I have been trying without success to configure a 32MB IDE flash module to operate under Plan 9. The geometry is one of two options, c=489, h=4, s=32 or c=31, h=32, s=32, the sector size is the normal 512 bytes and the full capacity is 62592 sectors. I can't convince Plan 9 to accept the latter geometry and, in my rather ignorant state, I believe that accessing parts (partitions) of the flash using the former geometry is responsible for the I/O errors that occur.
I can read and write the entire image using dd(1), irrespective of geometry and I have used disksim to build an image using the second geometry, but installing this on the flash has not made it possible to boot a Plan 9 kernel. I'm not sure what I should try next, I would like to force a different geometry on the sd(3) driver, but writing a new geometry to the ctl file, in keeping with the documentation, just triggers an error. ++L
