> On Thu, Dec 11, 2003 at 10:36:52AM +0000, Richard Earnshaw wrote:
> 
> > I don't recall ever seeing this on my shark.  How large a disk do you 
> > have?  And what is the geometry of the root partition?
> >
> > My firmware is dated September 04, 1998; it's one CGD made available to me.
> 
> Mine claims to be newer, 

Er, really?  Since when did February 1998 come after September 1998?

> as you probably saw, I don't know where it's from,
> it was on the shark when I got it (second hand).
> 
> > DNARD Rev. 5, 08:00:2b:81:62:5e , 96 MB memory
> > Open Firmware  Built February 25, 1998 17:19:25
> > Copyright 1997 FirmWorks  All Rights Reserved
> 
> My disk is:
> 
> wd0 at atabus0 drive 0: <IBM-DBCA-206480>
> wd0: drive supports 16-sector PIO transfers, LBA addressing
> wd0: 6194 MB, 13424 cyl, 15 head, 63 sec, 512 bytes/sect x 12685680 sectors
> wd0: drive supports PIO mode 4, DMA mode 2, Ultra-DMA mode 2 (Ultra/33)
> 
Hmm, mines 10GB, so I doubt that's the problem either.

> 8 partitions:
> #        size    offset     fstype [fsize bsize cpg/sgs]
>  a:  11739735         0     4.2BSD   1024  8192    64  # (Cyl.      0 -  12422)
>  b:    945945  11739735       swap                     # (Cyl.  12423 -  13423)
>  c:  12685680         0     unused      0     0        # (Cyl.      0 -  13423)
> 

I've always used a 'more conventional' partition arrangement with a small 
root partition and then various other partitions on the disk for /var & 
/usr

8 partitions:
#        size    offset     fstype [fsize bsize cpg/sgs]
 a:    205632         0     4.2BSD   1024  8192    16  # (Cyl.      0 -    
203)
 b:    525168    205632       swap                     # (Cyl.    204 -    
724)
 c:  20044080         0     unused      0     0        # (Cyl.      0 -  
19884)
 e:   4096512    730800     4.2BSD   1024  8192    16  # (Cyl.    725 -   
4788)
 f:    205632   4827312     4.2BSD   1024  8192    16  # (Cyl.   4789 -   
4992)
 g:  15011136   5032944     4.2BSD   1024  8192    16  # (Cyl.   4993 -  
19884)

/dev/wd0a / ffs rw,softdep 1 1
/dev/wd0b none swap sw 0 0
/dev/wd0e /usr ffs rw,softdep 1 2
/dev/wd0f /var ffs rw,softdep 1 2
/dev/wd0g /work ffs rw,softdep 1 2

If it really is an addressing problem in the firmware, then this might be 
a solution.

R.