Re: FreeBSD, 160GB HD, and a Bios limitation

On Tue, Nov 20, 2007 at 02:18:15AM -0700, Christoper Tucker wrote:

Hi there

I have a 600mhz PIII computer with an older BIOS that will not
recognize my 160GB new HD that I installed for use with FreeBSD.

I can install FBSD if I limit the drive to 32GB, but before I settle
with that, is there a way I can access the entire drive

|Have you tried and failed to install FreeBSD?

I have successfully installed FreeBSD with the drive limited to 32GB.

I have also successfully installed FreeBSD withthe drive set to 160GB,
although FBSD seems to see only 120GB of that, and also displays the
following warning during install:

"WARNING: A gemoetry of 248015/16/63 for ad0 is incorrect. Using a more
likely geometry. If this geometry is incorrect or you are unsure as to
whether or not it's correct, please consult the Hardware Guide int he
Documentation submenu or use the (G)eometry command to change it now.
Remember: you need to enter whatever your BIOS thinks the geometry is! For
IDE, it's what you were told in the BIOS setups. For SCSI, it's the
translation mode your controller is using. Do NOT use a "physical
geomtery.""

I can't guarantee that it applies to your situation, but I always get
those messages and just ignore them. FreeBSD deals with it correctly.

There are some FAQs and postings in the archive and a couple of online
articles that talk about it. I don't have time to go looking now, but
you can find it as easily as I can.

////jerry



I did not find a solution in the documentation. Using the (G)eometry
command is something I don't understand. :) My BIOS reads the drive fine
when it is limited to 32GB, or when the drive is limited to less than 66GB
(The drive size can by limited via a utility from Seagate ... i determined
that using a size of 61GB works fine in the BIOS, but using 66BG does not
work in the BIOS. There's probably an exact figure between 61 and 66GB
where the maximum is, but I decided not to do further tests)

Here's what FDISK reports during the FBSD install:
http://imagebin.org/11910
I used the "all" command here. Using the Seagate utility, the drive had
earlier been set to 160GB, yet the installer sees 120GB here, it seems.

DMESG report here:
http://imagebin.org/11911

df -h command result here:
http://imagebin.org/11912

If FreeBSD can use 120GB of the 160GB available, that's GREAT! I'd be
happy with that. But will there be any problems since the bios reports
only that a maximum drive size of 61-66GB is OK? If I select a disk size
larger than the 61GB figure (roughly) BIOS locks up on the hard drive
menu (the computer will boot, but if i try and view the HD section of the
BIOS menu, bios locks up and i have to ctrl-alt-del).

If FReeBSD can see 120GB, what happened to the other 40GB? Is there a
danger that I could wind up writing data to nowhere or having some other
disk problem if I install FBSD this way?

|Normally the limititation is just that the root partition must be within
|the area that the bios can see.

Thanks! Chris
_______________________________________________
freebsd-questions@xxxxxxxxxxx mailing list
http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions
To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxx"
_______________________________________________
freebsd-questions@xxxxxxxxxxx mailing list
http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions
To unsubscribe, send any mail to "freebsd-questions-unsubscribe@xxxxxxxxxxx"

Relevant Pages

  • RE: Trouble installing 6.1 on an old machine
    ... First the boot bios scan has changed between 4.11 and 6.0. ... Second problem is the size of the 5.2 and newer FreeBSD install kernel. ...
    (freebsd-questions)
  • Re: Trouble installing 6.1 on an old machine
    ... removing harddrives again. ... First the boot bios scan has changed between 4.11 and 6.0. ... Second problem is the size of the 5.2 and newer FreeBSD install kernel. ...
    (freebsd-questions)
  • Re: Installer does not detect video card (not an X issue)
    ... It is a command line tool. ... > auto install everything and detect everything. ... >> Video card is a Diamond Fire GL2 with a rather old BIOS. ...
    (comp.os.linux.questions)
  • Re: RAID Setup and DP35DP?
    ... BIOS 0262 "removed floppy menu screen for boards that don't support it" ... ... Thus I want to specify RAID now in the BIOS as Intel strongly recommends, ... All this I did OK last week with a Vista install, but that week taught me that I strongly want to be running WinXP instead. ...
    (comp.sys.intel)
  • Re: Reminder: Windows XP Runs Natively On Intel Macs
    ... All it does is pick a partition to use as the boot volume--it's not a bootloader. ... All the BIOS does is initialize the hardware and pass off to the bootloader. ... put the Vista install DVD in the drive, ...
    (comp.sys.mac.advocacy)