Hi Alan. So you are still using Lilo - I thought Grub had taken over :/
I would try to use 32GB FAT32L, 1GB Linux /boot, 64 GB OpenBSD, and the rest of the Linux filesystems including / in Extended DOS. This puts Linux /boot and OpenBSD wd0a within in this case 35GB from disk start. / Raimo Niskanen, Erlang/OTP, Ericsson AB On Mon, Nov 23, 2015 at 11:52:10AM -0500, Alan Corey wrote: > It seems like there should be a better way to detect this other than > trial and error. I put a new 1 TB drive in my laptop (Seagate > ST1000LM024) about a month ago. Being aware there was such a limit I > made small boot partitions at the beginning of the drive (I thought): > 32 GB Windows, 64 GB OpenBSD, 32 GB Linux. As predicted everything > worked at first, then installing MeTV keys made my Linux unbootable > with an error from Lilo about the key file being corrupt and I suspect > it's related to this limit. The original position of the file was > probably OK, the new file got made in an unreachable position. > > So I've probably got some storage-only partitions that won't boot, but > I want to avoid the same thing happening when I put a 1 TB drive > (Seagate > ST31000340AS) in my laptop machine (Dell Optiplex GX270) because I > really would like Linux working somewhere since I want to play with > Android stuff. I need to be able to build kernels for my phones and > use Android Studio. > > So on the laptop: > Disk: wd0 geometry: 121601/255/63 [1953525168 Sectors] > Offset: 0 Signature: 0xAA55 > Starting Ending LBA Info: > #: id C H S - C H S [ start: size ] > ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- > *0: 0C 0 1 1 - 4079 254 63 [ 63: 65545137 ] Win95 FAT32L > 1: A6 4080 0 1 - 12365 254 63 [ 65545200: 133114590 ] OpenBSD > 2: 83 12366 0 1 - 16444 254 63 [ 198659790: 65529135 ] Linux files* > 3: 05 16445 0 62 - 121600 254 63 [ 264188986: 1689331079 ] Extended DOS > Offset: 264188986 Signature: 0xAA55 > Starting Ending LBA Info: > #: id C H S - C H S [ start: size ] > ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- > 0: 0B 16445 1 1 - 20524 254 63 [ 264188988: 65545137 ] Win95 FAT-32 > 1: 05 20525 0 1 - 24604 254 63 [ 329734125: 65545200 ] Extended DOS > 2: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0: 0 ] unused > 3: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0: 0 ] unused > Offset: 329734125 Signature: 0xAA55 > Starting Ending LBA Info: > #: id C H S - C H S [ start: size ] > ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- > 0: 0B 20525 1 1 - 24604 254 63 [ 329734188: 65545137 ] Win95 FAT-32 > 1: 05 24605 0 1 - 25114 254 63 [ 395279325: 8193150 ] Extended DOS > 2: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0: 0 ] unused > 3: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0: 0 ] unused > Offset: 395279325 Signature: 0xAA55 > Starting Ending LBA Info: > #: id C H S - C H S [ start: size ] > ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- > 0: 82 24605 1 1 - 25114 254 63 [ 395279388: 8193087 ] Linux swap > 1: 05 25115 0 1 - 88856 76 52 [ 403472475: 1024004005 ] Extended DOS > 2: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0: 0 ] unused > 3: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0: 0 ] unused > Offset: 403472475 Signature: 0xAA55 > Starting Ending LBA Info: > #: id C H S - C H S [ start: size ] > ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- > 0: A6 25115 63 37 - 88856 76 52 [ 403476480: 1024000000 ] OpenBSD > 1: 05 88857 0 1 - 121600 254 63 [ 1427487705: 526032360 ] Extended DOS > 2: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0: 0 ] unused > 3: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0: 0 ] unused > Offset: 1427487705 Signature: 0xAA55 > Starting Ending LBA Info: > #: id C H S - C H S [ start: size ] > ----------------------------------------------------------------------------- -- > 0: 83 88857 1 1 - 121600 254 63 [ 1427487768: 526032297 ] Linux files* > 1: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0: 0 ] unused > 2: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0: 0 ] unused > 3: 00 0 0 0 - 0 0 0 [ 0: 0 ] unused > > # /dev/rwd0c: > type: ESDI > disk: ESDI/IDE disk > label: ST1000LM024 HN-M > duid: abd27361b43df756 > flags: > bytes/sector: 512 > sectors/track: 63 > tracks/cylinder: 255 > sectors/cylinder: 16065 > cylinders: 121601 > total sectors: 1953525168 > boundstart: 65545200 > boundend: 198659790 > drivedata: 0 > > 16 partitions: > # size offset fstype [fsize bsize cpg] > a: 4194288 65545200 4.2BSD 2048 16384 1 # / > b: 524288 69739488 swap # none > c: 1953525168 0 unused > d: 6291456 70263776 4.2BSD 2048 16384 1 > e: 4194304 76555232 4.2BSD 2048 16384 1 # /home > g: 1024000000 403476480 4.2BSD 4096 32768 1 # /usr > i: 65545137 63 MSDOS # /win_c > j: 65529135 198659790 ext2fs # /linux0 > k: 65545137 264188988 MSDOS # /win_d > l: 65545137 329734188 MSDOS # /win_e > m: 8193087 395279388 unknown # none > n: 526032297 1427487768 ext2fs # /linux1 > > d530# calc ' 198659790 + 65529135 ' > 264188925 > d530# calc '264188925 / 16065' > 16445 > d530# calc '2 ^ 14' > 16384 > d530# > > If the BIOS only uses 14 bits for keeping track of the cylinder this may be the > problem. But how can we find this out? Both machines are running the > latest BIOS available from Dell. I have 32 gig msdos partitions > because I still use FAT32, and some Windows tool will delete a FAT32 > partition over 32 gigs, I've seen it happen. > > It seems like it should be possible to write a tool for this, you > create a partition, fill most of it with dummy files, then at the very > end put the file you want the BIOS to find, reboot and see if it still > finds it. If it does, you blow it away and keep making it bigger > until it doesn't work anymore. It probably comes down to a certain > number of bits used for addressing somewhere, but much depends on the > machine's BIOS and the hard drive's geometry. > > I used gparted (Linux live CD) for making these BTW, which doesn't > even know what an A6 partition is. Seems like it might be worth > educating them and maybe getting gparted into ports. My disklabel > here isn't quite up to date, my fstab mounts the 2nd OpenBSD partition > as /usr and the linux swap as a 2nd swap: > > /dev/wd0b none swap sw 0 0 > /dev/wd0m none swap sw 0 0 > /dev/wd0a / ffs rw 1 1 > /dev/wd0e /home ffs rw,nodev,nosuid 1 2 > /dev/wd0g /usr ffs rw,nodev 1 2 > /dev/wd0i /win_c msdos rw 0 0 > /dev/wd0k /win_d msdos rw 0 0 > /dev/wd0l /win_e msdos rw 0 0 > /dev/wd0j /linux0 ext2fs rw 0 0 > /dev/wd0n /linux1 ext2fs rw 0 0 > /dev/cd0a /cdrom cd9660 ro,noauto 0 0 > > > -- > Credit is the root of all evil. - AB1JX -- / Raimo Niskanen, Erlang/OTP, Ericsson AB
