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Re: newfs seems stuck in loop



Carl Lowenstein wrote:
On Sat, May 1, 2010 at 3:08 PM, Rhialto <rhialto%falu.nl@localhost> wrote:
I am trying to install a recently updated tree (crosscompiled on amd64)
and chose my "new" 2 GB scsi disk (a HP OEM disk from Seagate). My VAX
is a headless VAXstation 3100 with 32 MB RAM.

When sysinst got to newfs'ing the /home partition, it seemed to do its
work, but then it got into an infinite loop, eating CPU user time.

(all retyped by hand:)

Command: /sbin/newfs -V2 -O 1 -b 16384 -f 2048 /dev/rsd0e

/dev/rsd0e: 1306.6MB (2676004 sectors) block size 16384, fragment size 2048
using 7 cylinder groups of 186.67MB, 11947 blks, 23552 inodes.
..............................................................................
load: 1.08  cmd: newfs 22 [runnable] 2615.23u 3.61s 99% 876k

The system time doesn't seem to increase.

I interrupted it after the time shown. I hoped it had really done its
work, but fsck could not find the superblock. When I retried the command
from the shell, it printed the same, and 7 numbers followed by commas
(those are the superblock numbers, right?) I didn't test if the comma
after number #7 meant it wanted to print another one, which may explain
the loop?

This is a real hardware VAXstation, right.  Maybe it has a really old
SCSI controller that uses the 6-byte command set and can not address
beyond 1GB.   Or rather disk addresses wrap around so that after 1GB
they over-write the beginning of the disk.

The 6-byte limitation of old VAXstations is not a limitation of the controller, but of the firmware in the boot monitor. Which means it's only a problem for the booting.
Once the OS driver takes over, it can use 8-byte disk block numbers.

So, in short. No, this can not be the problem.

        Johnny
--
Johnny Billquist                  || "I'm on a bus
                                  ||  on a psychedelic trip
email: bqt%softjar.se@localhost             ||  Reading murder books
pdp is alive!                     ||  tryin' to stay hip" - B. Idol


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