Re: Lockups related to (possibly IDE issues) ?

[nospam@xxxxxxxxxxxxx (Jamie)]

In <5729.66.195.169.42.1157732403.squirrel@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>,
"Justin C. Sherrill" <justin@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> mentions:
>On Fri, September 8, 2006 11:09 am, Jamie wrote:
>
>> Linux is on /dev/hda2 and DragonFly is /dev/hda1 (not sure exactly what
>> those equate to in terms of dragonflyBSD devices, it's the first partition
>> though)
>
>If there's a problem with the disk, and it's in the sectors being used for
>DragonFly, that would explain why the Linux install isn't having any
>noticealbe problems.  If you have time, it may be worth trying to install
>Linux over the DragonFly partition, to see if the same symptoms happen.

Was in the process of doing that when I read a warning from the FreeBSD
install process:

The Geometry: 
24792 Cyls/255 Heads/63 Sectors/398_283_480 is incorrect, please

specify what the BIOS thinks is the correct geometry.

Linux "cfdisk" reported: 

Heads/16 Cyl/395136 Sectors-track: 63 Size 203_928_109_056

The two fdisks gave different geometries.

In my BIOS, it's "Auto" (blank, I can key in the geometry manually, I tried,
but there isn't enough space in the fields)

Awhile ago, I recall reading that linux ignored the BIOS for disk geometry
and instead just read the drive itself.

So...

What is BIOS's version of the geometry in relation to the DragonFly booting 
process? 

I'm a little concerned about entering the wrong settings, as I really don't
want anything to attemp access to portions of the drive that are invalid,
possibly physically destroying the drive itself? (I'm NOT worried about the
data at this point, there isn't any.. but physical damage is a problem.)

As luck would have it, the specifications for the drive don't actually
give the geometry, neither does their website. I can't be sure what the
correct one is.

I'll need to do some more reading before attempting a test install of 
FreeBSD, I really want to make sure it's "safe".

Jamie
-- 
http://www.geniegate.com                    Custom web programming
guhzo_42@xxxxxxxxx (rot13)                User Management Solutions