA 2
Ultra DMA Mode - Disabled
SMART Monitoring - Disabled
Hide Mode - Disabled

[Secondary Slave [Pioneer DVD-ROM ATAPI Model-(SS)]]
Type - Auto

Multi-Sector Transfers - Disabled
LBA Mode Control - Disabled
32 Bit I/O - Enabled
Transfer Mode - FIPO 4 / DMA 2
Ultra DMA Mode - Mode 2
SMART Monitoring - Disabled

[Advanced]
CPU Type - AMD Athlon(tm)
CPU Speed - 850 MHz
Cache RAM - 256 KB

Installed O/S - Win98/Win2000 (NOTE: at one point I
changed this to "Other")
Reset Configuration Data - No
Primary Video Adapter - AGP
PS/2 Mouse - Auto Detect
Large Disk Access Mode - DOS (NOTE: at one point I
changed this to "Other")
Local Bus IDE adapter - Both
Embedded USB2 Device - Enabled
Legacy USB Support - Auto
On-board LAN - Enabled

[PCI Device, Slot #(same for 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5)]
option ROM Scan - Enabled
Enable Master - Disabled
Latency Timer - 0040h

[PCI/PNP ISA UMB Region Exclusion]
C800-CBFF - Available
CC00-CFFF - Available
D000-D3FF - Available
D400-D7FF - Available
D800-DBFF - Available
DC00-DFFF - Available

[PCI/PNP ISA IRQ Resource Exclusion]
IRQ3 - Available
IRQ4 - Available
IRQ5 - Available
IRQ7 - Available
IRQ9 - Available
IRQ10 - Available
IRQ11 - Available

[I/O Device Configuration]
Serial Port A - Enabled
 Base I/O address - 3F8
 Interrupt - IRQ4
Serial Port B - Enabled
 Base I/O address - 2F8
 Interrupt - IRQ7
Floppy Disk Controller - Enabled

[On-board Audio Options]
Audio codec - Disabled

[Hardware Monitor]
CPU FAN1 speed = 3810 rpm.
CPU FAN2 speed = 2181 rpm.

[Power]
After Power Failure - Stay Off

[Boot]
Boot-time Diagnostic Screen - Disabled
QuickBoot Mode - Enabled

[Boot Device Priority]
Removable Devices
  Legacy Floppy Drives
ATAPI CD-ROM
Hard Drive 
  Maxtor 54610H6-(PM)
  Bootable Add-in Cards
Network Boot

_dmesg, the part that stays on the screen_

"VIA VT82C6865 SMBus" rev 0x30 aat pci 0 dev 7
function 4 not configured
"AT&T/Lucen LTMODEM" rev 0x00 at pci0 dev 11 function
0 not configured
"Creative Labs SoundBlaster Live" rev 0x07 at pci0 dev
14 function 1 not configured
"Creative Labs SoundBlaster LiveDigital Input" rev
0x07 at pci0 dev 14 function 1 not configured
r10 at pci0 dev 18 function 0 "Realtek 8139" rev 0x10:
irq 9 address 00:e0:c6:55:c4
rlphy0 at r10phy 0: RTL internal phy
isa0 at pcib0
isadma0 at isa0
pckbc0 at isa0 port 0x60/5
pckbd0 at pckbc0 (kbd slot)
pckbc0: using irq 1 for kbd slot
wskbd0a pckbd0: console keyboard, using wsdisplay0
npx0 at isa0 port 0x3f8/8 irq 4: ns16550a, 16 byte
fifo
pccom1 at isa0 port 0x2f8/8 irq 3: ns16550a, 16 byte
fifo
fdc0 at isa0 port 0x3f0/6 irq 6 drq 2
fd0: fixed, 3560 block
root on rd0a
rootdev=0x1100 rrootdev=0x2f00 rawdev=0x2f02

_Error_
After a seemingly successful OpenBSD 3.3 installation,
my computer prints "Using Drive: 0 Partition: 0" over
and over when rebooted. (Note: Once I tried to install
Gnoppix on Partion 1, and it printed "Using Drive: 0
Partion: 1" and stopped there. I'm not sure that
installation even worked, though, as it said something
about me having 16 partitions and only being allowed
8. I have since changed the flag back.)

_What I did_
see below

--- Chris Zakelj <c.zakelj@ieee.org> wrote:
> Actually, no.  You'll find that oBSD is also
> probably reporting 255 heads
> (while there are only 16 on the sticker) in the
> dmesg.  This is because
> modern BIOSes use LBA addressing instead of CHS.  In
> fact, you'll find that
> 16383/16/63 in the CHS system corresponds to the 8G
> limit of older
> computers.  Likewise, there's a cap at 4096/16/63
> (2G) beyond which some
> BIOSes won't POST (my i586-90, for instance) and
> OSes (DOS) can't use
> without driver software.  You need to make sure your
> /bsd file is within
> your particular BIOS' boot window (Cylinder 1024,
> 4096, or 16383).  Read the
> FAQs for the appropriate method of doing this.
> 
> (Unlike some, I enjoy spoon-feeding old-arch info,
> but leaving the actual
> solution just one or two links away.  This
> particularly honks off the
> penguinistas)
> 
> > -----Original Message-----
> > From: owner-misc@openbsd.org
> [mailto:owner-misc@openbsd.org]On Behalf Of
> > Venice Miazza
> > Sent: Saturday, November 01, 2003 6:27 PM
> > To: nick@holland-consulting.net; misc@openbsd.org
> > Subject: Re: Disk geometry error (Fag 14.6)
> >
> >
> > Thanks to your request for more info about my
> > hardware, I unscrewed the machine to find out. On
> the
> > hard disk label, it said it had 16383 (2^14 - 1)
> > cylinders. (Thank you flashlight!) In binary, that
> > would be 11 1111 1111 1111 cylinders. However, the
> > OpenBSD install program said I only had 5955
> > cylinders. In binary, that's 1 0111 0100 0011
> > cylinders.
> >
> > That qualifies as a disk geometry error, doesn't
> it?
> >
> > Is that all you need to know?
> >
> > (In case not, I have a Pheonix BIOS and an AMD
> Athlon
> > Processor, and was trying to install OpenBSD 3.3.
> I am
> > currently downloading the intall packages for
> OpenBSD
> > 3.4, though. It'll take awhile. Dial-up. I
> allocated
> > the first 2700 cylinders to OpenBSD. On the rest I
> was
> > going to install a operating system that's
> compatible
> > with Winmodem. Any suggestions on a secure
> operating
> > system that meets that requirement?)
> >
> > btw - According to some Debian people I know, it's
> > called "hanging" whether it prints once and
> doesn't
> > move on or prints infinitely and doesn't move on.
> >
> > --- Nick Holland <> wrote:
> > > yikes.  Please wrape your lines, and otherwise
> beat
> > > on your mail
> > > program to make it work better.
> >
> > Sorry, I probably accidentally told it to allow
> HTML
> > tags, which would cause it to ignore white space.
> > (Actually, this is web-based email, not a mail
> > program. I don't even know how a mail program
> works. I
> > find this more secure for my purposes. Besides,
> this
> > isn't my computer.)
> >
> > >
> > > Venice Miazza wrote:
> > > >
> > (Note - This Faq 14.6 was ommitted from
> openbsd.org,
> > but can still be found
> > here:
> >
> > tech.zone.ee/openbsd/faq/faq14.html#D0P3)
> >
> > I've been trying to install OpenBSD on an i386
> > hewlett-packard that used to run Windows ME, which
> was
> > horribly insecure. Just when I thought I had
> finally
> > installed it correctly, and I rebooted, it printed
> the
> > following line over and over -
> >
> > Using Drive: 0 Partition: 0
> >
> > That makes sense - that's where I installed
> OpenBSD,
> > except it did that all night. After some initial
> > research and help from a friend, I thought it was
> a
> > BIOS incompatibility problem, and went  into my
> BIOS
> > and changed the Large handle format thingy.
> >
> > I still got the same error, even when I went
> through
> > the installation process all over.
> >
> > Then after more research, I found that it was
> actually
> > a disk geometry error (see faq), and executed the
> > lines of commands it said to execute from the
> shell
> > that comes with floppy33.fs.
> >
> > Still, I got the same error.
> >
> > Then I realized the faq said I could get this
> error if
> > I changed my BIOS, so I changed that back to the
> > default and ran the commands again. I'm still
> getting
> > that error. What should I try now? (Please help?)
> > >
> > > That is, btw., a broken mirror.  Hasn't been
> updated
> > > in over five
> > > months, apparently.
> > >
> > > The reason it was removed is because people were
> > > reading symptoms
> > > without understanding the reasons detailed in
> it,
> > > and it was causing
> > > more harm than good.  The real probem was with
> the
> > > incompatable boot
> > > loader, which seems to have been fixed very
> nicely
> > > back in 3.1.  Truth
> > > of the matter is, the reason this article even
> > > mentioned the drive
> > > geometry issue was that the OLD FAQ article on
> that
> > > topic claimed that
> > > was the reason, and as the first FAQ article I
> > > (re)wrote, I didn't
> > > quite want to tell my supervisor that the
> article
> > > that was there
> > > previously on this topic (which he may have
> wrote)
> > > was COMPLETELY
> > > wrong (and I still can not prove that a drive
> > > geometry problem NEVER
> > > caused a boot hang like that...but I doubt it.
> 8)
> > >
> > > If you read that article closely, it was about
> > > getting the message and
> > > a HANG, not a repeating message ("over and
> over") as
> > > you describe.
> > >
> > > Whatever you have going on, I do not think it is
> a
> > > drive geometry
> > > problem.  Unfortunately, knowing nothing about
> your
> > > machine except
> > > some idea what the logo on the front of it might
> > > look like.  It is
> > > POSSIBLE you have somehow got a corrupted MBR on
> > > your disk (how??), or
> > > maybe you have the one machine in the world that
> is
> > > incompatable with
> > > the OpenBSD MBR code.  I'd start with following
> the
> > > advice in that old
> > > FAQ about using a DOS 6.x+ boot disk and doing
> an
> > > "FDISK /MBR".  Don't
> > > know if it will fix your problem, but it will
> > > certainly change the
> > > symptoms (the "Using drive X partition Y"
> message
> > > comes out of the
> > > OpenBSD MBR code.  If you do the DOS "FDISK
> /MBR"thing properly, you
> replace that code).
> 
> Huh.  Wonder if a BIOS "Virus protection" feature
> being enabled could
> result in a mangled MBR install...*might* explain my
> "how??" above...
> 
> Get us some more info...
>    http://www.openbsd.org/faq/faq2.html#Bugs
>    http://www.openbsd.org/report.html
>    http://www.openbsd.org/faq/faq4.html#getdmesg
> 
> Nick.
> -- 
> http://www.holland-consulting.net
> 


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