Hello again,
sorry for my late answer but I was not in my office yesterday.
First I'd like to explain why we need the correct bios-translation within
linux:
We install our Windows-boxes with a linux bootdisk like the project http://unattended.sourceforge.net
After creating and formatting the partitions with linux and dosemu we boot
dos from hd, and run the windows setup-script. It is running fine on any
hardware with kernel 2.2.22 and the patched 2.4.21-pre5.
These are our problems:
- We cannot read the mapping from the partition-table because in most
cases there are no partitions before booting linux!
- We also cannot supply a fixed mapping in the kernel append-line because
this would require an extra bootdisk for each hd.
Why not extend the append-parameter?
current:
give a fixed mapping to the kernel hda=1050,32,64
this may be a possible solution:
give a fixed mapping to the kernel hda=1050,32,64
use bios-supplied mapping: hda=bios-lba
read mapping from newer disk: hda=disk-lba
force a mapping with 255 heads like current kernel: hda=*,255,*
I think the kernel 2.2.22 was "more lucky" finding the correct mapping
because the very new disk-devices which cause the problem are only in use
since we have switched to kernel 2.4 ;-)
The problem only appears with the following parameters:
- very new hd (maxtor 4D040H2 from dec-2001 was running fine, but maxtor
6E040L0 manufactured oct-2002 does not. both disk are of the same size of
40GB)
- computer has a bios which uses 240-head mapping by default with this
disk. This applies to about the half of our pc-types, about 800 computers
alltogether. These are the desktops Compaq Evo 510 and HP Vectra Vli-8 and
the notebooks Compaq Evo N610c and HP Omnibook 6000. It will also hit the
HP Omnibook 6100 and the older HP Omnibook 4150 after installing a newer
hd.
I think that many brand-computers will get this problem with newer drives
attached and using dual-boot Linux-windows on the disk. This may cause
data-loss on the windows-partition, i fear.
hdparm output with kernel 2.2.22:
# cat /proc/version
Linux version 2.2.22 (root@fm) (gcc version 2.95.3 20010315 (SuSE)) #3 Sat
Oct 26 17:11:59 CEST 2002
# hdparm -i /dev/hda Maxtor 6E040L0, "bad disk"
/dev/hda:
Model=Maxtor 6E040L0, FwRev=NAR61590, SerialNo=E11G00EE
Config={ Fixed }
RawCHS=16383/16/63, TrkSize=0, SectSize=0, ECCbytes=57
BuffType=3(DualPortCache), BuffSize=2048kB, MaxMultSect=16, MultSect=off
DblWordIO=no, maxPIO=2(fast), DMA=yes, maxDMA=0(slow)
CurCHS=16383/16/63, CurSects=16514064, LBA=yes, LBAsects=78165360
tDMA={min:120,rec:120}, DMA modes: mword0 mword1 mword2
IORDY=on/off, tPIO={min:120,w/IORDY:120}, PIO modes: mode3 mode4
# hdparm -I /dev/hda
/dev/hda:
Model=aMtxro6 0E040L , FwRev=AN6R5109,
SerialNo=1EG100EE
Config={ Fixed }
RawCHS=16383/16/63, TrkSize=0, SectSize=0, ECCbytes=57
BuffType=3(DualPortCache), BuffSize=2048kB, MaxMultSect=16, MultSect=off
DblWordIO=no, maxPIO=2(fast), DMA=yes, maxDMA=0(slow)
CurCHS=16383/16/63, CurSects=16514064, LBA=yes, LBAsects=78165360
tDMA={min:120,rec:120}, DMA modes: mword0 mword1 mword2
IORDY=on/off, tPIO={min:120,w/IORDY:120}, PIO modes: mode3 mode4
# hdparm -i /dev/hda Maxtor 4D040H2, good disk
/dev/hda:
Model=Maxtor 4D040H2, FwRev=DAH017K0, SerialNo=D22AKNYE
Config={ Fixed }
RawCHS=16383/16/63, TrkSize=0, SectSize=0, ECCbytes=57
BuffType=3(DualPortCache), BuffSize=2048kB, MaxMultSect=16, MultSect=off
DblWordIO=no, maxPIO=2(fast), DMA=yes, maxDMA=0(slow)
CurCHS=16383/16/63, CurSects=16514064, LBA=yes, LBAsects=80043264
tDMA={min:120,rec:120}, DMA modes: mword0 mword1 mword2
IORDY=on/off, tPIO={min:120,w/IORDY:120}, PIO modes: mode3 mode4
# hdparm -I /dev/hda
/dev/hda:
Model=aMtxro4 0D042H , FwRev=AD0H710K,
SerialNo=2DA2NKEY
Config={ Fixed }
RawCHS=16383/16/63, TrkSize=0, SectSize=0, ECCbytes=57
BuffType=3(DualPortCache), BuffSize=2048kB, MaxMultSect=16, MultSect=off
DblWordIO=no, maxPIO=2(fast), DMA=yes, maxDMA=0(slow)
CurCHS=16383/16/63, CurSects=16514064, LBA=yes, LBAsects=80043264
tDMA={min:120,rec:120}, DMA modes: mword0 mword1 mword2
IORDY=on/off, tPIO={min:120,w/IORDY:120}, PIO modes: mode3 mode4
Regards
Harald Schäfer
-- General Logistics Systems Thomas Mieslinger German-Parcel-Str. 1-7 fon: +49 6677 17 463 36286 Neuenstein fax: +49 6677 17 111 Germany eMail: thomas.mieslinger@gls-germany.com - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/
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