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Path: euryale.cc.adfa.oz.au!newshost.anu.edu.au!harbinger.cc.monash.edu.au!news.mira.net.au!inquo!in-news.erinet.com!bug.rahul.net!rahul.net!a2i!genmagic!sgigate.sgi.com!swrinde!newsfeed.internetmci.com!taurus.bv.sgi.net!usenet From: "Vadim S. Carter" <vadim@acnc.com> Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.bsdi.misc Subject: Re: Getting BSDI 2.1 to boot from SCSI HD/Adaptec 2940W Date: Mon, 06 May 1996 09:32:23 -0700 Organization: Advanced Computer & Network Corporation Lines: 93 Message-ID: <318E2997.7C03@acnc.com> References: <4m6js0$49u@news.inforamp.net> Reply-To: vadim@acnc.com NNTP-Posting-Host: dialup9.bv.sgi.net Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.0b3 (Win16; I) markjr@shmooze.net wrote: > [snip] > but if someone would explain to me like I'm a four-year-old > how to install it, or an fdisk table, it would be great. > > (I've been playing around with disksetup and bootany to no avail) > > I guess one important note, is i've tried re-installing a couple > times, but after it loads everything, it seems to hang before that > magical part where it asks you about boot options. So I just need > to know what was _supposed_ to happen there. [snip] Mark, I think I have something that may help you. The message that follows, was posted to one of the BSDI newsgroups sometime in February. Keep in mind, that not having an fdisk table on your drive may not be your problem. Check your adapter settings and termination as well as settings on your SCSI devices. GOOD LUCK. > I currently have an Adaptec 2940 running with BSDI 2.1 on a year old Micron > P90 PCI (Saturn chipset) with two 1G Conner 1080S drives. Luckily, I had an > emergency backup machine to test the upgrade on, as there is one big > potential > problem with the controller BIOS. The following is a quote from Paul Borman > at BSDI: > > > "> Note that the 2940 requires BIOS boot blocks and not AHA boot blocks. > > > > A disk label created by one SCSI controller might not be valid for use by > > the BIOS of another SCSI controller. We have also noticed, as mentioned > > in the READ ME FIRST notes, that there are starting to be more and more > > controllers which require and FDISK table, even if you are only installing > > BSD/OS. The express install will always create an FDISK table, but during > > a custom install you must create one yourself if you have one of these > cards. > > It is always safe to put an FDISK table on the disk and it does not even > > reduce the amount of space available to you. > > > > Make sure that the geometry used by the FDISK table is the same as the > > BIOS geometry. > > > > You may need to run disksetup with the -II option to ignore the current > > labels (both the BSD and FDISK labels) when rebuilding a disk for a > > different controller. > > > > If you are really careful (and after backing up your entire disk) you > > can wedge an FDISK table on a disk that currently does not have one. > > Run "disksetup -i" and say you have co-residency. Say that BSD/OS and > > DOS is *not* your setup. Once you get into the FDISK screen, add exactly > > one partition that starts at 0 and is the whole disk of type BSDI, make > > sure you mark it active! Use your old BSD disklabel when asked (it should > > still work). Install bootany.sys, but when asked if BSD is bootable, > > say NO!!! Install the appropriate boot blocks (almost always the bios > > bootblocks these days) and write everything out. The 2.1 version of > > bootany will not ask any questions and should boot BSD directly. If you > > had said "YES" that BSD was bootable it would have prompted you to press > > <F1>. See bootany(8) for more information about bootany." > > > I was able to use my old AHA1542 to install the upgrade, reboot to make sure > that > it was running, and then run disksetup to create an FDISK table and install > the BIOS > boot blocks. After that, I halted the machine, turned it off, took out the > 1542 and > put in the 2940. I then rebooted, rebuilt the kernel, merged the various > *.bdsi files > with their counterparts, rebooted again, and have been up and running since > Saturday at 4:00 pm. The machine is used for approx. 200 e-mail users, and a > lightly hit WWW server. At reboot, the fsck and quota check steps are now > about twice as fast as with the 1542. File searches with "find" are also now > much faster. I haven't run any other benchmarks. > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- > Paul P. Demediuk > Washington University School of Medicine > Neurology Box 8111, 660 S Euclid Ave > St Louis, MO 63110 > Phone: 314-362-4206 Fax: 314-362-9462 > ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- |~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~| |Vadim S. Carter Director of Technical Services | |2008 Murray Ave., Suite A1 Advanced Computer & Network Corp. | |Pittsburgh, PA 15217 | |Phone: 412-521-0730 "High Performance, Fault Tolerant | |Fax: 412-521-6617 Open Systems architecture | |e-mail: vadim@acnc.com Storage Solutions" | ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~