Re: [FreeBSD 5.1] Large hard disks vs old BIOS (Thanks!)

From: Jehannes (john_at_ilseWITHOUTTHIS.nl)
Date: 10/29/04 

Date: 29 Oct 2004 13:00:28 GMT

Steven Maesslein <nobody@nowhere.invalid> wrote in
news:slrnco4av7.1g1.nobody@127.0.0.1:

> On 28 Oct 2004 21:08:04 GMT, Jehannes coughed into
> comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc and left this in
> <Xns9590EB5CA3B9Fjohnbeevernl@194.109.133.133>:
>
>> Is there a way to make FreeBSD 5.1 recognize hard disks larger than the
>> BIOS supports?
>> I read somewhere that Linux could do it through direct access to the
>> hardware.
>
> Both Linux and FreeBSD throw the BIOS out the window when it comes to
> disk access so that they have something that'll work in protected mode.
> One of the (fortunate) side effects of this is no longer being bound by
> the 1024 cylinder limit. The only time the BIOS (which only works in
> real mode) intervenes is in order to boot the machine, so this means
> that your kernel has to reside in an area which is accessible to the
> BIOS so that it can be loaded. However, once it is loaded and it has
> replaced the disk I/O routines in the BIOS, there are no practical
> restrictions. My previous machine's BIOS only handled 8GB disks, like
> yours, but it worked with an 80GB disk no problems.
>

Thank you for your stimulating replies. I plan to add a big disk to
an existing FreeBSD installation on an 8 gig disk. Running low on space..
Any special caveats, aside from the installation guide in the FreeBSD
handbook?
John 

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