Re: Edlabel error 'ioctl DIOCWDINFO: Invalid Argument'

[Mouse <mouse%Rodents-Montreal.ORG@localhost>]

> Hello! Attempting to install NetBSD 9.0 on a Sun 3/80 (Sun3x) running
> a SCSI2SD setup.  When attempting to partition the disk, I can't get
> past the 'write' command in 'edlabel'.  Each time I get a

> ioctl DIOCWDINFO: Invalid argument

> error message.

I don't know 9.0, but I do know Sun disklabels.

I would guess - I don't know the Sun-3 9.0 kernel disklabel mapping
code - that you are trying to install a label that does not meet the
Sun label restrictions: all partitions must begin on cylinder
boundaries (where "cylinder" really means "nhead*nsect sectors", for
the nhead and nsect values in the label).

> (trying to stay under 2GB to not cause any weird errors)

There are two limits.

The Sun label format has only 32 bits of sector count for a partition,
so it can't represent anything >= 2^32 sectors, or 2^31 sectors if size
values are treated as signed.  But that's more like 1T (signed) or 2T
(unsigned).

The other limit, the one that you're more likely thinking of, is that a
6-byte SCSI CDB can't address more than 1G of disk on a 512-byte-sector
disk: it has only 21 address bits.  But that limit is 1G, not 2G, and
it's not a "size < 1G" limit, but rather an "all sectors must be below
the 1G point" limit.  This does imply size <=1G, but (for example) if
the partition begins at the ½G point, then the size limit is ½G.

I don't know whether Sun-3s have the 6-byte CDB issue, but for a first
attempt it would be safest to assume they do.  (There are two places
this issue can occur.  One is in the ROM code; the other is in the SCSI
interface.  The former matters only when booting.  I _think_ all Sun
SCSI interface hardware can support 10-byte-CDBs, in which case you
should be fine once the kernel takes over.)

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