hard disk problem

[albert at ccs.neu.edu (Albert Cahalan)]

> To clarify things a bit: we did get rid of On-track's Disk Manager,
> first by using On-track's software to get rid of the stuff on the boot
> sector, and (when that didn't fix the problem) also by doing "fdisk
> /mbr" under DOS, and repartitioning the whole hard disk from scratch.
> As I said, DOS (about 11 MB in partition 1) boots up fine in any case
> (whether I but in 708 cylinders or 1416 cylinders in the BIOS) and
> things seem to work.  But when booting up under Linux, the system
> complains that it can not read the partition table.

Can it even read the disk?  Try 'cat /dev/hda >> /dev/null' and
see if the disk runs.

> > Set the BIOS to be the true characteristics of the drive. (1416,16,63)

Hey, your hard disk is the same size as mine!  Time for a hack.
It is a terrible sacrifice, but I will donate my healthy boot
sector to save your ailing computer.  :-)

begin 644 bootsect.gz
M'XL("/EMOC`"`V)O;W1S96-T`.V1RVL3813%S\W$B5:3"0;C0E#!!]:B3#:^
M;01!+*38I(C)1*MN!,'5$'0[6@@S10;7=5,*W0B%`8>0I$4GF1:RB8PBI4L?
M+4R:E083'R7C-R"XT/]`#YP?AWLO7+BW?2,UDKI"$.!Y$H!7H_?$4X82H=,^
M3OK`+YT/*QP-^TCZH+`2I(`/S@?^JK(5TE<?\Q*T$UEH>Z]#C4^@C&G=JH`&
MNX/>9F=N0P6FO^NKNK4(HXPGNO/#"+L9&`/N*(R4>QDOAK"`Z.:\5IO7ZML:
MA3V7#'*'(?,/;03:KOK.W8F$I=:;L?9;8\3=C0VV^NF8Y09=0O:@$!3/G9$#
MP9#HF9%FU&Z9:,VB6[]0^*)\>#E;I71F/)TQM_+7FK&;(?FCVI'4>)G4SV)7
M[673Q::S["PKZYP6,2DW^3ZI14K4^]2OJ_$*)=Y<['74E2DV?Y8WZ4&ZN.0T
MG,8`7R&MEC^4!,=76:=$][?/E. at H*_>M-C=3I;%Q]QCR62DG'SC"1 at K[Q#6J
M*2LH+F&-;'E'ZZXGY?)2SF9.6-_LK_;QJ<//J1FS`[_/JQ"!%[Q^DN77"P)C
GS9L4/"^Z*"`ZMP5@^1'S_MN[<.O.G^^Y^@S_]4_K)^WUOPP`!```
`
end

Uudecode, gunzip, and transfer to your bootsector with dd.
You will end up with 1023 cyl DOS, about 400 Linux, and
some swap.  You will also get LILO, but it will not work
until you reinstall it yourself.

Tell the BIOS the truth about your disk - that is what I did,
and your BIOS must match mine.  After you set up the partitions,
reboot and install DOS.  That low partition must have a filesystem
so that you can install LILO.  Run the Linux setup program.
LILO will not install correctly.  Make a directory in the low
partition, /dos/linux/boot for example.  (you will need to mount
it yourself)  Copy everything from /boot there and replace /boot
with a symlink to the new location.  Now you can install LILO.

> We are getting sort of desperate, and also can't get the kernel to
> recognize the NEC x4 CD-ROM driver (attached to a NEC 16-bit AT SCSI
> Host Adapter).  We are trying to install Slackware from a CD-ROM, and
> none of the SCSI boot disks have been able to recognize /dev/scd0 or
> /dev/scd1.  (The kernel always reports 0 SCSI Hosts).  We should
> probably do some more reading on the SCSI-HOWTO,

You should.  I think NEC is Buslogic compatible, but I do not know.
Check the date on your software - Slackware itself, not the CD.
Does your controller have a BIOS enabled?  If not, there is no way
to autodetect it.  Pass the info on the LILO command line.
For example, my SB16/SCSI is Adaptec compatible but has no BIOS.
I need to use aha152x=0x340,11,7,1, or append="aha152x=0x340,11,7,1"
in /etc/lilo.conf.  Maybe your CD is set to the same ID as the
controller card.  BTW, are you really sure it is SCSI?

> but the hard disk problem is really a puzzle to use.
> My colleague has ordered a new hard disk and see if
> changing the hard disk will fix the problem.
> Otherwise, I'm afraid that we (the Linux user community)
> will lose another convert.

He is using hardware designed for a 16-bit OS that does not
protect itself or provide many basic services.  He should get
a Sun if he can't deal with PC hardware - nothing to be ashamed
of really.  Many people prefer the Mac even.