On Tue, May 29, 2007 at 11:52:46PM +0200, openbsd misc wrote: > Hello, > > I'm not a guru, but I'm working with openbsd and wrap systems for one > year ... ;-) > > >> The ";" at the end here means that the WRAP BIOS said it could not do > >> LBA reads, so biosboot fell back to CHS reads. > >> > >> > >>> No O/S > >>> > >> > >> And since you installed on a different machine, the geometry was > >> almost certainly different, so the operating system wouldnt be at > >> the same place (cylinder/head/sector), hence it's not found. > >> > >> No idea how you can fix it, though. > >> > >> Tom > >> > > > > Thanks anyway, it's a clue at least. > > Maybe some of the gurus here know it? > > You can set the bios to lba mode (press s during mem-test to access > bios). Btw, openbsd is the only OS having that problem ... LBA mode on > wrap systems means fix geometry (C/H/S x/32/63 - while the cylinder > count defines the size), so you can use fdisk with the geometry > parameters to configure your cf correctly. > > I have another problem with openbsd 4.1 and wrap systems. I create an > image using flashdist and the wrapper script (incl. some modification, > but that should make any difference). For openbsd 4.0 everything works > fine, but doesn't for openbsd 4.1. I think the problem is related to the > geometry problem descriped abouve. To create an image I defined C/H/S to > 118/32/63 (none of the systems I have has less than 128MB) for fdisk and > disklabel. First time I created an image file that worked fine until > vnconfig -u. After attaching the image again (vnconfig -c) I wasn't able > to mount the partitions. The geometry was completly different. So I > added the -i option to fdisk and the -r option disklabel. Afterwards I > was able to mount everything again after detaching /attaching the image > file. > After writing the image to a cf card everything works fine on openbsd > 4.1. > > Now here is the problem: The boot loader is not able to access the cf: > > disk: hd0* > >> OpenBSD/i386 BOOT 2.13 > open(hd0a:/etc/boot.conf): Invalid argument > boot> ls > stat(hd0a:/.): Invalid argument > boot> machine diskinfo > Disk BIOS# Type Cyls Heads Secs Flags Checksum > hd0 0x80 label 126 32 63 0x0 0xd8c3c6b3 > > I think that fdisk is the problem. disklabel runs after fdisk, but > disklabel defines the geometry (geometry options are set for fdisk but > it looks like they are ignored?!) - remember the -r option - I don't > know what fdisk exactly does (perhaps telling the boot-loader something > about the geometry during setup?!). > > I hope someone has an answer or can give hints. The behavior shows a > different between openbsd 4.0-release and openbsd 4.1-stable, but I > wasn't able to find anything in changelog that could explain the > bahavior and more important how to fix it. > > I hope my english isn't too bad, please let me know if something isn't > clear ... > > Regards > Hagen Volpers >
The fdisk/disklabel geometry confusion was fixed (?) in -current a while ago. If you are brave enough to try a snapshot generated during a hackathon I would suggest trying -current to see if the behaviour has become more rational. Or find that it hasn't and it can be fixed while all the developers are in a room in Calgary. .... Ken
