Using the boot disks supplied with RH5.2 I noticed the following problem. I'm trying to install RH5.2-Intel on a standard PC with IDE drives and an atapi CD-ROM. I'm installing RH on the secondary-master drive. It is a WD34000. I have 2 other WD34000 drives (primary-master and primary-slave - for other OS). HDC has no partitions on it. When the boot disk boots I notice the following output: " hda: WDC AC34000L, 3815MB w/256kB Cache, CHS=969/128/63,DMA hdb: WDC AC34000L, 3815MB w/256kB Cache, CHS=969/128/63,DMA hdc: WDC AC34000L, 3815MB w/256kB Cache, CHS=7752/16/63,DMA ... partition check: hda: [969/128/63] hda1 hdb: [969/128/63] hdb1 hdc: " For some reason RH dectects HDC using normal mode not LBA.(yes the bios was set to dected all drives as lba - Win95 shows drives properly). When I use disk druid it complains that they are more than 1024 cyls and will not partition HDC properly. Second, I boot up with dos and create an extended partion on HDC with 2 drives (2GIG each). Now when I boot up with the boot disk I see the following output: " hda: WDC AC34000L, 3815MB w/256kB Cache, CHS=969/128/63,DMA hdb: WDC AC34000L, 3815MB w/256kB Cache, CHS=969/128/63,DMA hdc: WDC AC34000L, 3815MB w/256kB Cache, CHS=7752/16/63,DMA ... partition check: hda: [969/128/63] hda1 hdb: [969/128/63] hdb1 hdc: [PTBL] [969/128/63] hdc1<hdc5, hdc6> " Now because HDC has partitions on it, RH seems to have no problem with it. I can use RH-fdisk to change the logical drives to type 83's. I can then install RH with no problems. Problem 1 - Secondary channels are not recognized by kernel properly. Problem 2 - Secondary channels are recongnized properly if they have a partition created outside of Linux (ie dos) Also what is the PTBL in the HDC line and why does it not appear in the line for HDA or HDB. And why does it only appear when a partition exists.
From my understanding these lines hda: WDC AC34000L, 3815MB w/256kB Cache, CHS=969/128/63,DMA hdb: WDC AC34000L, 3815MB w/256kB Cache, CHS=969/128/63,DMA hdc: WDC AC34000L, 3815MB w/256kB Cache, CHS=7752/16/63,DMA ... partition check: hda: [969/128/63] hda1 hdb: [969/128/63] hdb1 hdc: [PTBL] [969/128/63] hdc1<hdc5, hdc6> are basically saying is that the hard drive geometry that is stored in the partition table is disagreeing with waht the BIOS itself is reporting. Before we continue I would double check that the BIOS is set at LBA on all three drives and not just the first two. I would choose NONE in all of the ide devices under standard CMOS setup. Then go to the IDE AUTODETECTION part and make sure LBA is manually selected for each of the drives. The try the install again to see if you get the same information.
I did as you described. Instead of using auto dectection I forced the bios to use LBA. The same problem again. Any drives on the secondary channel are detected by the kernel in normal mode not LBA. Win98/NT have no problem (that's whats on HDA and HDB - so I know it's not the motherboard bios - ASUS P2L97 with lastest bios). I also tried using RH 5.1 it also has the same problem. The boot sequence displays the follows: " hda: WDC AC34000L, 3815MB w/256kB Cache, CHS=969/128/63,DMA hdb: WDC AC34000L, 3815MB w/256kB Cache, CHS=969/128/63,DMA hdc: WDC AC34000L, 3815MB w/256kB Cache, CHS=7752/16/63,DMA ... partition check: hda: hda1 hdb: hdb1 hdc: <--> if no partitions defined OR hdc: [PTBL] [969/128/63] hdc1<hdc5, hdc6> <--> defined extended in dos " Again, if there are no partitions on HDC then druid/fdisk will report that there are > 1024 cyls. If there are partitions created by another OS (like dos) then druid/fdisk will work with the drive and partitions with no problem.
Did this drive originally have any disk management software loaded on it such as EzDrive or OnTrack disk management? If so then you could use a low level utility to clean out the first sectors of the drive which will wipe out any partition information that may be lingering around and then create the new partitions with linux fdisk during the install. Also if we could know what BIOS your motherboard has on it such as Award Bios (most common) or AMI bios. This could also be helpful.
There is no disk management software loaded on the drives. The bios is already capable of doing LBA transalations. I'm using an ASUS P2L97 motherboard with an award bios. The bios is at the most current level support by ASUS.
If you put the hdc drive on the primary IDE port instead, does it get detected properly? That is, is this problem specific to the drive or the fact that it is set up to be hdc rather than hdb/hda?
First, I have 3 identical drives. I have tried swapping them around. Any drive that is on the secondary channel is detected in normal node instead of LBA. It is not a problem with the motherboard because dos/Win95/Win98/WintNT will work with the drive correctly. Also when the bios detects the drives they are all detected in LBA mode. It appears that the kernel has a problem with the secondary channel.
One thing that I noticed is that you did not mention where you were putting the /boot Linux partition. You are going to need to locate that on 1 of the 2 drives that are on your primary channel. This will allow you to boot your Linux installtion. As for the drive recoginition during installtion, the kernal is in effect ignoring the stats of the drives on the secondary channel, as those drives cannot be used to boot the system. The fact that LBA mode is or is not being recognized by Linux is not really a concern, as the only thing the lack of LBA mode is going to cause problems during is accessing those drives from other operating sytems, not from within Linux.
> Last comments: > One thing that I noticed is that you did not mention where you were > putting the /boot Linux partition. You are going to need to locate > that on 1 of the 2 drives that are on your primary channel.This will > allow you to boot your Linux installtion. As for the drive > recoginition during installtion, the kernal is in effect ignoring > the stats of the drives on the secondary channel, as those drives > cannot be used to boot the system. No that is incorrect. I'm using PowerQuest's boot manager which allows linux to boot from the secondary channel. Lilo is installed on hdc(hdc5). > The fact that LBA mode is or is not being recognized by Linux is > not really a concern, as the only thing the lack of LBA mode is > going to cause problems during is accessing those > drives from other operating sytems, not from within Linux. Yes it is a concern. If the drive on the secondary channel has no partitions already defined then when I use disk druid/fdisk on linux they report that there are more than 1024 cyls and attempts to partition the drive are incorrect because it is partitioned without LBA translation. But if the drive has partitions on it already then the druid/fdisk can add or delete partition correctly. Question: Have you guys tried putting an IDE drive on the secondary channel as describe in the original opening of the problem. I'm not sure why we are discussing booting linux when the problem is simply drives on the secondary channel do not get recognized by Linux correctly. Win95/98/NT have no problem with the secondary channel.
We have been able to verify the problem in the testlab with the following configuration. 1.2 GB IDE primary 4.0 GB IDE secondary the bios info for the secondary controller isnt readily available for the kernel to access according to a developer. if you need to set geometries set them when you fdisk the drive (expert mode) - the kernel trusts the partition table above all else. Or you can just use hdc=ccc,hh,ss on the command line and this will also work. Then you can add it to your lilo.conf file to make it permanent.
LBA addressing isn't easy to get for drives other than primary. Under Linux you don't really need it anyway.