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SubjectDisk geometry bug.

I ran into a strange problem when trying to install Linux. The
problem was that Linux seemed to be getting the physical disk geometry
where it should have been getting the bios disk geometry. The story
is as follows.

I have Linux (kernel 1.2.13, libc 4.6.27, gcc 2.6.3) running on a
Pentium PCI system with 2 IDE controllers on the motherboard. It has
a 1gb hard disk. We got some new pentiums in the office, and I needed
to install Linux on them. They also have 1gb hard disks.

To do the installation, I reformated the new disk to give it a 64meg
dos partition, then yanked the hard disk out of the new machine, and
stuck it into my machine as the master drive on the 2nd controller.

I set up the bios for the new disk as 525 cyl, 64 heads,
63 sectors, which is in fact the same as hda. However, when Linux
booted, it showed:

hda: ST51080A, 1033MB w/256KB Cache, LBA, CHS=525/64/63, MaxMult=32
hdc: WDC AC21000H, 1033MB w/128KB Cache, LBA, CHS=2100/16/63, MaxMult=16

Note that hdc is showing the physical geometry instead of the bios
geometry.

It took me awhile to notice this. In fact, before I noticed, I used
fdisk to make a Linux partition and swap space on hdc, and even though
I was getting all sorts of weird complaints from fdisk, I went ahead
and copied hda's Linux partition onto hdc. I didn't realize I had a
serious problem until I stuck the disk back into the new machine and
tried to install Lilo, which then gave me all sorts of complaints
about the new disk.

After I finally realized what was going on, I stuck the new disk back
into my machine, and booted Linux with the kernel parameters
hdc=525,64,63. Linux gave the following boot message:

hda: ST51080A, 1033MB w/256KB Cache, LBA, CHS=525/64/63, MaxMult=32
hdc: WDC AC21000H, 1033MB w/128KB Cache, LBA, CHS=525/64/63, MaxMult=16

Fdisk then ran with neither warnings nor errors, and when I stuck the
new disk back into the new machine, Lilo installed itself without
complaints.

So, what do you think the problem is? Is it a BIOS bug or is it an ide
driver bug? If you need any more details, or would like me to run
some more tests, please email me at the address below.

Thanks,

Dr. Harvey J. Stein
Berger Financial Research
abel@netvision.net.il


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