Hi all,

During an attempted install of NetBSD/hp700 HEAD using the most recent
netinstall.lif images (Sept. 9th and 14th), the install kernel indicates
an error of some sort when examining the hard drive.  It does not recognize
the correct size/geometry of the hard drive at all, meaning I can't
install NetBSD on it.

The dmesg indicates the following:

sd0 at scsibus0 target 6 lun 0: <IBM, DDRS-39130WS, HP01> disk fixed
sd0: 8678MB, 8387 cyl, 10 head, 211 sec, 512 bytes/sect x 17773524 sectors
sd0: sync (50.00ns offset 15), 16-bit (40.000MB/s) transfers, tagged 
queueing
cd0 at scsibus1 target 2 lun 0: <TOSHIBA, CD-ROM XM-6201TA, 1037> cdrom 
removable
cd0: sync (100.00ns offset 8), 8-bit (10.000MB/s) transfers
sd0: fabricating a geometry
sd0: LIF directory I/O error
boot device: tlp0
root on md0a dumps on md0b
root file system type: ffs
WARNING: clock lost 770 days -- CHECK AND RESET THE DATE!
erase ^H, werase ^W, kill ^U, intr ^C, status ^T
mount: cannot open `/dev/md0a': Operation not permitted
mount_mfs: Unable to determine file system size
Terminal type? [vt100]

In sysinst, choosing option (a) "Set sizes of NetBSD partitions", I see the
following:

     MB         Cylinders   Sectors   Filesystem
>   304     (0)       304    622592 + /
      0                 0         0   swap
      0                 0         0   tmp (mfs)
      0                 0         0   /usr
      0                 0         0   /var
      0                 0         0   /home

If I choose option (b) "Use existing partition sizes", I see the following:

Start  MB   End  MB Size   MB FS type    Newfs Mount Mount point
--------- --------- --------- ---------- ----- ----- -----------
a:       0         0         0 unused
b:       0         0         0 unused
c:       0         0         0 Whole disk
d:       0         0         0 unused

If I escape to a shell and run "disklabel sd0", I see this:

# /dev/rsd0c:
type: SCSI
disk: mydisk
label: fictitious
flags:
bytes/sector: 512
sectors/track: 32
tracks/cylinder: 64
sectors/cylinder: 2048
cylinders: 0
total sectors: 1
rpm: 3600
interleave: 1
trackskew: 0
cylinderskew: 0
headswitch: 0           # microseconds
track-to-track seek: 0  # microseconds
drivedata: 0

3 partitions:
#        size     offset      fstype [fsize bsize cpg/sgs]
c:         1          0      unused      0     0        # (Cyl.     0 -      
0*)
disklabel: cylinders/unit 0
disklabel: boot block size 0
disklabel: super block size 0

I tried using "disklabel -e", but that fails with the error:

# disklabel -e sd0
/usr/bin/vi: not found

(Since vi isn't available on the installer, of course.)

The disk was originally partitioned/labelled for Linux (Debian); I wondered 
if
repartitioning it with the OpenBSD installer would help NetBSD's sysinst see 
the
disk correctly. I installed OpenBSD 3.9 on the disk, partitioning thus:

# /dev/rsd0c:
type: SCSI
disk: SCSI disk
label: DDRS-39130WS
flags:
bytes/sector: 512
sectors/track: 211
tracks/cylinder: 10
sectors/cylinder: 2110
cylinders: 8387
total sectors: 17773524
rpm: 7200
interleave: 1
trackskew: 0
cylinderskew: 0
headswitch: 0		# microseconds
track-to-track seek: 0	# microseconds
drivedata: 0

4 partitions:
#             size        offset  fstype [fsize bsize  cpg]
  a:       1637360          2110  4.2BSD   2048 16384  544 # Cyl     1 -   
776
  b:       2097340       1639470    swap                   # Cyl   777 -  
1770
  c:      17773524             0    boot                   # Cyl     0 -  
8423*
  d:      14036714       3736810  4.2BSD   2048 16384  544 # Cyl  1771 -  
8423*

This had no effect from the NetBSD installer's perspective, it saw the disk
exactly the same as before.

I assume I should PR this, but thought I'd throw it out here first in case
someone knows a workaround, perhaps I've missed something in the 
documentation
somewhere.

Regards,

Dave