Re: sects/cyls/head Sata drive

[Manuel Bouyer <bouyer%antioche.eu.org@localhost>]

On Tue, May 10, 2011 at 02:08:41PM +0000, hvn wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> I'm trying to install NetBSD 5.1 on sata using an Asus A7V8X mainboard 
> and using the Stripe option of the Sata/RAID connector. For Debian it 
> works, but NetBSD tells me it can't detect the disk properly so it asks 
> for the number of sectors, heads and cylinders to determine the correct 
> size.
> So far, I've given it some default values which gives me 76 of the 80GB. 
> A problem of which I don't know whether it's related to this or not, it 
> the fact that upon boot, after detecting all the other hardware, it asks 
> what the bootdisk is. No input = no booting of NetBSD. So after giving it 
> wd0 as bootdisk, it boots ok.
> So my questions are: 
> -how can I determine what the correct disk parameters are

Not easy; for modern disks it's usually n/255/63, to determine 'n' you have
to know the total number of sectors of your drive.

> -how can I fix the boot problem so I won't have to input the correct disk/
> slice anymore

you could build a custom kernel with the 'root on xxx' option.

-- 
Manuel Bouyer <bouyer%antioche.eu.org@localhost>
     NetBSD: 26 ans d'experience feront toujours la difference
--