> 
> On Sat, Feb 07, 1998 at 01:04:05AM +0100, Olaf Seibert wrote:
> > I just installed 1.3 on a test pc with a SCSI disk connected to an
> > Adaptec 1542 controller. 

Ah ha!

Just a couple of weeks ago, it was discovered that Adaptec Controllers
are stupid.

Your disk geometry (for the initial install) must be (in C/H/S format)
X/64/32 for disks less than 1Gig and X/255/63 for disks larger than 1G.

In both example above, the "X" is chosen to maximize the allocated space
on the drive, although (if I understand the theory here) it is promptly
forgotten once the drive boots up, so any number large enough to get you
onto the third or fourth cylinder should be enough.

> > 
> > NetBSD detects 2756 cyl, 8 head, 94 sec, 512 bytes/sect x 2074880 sectors.
> > 
> > Sysinst objected to this (more than 64 sectors) and REQUIRED me to
> > enter some other geometry. However, the geometry as reported by the
> > BIOS (according to sysinst) was identical. So sysinst would not accept
> > the values it suggested I should use. Irritation #1.
> 
> The BIOS values can not always be determined correctly by sysinst. In
> this case, it noticed that it had it wrong, because > 64 sec/track
> is an impossible BIOS geometry.
> 
> You should find out what the BIOS really uses, by, for example, 
> running the pfdisk program from DOS and see what it reports (from DOS
> it's easy to get the BIOS geometry; from NetBSD it's harder because
> there might not be a way to match something like "sd1" to "BIOS disk
> #N"). It is unfortunate that sysinst can't always get it right, but..
> It's also documented in the INSTALL doc.
> 
> You need to find out what your adaptec BIOS really uses, do a re-install,
> when it asks if the geometry is OK, choose 'no', and specifiy the geometry
> that you determined.
> 
> - Frank
> 


-- 
Dave Burgess                   Network Engineer - Nebraska On-Ramp, Inc.
*bsd FAQ Maintainer / SysAdmin for the NetBSD system in my spare bedroom
"Just because something is stupid doesn't mean there isn't someone that 
doesn't want to do it...."