Re: stage1_lba trouble
On Wed, 11 Aug 1999, OKUJI Yoshinori wrote: > Really? LBA should allow to access <2TB. My manual says there is a 1024 cyl max. Not 65536, which you must be thinking of. > > My bios is from around 1995 (I think). It is an Award Software bios. I > > wouldn't be suprised if it's the bios' fault. I'll try to put some extra > > code in stage1_lba so I can find out which part it fails at. (It fails with carry set on the first LBA probe) > I can imagine three possible causes. The first is a bug in GRUB. The > second is a bug in your BIOS. The third is just because your drive > does not support LBA. I think the third is plausible, since old and > relatively small hard disk drives don't support LBA normally, and > some hard disk drives have jumpers for switching the access mode. To me, 2.5 G isn't relatively small. Maybe my drive really doesn't support it. Maybe my manual is talking about something that doesn't apply here. Is there any way I can check that normal stage1 can access all of my drive, so I don't have to bother with all this trouble?
Re: trying grub 0.5.92
> OKUJI Yoshinori writes: OY> No. When chainloading other bootloader, GRUB passes the boot OY> drive to the bootloader in the register %dl (Do not ask me why OY> %dl is used. This is just a convention.). The BIOS INT13 interface uses %dl, and bootloaders assume that their parent loaded them via INT13 and immediately transferred control, thereby leaving the boot drive in %dl. -- Gordon Matzigkeit <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> //\ I'm a FIG (http://www.fig.org/) Committed to freedom and diversity \// I use GNU (http://www.gnu.org/)
Re: trying grub 0.5.92
From: Jeff Sheinberg <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: trying grub 0.5.92 Date: Tue, 10 Aug 1999 20:46:17 -0400 (EDT) > root=(hd0,6) > kernel=/usr/lib/hwtools/memtest86.bin > memtest86.bin [Linux-zImage, setup=0x0, size=0x2d00] > boot I don't know what memtest86.bin is. Is it really compatible with Linux? > causes grub to hang. If seems to me that specifying `root=(hd0)' > here is essentially meaningless, so that grub should just load and > boot the chainloader at (fd0)+1, is that a correct interpretation? No. When chainloading other bootloader, GRUB passes the boot drive to the bootloader in the register %dl (Do not ask me why %dl is used. This is just a convention.). And GRUB should provide us the way to set the boot drive to an arbitrary value, whether the drive at which the bootloader is located differs from the boot drive that we specify or not. It is up to the user to set the root to a correct drive, isn't it? > 3. I like the new command completion, however, I have some > suggestions for a few improvements here, [snipped] > the emacs C-p, C-n keystrokes? (I would be happy with a 1 > item history list). Your suggestions have already been achieved by Klaus partially. And the rest is the very things that I want to do. -- OKUJI Yoshinori <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ^o-o^ http://duff.kuicr.kyoto-u.ac.jp/~okuji (in English) m /
Re: stage1_lba trouble
From: Mark Lundeberg <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Subject: Re: stage1_lba trouble Date: Tue, 10 Aug 1999 07:04:43 -0700 (PDT) > allows for 1 Gb access (by allowing 32 heads). The manual mentions a 528 > Mb limit for normal mode, and of course 8.4 G for LBA. Really? LBA should allow to access <2TB. > My bios is from around 1995 (I think). It is an Award Software bios. I > wouldn't be suprised if it's the bios' fault. I'll try to put some extra > code in stage1_lba so I can find out which part it fails at. I can imagine three possible causes. The first is a bug in GRUB. The second is a bug in your BIOS. The third is just because your drive does not support LBA. I think the third is plausible, since old and relatively small hard disk drives don't support LBA normally, and some hard disk drives have jumpers for switching the access mode. -- OKUJI Yoshinori <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> ^o-o^ http://duff.kuicr.kyoto-u.ac.jp/~okuji (in English) m /
trying grub 0.5.92
I made a grub bootable floppy with stage1 + stage2 dd-ed onto it as my vehicle for testing the new grub 0.5.92. 1. As reported previously, wrt 0.5, grub cannot boot a kernel image that is bootable from lilo. root=(hd0,6) kernel=/usr/lib/hwtools/memtest86.bin memtest86.bin [Linux-zImage, setup=0x0, size=0x2d00] boot at this point grub just hangs. 2. I had read on this list somewhere that grub could not boot the floppy that it had been originally booted from, so I tried to duplicate this behavior. chainloader=(fd0)+1 boot the prior set of commands worked ok, however, root=(hd0) chainloader=(fd0)+1 boot causes grub to hang. If seems to me that specifying `root=(hd0)' here is essentially meaningless, so that grub should just load and boot the chainloader at (fd0)+1, is that a correct interpretation? 3. I like the new command completion, however, I have some suggestions for a few improvements here, o complete all commands to the left of the `=' (yes, I am tired of typing chainloader so many times). o colors command does not do any completion to the right of the `='. (A colorful response would be nice here). o editing commands in place is missing the M-DEL, M-d, M-f, M-b, etc, emacs keystrokes. Also, the type-a-matic (key repeat rate) is too slow for impatient me. o completion of directories and filenames should put `/' and ` ' after their unique completions, respectively. o when I make a typing error, I would like to be able to recall the command that I just typed in error so that I can fix it up. How about a 10 item history list, accessed using the emacs C-p, C-n keystrokes? (I would be happy with a 1 item history list). I am sorry that all I can do is make suggestions, but I don't have any energy left for programming right now. Thanks, -- Jeff Sheinberg <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Re: stage1_lba trouble
On Tue, 10 Aug 1999, OKUJI Yoshinori wrote: > The real problem is not to detect LBA. Have you turned on LBA mode > for your drive really? Absolutely sure. I have 2 drives, my old 210 Mb on hd0, and a 2.5 G on hd1. My bios gives me 3 choices for access: Normal, large, and LBA. hd0 is normal, and hd1 is LBA. Large mode is some weird hack to normal mode that allows for 1 Gb access (by allowing 32 heads). The manual mentions a 528 Mb limit for normal mode, and of course 8.4 G for LBA. > That is not correct. Modern BIOSes allow heads up to 255. This > method is called "logical geometry" and "Large mode". The name > "logical geometry" is incorrect, because C/H/S is "logical" anyway, > though. So recent BIOSes should be able to access <8GB regions, > perhaps your BIOS can do. My bios is from around 1995 (I think). It is an Award Software bios. I wouldn't be suprised if it's the bios' fault. I'll try to put some extra code in stage1_lba so I can find out which part it fails at.
