Hi,

I'm new to BSD, been using linux.

Install NetBSD 1.5 on a SCSI only system, exception is an ATAPI LS120 drive 
as master on the first IDE channel.  No other IDE devices are present.

I tried using this drive to move data from my linux system to BSD but I don't 
fully understand the disklabel issues.

What I have observed under linux is:
1. Linux fdisk reports a "bad" partition table with four primary partitions 
on fresh pre-formatted LS120 media.
2. To mount a pre-formatted disk or one that's been formatted under windows I 
must use device /dev/hda not hda1.
3. Therefore, I always use linux fdisk to delete the current partitions and 
create either one msdos or ext2 partition which can then be mounted as hda1 
with no problems.

After reading the BSD disklabel man pages and a couple of your FAQ's about 
zip drives etc. I still can't get LS120 media mounted.  The disk in question 
is formatted with one msdos partition via linux and is good, I can read/write 
under linux.

This is the output of disklabel sd0:
# /dev/rsd0d:
type: ATAPI
disk: 7XABB0017898
label: fictitious
flags:
bytes/sector: 512
sectors/track: 32
tracks/cylinder: 8
sectors/cylinder: 256
cylinders: 963
total sectors: 246528
rpm: 720
interleave: 1
trackskew: 0
cylinderskew: 0
headswitch: 0		# microseconds
track-to-track seek: 0	# microseconds
drivedata: 0 

8 partitions:
#        size   offset     fstype   [fsize bsize   cpg]
  d:   246528        0     unused        0     0         # (Cyl.    0 - 962)
  e:   246496       32      MSDOS                        # (Cyl.    0*- 962)
  h: -859853824        0     unused        0     0         # (Cyl.    0 - 
13418411)

I have tried various disklabel options such as -r, -R, -e, -I, etc. and have 
dumped the above, edited it and written it back with disklabel -R but nothing 
works.  The disklabel always is the same as above.  My BSD HD disklabel 
currently is using e: so I need to tell it that the LS120 msdos partition is 
on h: but as you can see the drive/media??? is reporting an erroneous value.  
I have seen this value, -859853824, reported under linux which makes me 
suspect the drive.  The only other possibility is the fdisk program on all 
OS's I've used is doing a read-modify-write, leaving "bad" information in the 
partition table.

Am I on the right track or completely overlooking something?

thanks,
scott
folokai@earthlink.net