On 10/11/09, Nick Holland <n...@holland-consulting.net> wrote:
> Michael wrote:
>> On 10/11/09, Fred Crowson <fred.crow...@googlemail.com> wrote:
>>> On 10/11/09, Michael <ber...@opensuse.us> wrote:
>>>> I think I found the source of several problems on my hd.
>>>> I have an 40 gig hd (WDC WD400BB-75DEA0) that right now has:
>>>> #1: primary partition with Windows 2kpro
>>>> #2: extended partition with Windows D partition, PCLinuxOS, and extra
>>>> ext2fs partitions for files
>>>> #3. end of hd has my primary partition with OpenBSD 4.4
>>>>
>>>> OpenBSD and dos(partition magic) both show geometry of 4863,255,63
>>>> linux shows geometry of 4865,255,63). Actual sectors (even printed on
>>>> hd) is 78125000, but linux shows 78156225.
>
> well, if Linux is not using those last two cylinders, don't sweat
> it, it Just Doesn't Matter. It only matters if you try to write
> something where nothing is.
>
> If I tell you the edge of the cliff is 100M. away, and someone else
> tells you it is 102M. away, and you are pretty sure that ONE of us
> is telling the truth, you can wander 100M minus your shoe size
> safely. The fact that we disagree doesn't mater, just don't go those
> last 2M. If OpenBSD is the more conservative report, and you have
> OpenBSD at the end of the disk, you should have no issues.
>
>>>> I don't know what to do to fix that.
>
> don't even try. you will just break things.
>
>>>> The systems have been running ok, but I can't mount the PCLinuxOS
>>>> partition from OpenBSD
>
> is it ext2? if not, that would be expected.
>
>>>> and when trying to install 4.5 or 4.6, I get
>>>> the ERR M problem.
>
> totally unrelated.
>
> Could your machine your machine have a BIOS limitation? 32G is a not
> uncommon BIOS limitation, if you had your OpenBSD partition above that
> point, a BIOS upgrade would be high on my list of things to check.
>
> There were some motherboards shipping with buggy BIOSs with 32G issues
> long after much larger disks were commonplace.
>
>>>> I use Windows strictly for powerpoint files and I don't get on the
>>>> internet with it, linux for flash and other junk like that. OpenBSD is
>>>> my main running system.
>>>>
>>>> Any help greatly appreciated. I tried google, but didn't see anything
>>>> to fix this.
>>>
>>> How are you getting the various OS to boot?
>>>
>>> A bit more info would be a help...
>>>
>>> Fred
>>>
>> Didn't think about that :)
>> Was 2nd guessing what info would be needed (good info=OpenBSD vs bad
>> info=linux).
>> Right now, I'm using Air-Boot, but also have used grub.
>
> Ick. ok, what happens if you quit trying to be fancy, and just set
> the active partition to OpenBSD and quit trying to multiboot it?
> No Air-boot, no grub, just a standard MBR/PBR?
> Considering how some of those multi-boot programs try to "help" you,
> nothing surprises me when they break.
>
> The PBR (what is giving you the "ERR M", see FAQ14) has a relatively
> small set of things that can go wrong. ERR M means that what it was
> installed to load is not (currently) /boot. This means either the
> BIOS delivered something other than /boot, or you are running a PBR
> that hasn't been updated since your last OpenBSD install (hint: some
> multiboot systems will save a copy of your PBR for them to use,
> instead of the one OpenBSD installs to boot the OS, and they rarely
> know when to update it when you reinstall the system!) or the /boot
> file got clobbered somehow.
>
> Nick.
>
>
Thanks Nick for all the info. "I had to sleep on it" :)
I don't know if we got off-track or I don't know/understand the problem.
These systems have been booting and running for quite some time
(years), except for when I do fresh installs of OpenBSD. No problems
with the bootloader.
I'm on OpenBSD now, so I can give this info:
# disklabel wd0
# Extended partition 1: type 0F start 12562830 size 51568650
# Extended partition 1: type 05 start 13028715 size 25591545
# Extended partition 1: type 05 start 38620260 size 1028160
# Inside MBR partition 2: type A6 start 64131480 size 14024745
# /dev/rwd0c:
type: ESDI
disk: ESDI/IDE disk
label: WDC WD400BB-75DE
flags:
bytes/sector: 512
sectors/track: 63
tracks/cylinder: 255
sectors/cylinder: 16065
cylinders: 4863
total sectors: 78125000
rpm: 3600
interleave: 1
trackskew: 0
cylinderskew: 0
headswitch: 64131480 # microseconds
track-to-track seek: 78125000 # microseconds
drivedata: 0
16 partitions:
# size offset fstype [fsize bsize cpg]
a: 1028160 64131480 4.2BSD 2048 16384 1
b: 1060290 65159640 swap
c: 78125000 0 unused 0 0
d: 3084480 66219930 4.2BSD 2048 16384 1
e: 6152895 69304410 4.2BSD 2048 16384 1
f: 2265165 75457305 4.2BSD 2048 16384 1
i: 12562767 63 MSDOS
j: 13028652 12562893 MSDOS
k: 25591482 25591608 ext2fs
l: 1028097 51183153 unknown
m: 11920167 52211313 ext2fs
fdisk wd0
Disk: wd0 geometry: 4863/255/63 [78125000 Sectors]
Offset: 0 Signature: 0xAA55
Starting Ending LBA Info:
#: id C H S - C H S [ start: size ]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
0: 0B 0 1 1 - 781 254 63 [ 63: 12562767 ] Win95 FAT-32
1: 0F 782 0 1 - 3991 254 63 [ 12562830: 51568650 ] Extended LBA
*2: A6 3992 0 1 - 4864 254 63 [ 64131480: 14024745 ] OpenBSD
3: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0: 0 ] unused
Offset: 12562830 Signature: 0xAA55
Starting Ending LBA Info:
#: id C H S - C H S [ start: size ]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
0: 0B 782 1 1 - 1592 254 63 [ 12562893: 13028652 ] Win95 FAT-32
1: 05 1593 0 1 - 3185 254 63 [ 25591545: 25591545 ] Extended DOS
2: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0: 0 ] unused
3: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0: 0 ] unused
Offset: 25591545 Signature: 0xAA55
Starting Ending LBA Info:
#: id C H S - C H S [ start: size ]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
0: 83 1593 1 1 - 3185 254 63 [ 25591608: 25591482 ] Linux files*
1: 05 3186 0 1 - 3249 254 63 [ 51183090: 1028160 ] Extended DOS
2: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0: 0 ] unused
3: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0: 0 ] unused
Offset: 51183090 Signature: 0xAA55
Starting Ending LBA Info:
#: id C H S - C H S [ start: size ]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
0: 82 3186 1 1 - 3249 254 63 [ 51183153: 1028097 ] Linux swap
1: 05 3250 0 1 - 3991 254 63 [ 52211250: 11920230 ] Extended DOS
2: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0: 0 ] unused
3: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0: 0 ] unused
Offset: 52211250 Signature: 0xAA55
Starting Ending LBA Info:
#: id C H S - C H S [ start: size ]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
0: 83 3250 1 1 - 3991 254 63 [ 52211313: 11920167 ] Linux files*
1: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0: 0 ] unused
2: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0: 0 ] unused
3: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0: 0 ] unused
$ uname -a
OpenBSD NYET.my.domain 4.4 GENERIC#0 i386
The problem is that I can't mount wd0m, but can mount all other partitions.
Also, I have been running OpenBSD on it's partition since about 4.2,
but if I try to do a newer install (4.5 or 4.6) on that partition, I
get a installboot error and then the ERR M error when I go ahead and
try to boot it anyway (knowing it won't work).
I just thought that trying to upgrade my system to 4.5 or 4.6 might be
related to how the different systems read what is on the hd.
I can wait till the 1st and install 4.6 again (since I couldn't buy
the cd set this time) with the info you gave me about /boot and see if
it will work.
Thanks for all the help.
