On Sun, Jul 18, 1999 at 01:41:23PM -0400, Keith Browne wrote:
> --(script output)--
> # fdisk sd0
> NetBSD disklabel disk geometry:
> cylinders: 9006 heads: 8 sectors/track: 246 (1968 sectors/cylinder)
> 
> BIOS disk geometry:
> cylinders: 1023 heads: 255 sectors/track: 63 (16065 sectors/cylinder)
> 
> Partition table:
> 0: <UNUSED>
> 1: <UNUSED>
> 2: <UNUSED>
> 3: sysid 169 (NetBSD)
>     start 246, size 17723562 (8654 MB), flag 0x80
> 	beg: cylinder    0, head   1, sector  1
> 	end: cylinder 1023, head 255, sector 63

I think this is the problem. There is an inconsistency between the number
of sectors/track and the start of your partition (it sould start at sect 63 =
cylinder    0, head   1 sector 1).
Hard to fix without reinstalling the whole disk ( a partition has to be
cylinder-aligned to be bootable).
here is what you could try:
in fdisk -u, change the bios geometry to 1023/255/46. This way, your partition
starting at sector 246 will start at cylinder 0, head 3, sector 0, This
should make the boot code happy)
Then tell him to update the partition 3 to change the chs values: when it ask
if you want to change partition 3, say 'y' and just keep  the defaults. At
'Explicitly specify beg/end address' say no, and then it should use the proper
chs values.
Once you have done this you still may need to reinstall the boot code with
installboot.

> 
> That "WARNING: old BSD partition ID!" message makes me wonder.

This is for you old drive. The NetBSD BIOS partition ID changed between
1.3 and 1.4, 165 was used by FreeBSD (this way you can have both systems on
the same drive :)
Not a problem for now, the old partition ID is still handled by the kernel
as long as you have 'COMPAT_386BSD_MBRPART' in your kernel config file (it's
in GENERIC).
Maybe 1.5 will not have this any more ...

--
Manuel Bouyer, LIP6, Universite Paris VI.           Manuel.Bouyer@lip6.fr
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