LBA and CHS parameters of my FBSD partition differ!

Ted Mittelstaedt tedm at toybox.placo.com
Mon May 16 00:05:47 PDT 2005


Yes, read question 4.2.4 from the installation notes:
http://www.freebsd.org/releases/5.4R/installation-i386.html

Ted

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Marcello Maggioni [mailto:hayarms at gmail.com]
> Sent: Sunday, May 15, 2005 2:30 AM
> To: Ted Mittelstaedt
> Cc: freebsd-questions at freebsd.org
> Subject: Re: LBA and CHS parameters of my FBSD partition differ!
>
>
> So are you saying that I should ignore the message during FBSD setup
> and also ignore the message from PM too?
>
> Just another question, is this "fact" common or I'm just the only one
> who get it ?:D
>
> Thanks again
>
> Marcello
>
> 2005/5/15, Ted Mittelstaedt <tedm at toybox.placo.com>:
> >
> > > Is this problem present silently with every OS (the
> problem exists but
> > > is not reported)
> >
> > yes.  But, why is it a problem?  It really isn't, you know.
> >
> > The only BIOS thing concerning hard disks that any modern operating
> > system
> > uses is the BIOS routines to load the kernel.  Whether the
> kernel is a
> > FreeBSD
> > kernel like FreeBSD, or a Windows kernel like NTKERNEL, once
> the kernel
> > and
> > disk drivers have been fetched from the hard disk, via BIOS
> code, they
> > are
> > loaded, and the operating system can now talk to the hard
> disk directly.
> >
> > Granted, if you use some real-mode program to partition the
> hard disk,
> > like
> > the Windows 98 fdisk program running under DOS, why then you
> are going to
> > be
> > concerned with things like this.  But, WinXP, Win2K, OS/2,
> all UNIXES,
> > they all require themselves to be booted and running.
> >
> > FreeBSD knows all about how to read partition tables that
> Windows OSes
> > have
> > left on the hard drive, so in a dual-boot situation it
> should keep clear
> > of the
> > Windows partition.  Windows knows all about how to read
> partition tables
> > that
> > itself writes, and God knows if it knows anything beyond that, so in
> > general
> > on dual-boot systems, if you follow the convention of loading Windows
> > first
> > followed by loading FreeBSD, then all the bits end up in the
> right place.
> >
> > Partition Magic is, in my opinion, nothing more than a
> crutch for lazy
> > people
> > who are too lazy to backup their Windows systems then
> reformat their hard
> > drives
> > with Windows and create with Windows a smaller partition,
> leaving free
> > space
> > for FreeBSD.  But of course, saying that is going to get
> people coming
> > out of
> > the woodwork to flame me.
> >
> > Ted
> >
> >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: Marcello Maggioni [mailto:hayarms at gmail.com]
> > > Sent: Sunday, May 15, 2005 1:58 AM
> > > To: Ted Mittelstaedt
> > > Cc: freebsd-questions at freebsd.org
> > > Subject: Re: LBA and CHS parameters of my FBSD partition differ!
> > >
> > >
> > > Very bad...
> > >
> > > My motherboard (Abit KV7) has 8 different bios release and none of
> > > these seems to solve this issue.  My 30GB disk on the other IDE
> > > channel seems to work fine with FreeBSD.
> > > Is this problem present silently with every OS (the
> problem exists but
> > > is not reported) or only with FBSD?
> > >
> > > Thanks
> > >
> > > Marcello
> > >
> > > 2005/5/15, Ted Mittelstaedt <tedm at toybox.placo.com>:
> > > >
> > > > Well, your skirting the thin edge since you obviously have a
> > > dual-boot
> > > > system - but if a fsck of the FreeBSD partition, and a
> > > chkdsk /f of the
> > > > XP partition turn up nothing, your probably fine.
> > > >
> > > > What is going on is your motherboard BIOS is old, and
> > > doesen't understand
> > > > disk drives that report more than
> > > >
> > > > cylinders             16383
> > > > heads                 16
> > > > sectors/track         63
> > > >
> > > > and furthermore doesen't understand LBA mode all that
> well either.
> > > > Basically,
> > > > the OS (either Windows or FreeBSD) does a BIOS call at boot
> > > to figure out
> > > > the
> > > > size of the disk, and what they are both getting back
> > > differs from what
> > > > the
> > > > drive reports when the disk driver queries it directly.
> > > >
> > > > If your motherboard is reasonably supported the manufacturer
> > > may have a
> > > > BIOS update that might fix this.  Otherwise, if everything
> > > is working,
> > > > leave well enough alone.
> > > >
> > > > The failure that can result if your not lucky is that one OS
> > > scribbles on
> > > > the others space on the disk.
> > > >
> > > > For people that only run a single OS on the computer, these error
> > > > messages
> > > > can be ignored - unless, that is, after installation, the FreeBSD
> > > > partition
> > > > fails to boot.
> > > >
> > > > Ted
> > > >
> > > > > -----Original Message-----
> > > > > From: owner-freebsd-questions at freebsd.org
> > > > > [mailto:owner-freebsd-questions at freebsd.org]On Behalf
> Of Marcello
> > > > > Maggioni
> > > > > Sent: Saturday, May 14, 2005 4:09 PM
> > > > > To: freebsd-questions at freebsd.org
> > > > > Subject: LBA and CHS parameters of my FBSD partition differ!
> > > > >
> > > > >
> > > > > Hi all,
> > > > >
> > > > > I have FreeBSD 5.4 installed after a buildworld from 5.3 .
> > > > >
> > > > > The problem is that during the setup of the system a
> > > warning message
> > > > > appeared and notified me something about "Wrong disk
> geometry" or
> > > > > something like that. I ignored the message and
> installed the system
> > > > > which booted and worked fine .
> > > > >
> > > > > Today, from my WinXP disk I loaded Partition Magic 8 and
> > > this warned
> > > > > me that my FBSD partition has different LBA and CHS
> parameters and
> > > > > that this is wrong, because these two should be identical
> > > and asked me
> > > > > if I would like to correct this. I answered no, bue what
> > > should I do?
> > > > > Why there is this incongruency in these 2 parameters?
> > > > >
> > > > > Thanks
> > > > >
> > > > > Marcello
> > > > > _______________________________________________
> > > > > freebsd-questions at freebsd.org mailing list
> > > > > http://lists.freebsd.org/mailman/listinfo/freebsd-questions
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> > > > >
> > > >
> > > >
> > >
> >
> >
>



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