On Thu, Dec 30, 1999 at 10:56:02PM -0600, Brian Stark wrote:
> I just got done converting a 1.2.1 system to 1.4.2_ALPHA. During the
> installation process sysinst reported the geometery of my wd0 disk
> as having 988 cylinders when it has 989 (reported by "dmesg" and the 
> label on the disk itself). I selected the option to manually specify
> the geometery, and the default value for the cylinders was 989!

Is that the BIOS geometry it is reporting? That will often be one
cylinder less; traditionally BIOSs have reserved one cylinder for
"diagnostic purposes". It will, of course, still be visible when
looking at the "real" geometry (i.e. not via the BIOS). It's
safest to leave this cylinder out, although I do not believe
newer BIOSs still use this. It goes back to ancient IBM PC days.

- Frank