Hello,

I'm having problems installing NetBSD 1.2 i386.  After specifying my hard
drive configuration information and answering "yes" to the question asking
me if I want to go past the "point of no return", I get a series of errors,
most of which look like the following:

sd0(ncr0:0:0): command aborted, data = 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00
00 00 00 00 00 00 00 00

I also get errors from the filesystem creation and mounting utilities
(mostly saying they can't mount or create various filesystems).  The upshot
is that my filesystems aren't created or mounted.  As far as I can tell
I've done everything in accordance with the installation notes and my
hardware is compatible (I'm using an NCR 8251S (53c825) PCI to SCSI host
adapter).

The only anomaly I know of is that Linux fdisk (from a bootable floppy) and
various DOS utilities (from my DOS partition on that drive) tell me I have
1008 cylinders, 66 tracks/cylinder, and 63 sectors/track on that drive.
The boot messages when I boot with the NetBSD kernel-copy floppy, however,
tell me I have 3703 cylinders, 9 tracks/cylinder, and 125 sectors/track on
that drive.

The computer was initially set up with a DOS partition and three Linux
partitions.  I deleted the Linux partitions and created a NetBSD partition
using fdisk on the Linux bootable floppy.  I've tried installing NetBSD on
that partition as well as on the whole disk using both the info I get from
Linux fdisk/DOS utils and the info I get from the NetBSD boot messages, but
all attempts result in the same set of errors.

None of these attempts appear to have done anything to my hard drive; my
DOS partition continues to work fine.  Here are the possibly relevant boot
messages I get when booting from the kcoth12 kernel-copy floppy:

ncr0 at pci0 dev 15 function 0: NCR 53c825 Wide SCSI
ncr0: interrupting at irc 10
ncr0: restart (scsi reset).
scsibus0 at ncr0
sd0 at scsibus0 targ 0 lun 0: <HP, C3725S, 6039> SCSI2 0/direct fixed
sd0: sd0(ncr0:0:0): FAST SCSI-2 100ns (10Mb/sec) offset 8.
2047 MB, 3703 cyl, 9 head, 125 sec, 512 bytes/sec

I've read the info in the FAQ regarding disk geometry translation, but I
can't figure out how that might create the kinds of errors I'm receiving
(nor how I can fix it if that's the problem).  Frankly, though, I don't
understand the FAQ's explanation of this problem, so it's possible I'm
missing something there.

Some relevant hardware configuration information:

Pentium 133 on Intel Endeavor motherboard
NCR 8251S (53c825) PCI to SCSI host adapter, IRQ: 10
SCSI ID 0: HP C3725S (2.1 GB)
SCSI ID 6: Teac 56S CD-ROM
SCSI ID 7: Controller
IDE controller on motherboard, IRQ: 14
no other hard drive, SCSI interface, or SCSI equipment

Does anyone know or have any ideas about what the problem may be?  Any
suggestions would be appreciated.

Thanks,
  myk

Michael D. Melez, Web Developer      408.459.5430 (work)
Admissions & Enrollment Management   myk@cats.ucsc.edu (work)
University of California Santa Cruz  myk@paranoia.com (personal)