Messages in this thread |  | | | Date | Wed, 29 Mar 2000 04:06:08 -0800 (PST) | | From | Andre Hedrick <> | | Subject | Re: Answer (Re: Cylinder limits jumper for drives over 32GB) |
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On Tue, 28 Mar 2000, H. Peter Anvin wrote:
> Andre... what we're trying to figure out if there is a way to this > *TRANSIENTLY*, so that a reset will set it back to the old value. > > However, if plugging in manual values in the BIOS works then that's > probably the recommended way, unless there really is an easy way to work > around. > > Remember... most hardware/firmware is broken. Part of what makes a good > OS is to work with broken hardware without sacrificing working with > properly working hardware. God knows I've messed lots with BIOS bugs.
Peter,
Please trust that I know the world is full of broken hardware, and even if you follow the exact OEM directions for the hardware, it still can go wrong. I see some of the worst night/day-mares in ATA hardware than anyone can imagine.
There is only three possible solutions for the 05/14/99 (and older) AWARD BIOS problem........ 1) Users purchase an ADD-ON card that will handle the large drives.
2) Users issues a bogus geometry to the BIOS and we ignore it and use the entire disk.
3) Users runs OEM capacity shrinking tool. Depend on Linux to issue READ/SET_MAX_ADDRESS and update the values "soft" and not clobber the "protected memory area". In principle, a reboot/power-cycle will revert the capacity back to 32GB so that one may reboot with out a hang.
This is the preferred order in my book.
FYI, I am working with the ADD-ON card manufacturers to get them to correct their BIOS code to prevent this problem.
Cheers,
Andre Hedrick The Linux ATA/IDE guy
I only got wierded out because of potential partition fragmentation if any goes wrong.
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