install/38465: Manual hard drive geometry data entry difficulties

[randolf+netbsd.org%inter-corporate.com@localhost]

>Number:         38465
>Category:       install
>Synopsis:       Manual hard drive geometry data entry difficulties
>Confidential:   no
>Severity:       serious
>Priority:       low
>Responsible:    install-manager
>State:          open
>Class:          sw-bug
>Submitter-Id:   net
>Arrival-Date:   Sat Apr 19 22:25:01 +0000 2008
>Originator:     Randolf Richardson
>Release:        4.99.58
>Organization:
Inter-Corporate Computer & Network Services, Inc.
>Environment:
sysinst terminated.
# uname -a
uname: not found
# 
>Description:
BIOS in my Compaq Presario (older computer) with a Pentium II processor and a 
Maxtor 120 GB IDE hard drive is limited to 8 GBs.  The NetBSD sysinst tool has 
two problems with entry of manual disk geometry:

0. It doesn't provide an option to specify the number of cylinders

1. After entering the new disk geometry, it skips ahead to the next step 
without giving the installer a chance to re-enter the numbers

Disk drive information:

Maxtor DiamondMax 9 / 6Y120L0
Actual cylinders:  238,216
Maximum cylinders:  16,383
Heads:  16
Sectors per track:  63
Capacity:  120 GB

>How-To-Repeat:
Insert the NetBSD 4-current 200804080000Z i386 CD (burned from ISO) into this 
system, and attempt to install NetBSD.

>Fix:
For problem 0:  Provide a way to specify the number of cylinders (assuming this 
is possible).

For problem 1:  After the new geometry is entered, instead of skipping ahead to 
the next step of the installation process (which doesn't provide any 
information about the new disk capacity), sysinst should return to the screen 
showing disk geometry, but with the newly entered numbers, so that the 
installer can double-check their entry before proceeding (it may also be 
heplful to display the original geometry as provided by the BIOS down at the 
bottom of the screen, with a sub-title on the preceeding line which reads 
"Original geometry reported by the BIOS").

Thanks in advance.  I really appreciate how seriously you folks have taken all 
my reports in the past.  NetBSD is working extremely well at my client sites as 
servers (running Samba to support Windows clients), which have been replacing 
Windows boxes -- in most circumstances the users are noticing faster 
performance (the server hardware was not changed at all, only the server 
software was upgraded from Windows to NetBSD).