RSPELLMAN@bat.bates.edu (06/08/90)
I am trying to install AT&T UNIX System V/386 Release 3.2 onto an AT&T 6386 WGS. The disk drive I am trying to use is a Miniscribe 6128 (1024 cylinders, 8 heads, 26 sectors), with a Western Digital WD1003-RAH controller. The controller and drive are RLL. The bios doesn't have a drive type that corresponds with the drive. The closest the bios can come is drive type 29 (614 cylinders, 8 heads, 26 sectors). When I install UNIX, it will only format the first 614 cylinders. I've tried using Ontrack's Disk Manager (it came with the drive) to create a partition for UNIX, but when I try to install UNIX, it croaks when trying to format the 615th cylinder. Is there some way I can get UNIX to use the whole drive? Rob Spellman RSpellman@Bat.Bates.edu
rick@tmiuv0.uucp (06/11/90)
In article <23566@adm.BRL.MIL>, RSPELLMAN@bat.bates.edu writes: [excuse the liberal editing...] > I am trying to install AT&T UNIX System V/386 Release 3.2 onto an > AT&T 6386 WGS. The disk drive I am trying to use is a Miniscribe > 6128 (1024 cylinders, 8 heads, 26 sectors), with a Western Digital > WD1003-RAH controller. The closest the bios can come is drive type > 29 (614 cylinders, 8 heads, > 26 sectors). > > When I install UNIX, it will only format the first 614 cylinders. > I've tried using Ontrack's Disk Manager (it came with the drive) to > create a partition for UNIX, but when I try to install UNIX, it > croaks when trying to format the 615th cylinder. > > Is there some way I can get UNIX to use the whole drive? Rob, You should use the "user defined" drive type (under AMI BIOS, it's number 47, I believe). Run your AT setup program and select the "user defined" drive type. Give it the full geometry of the drive (1024 cylinders, etc.). Unix should have no problems after that. The reason it "croaks" on the 615th cylinder is because BIOS only knows about 614. Using Disk Manager will work only for DOS (it adds a driver to your config.sys file and a few other things). On top of that, you only need Disk Manager if you're running something less than DOS 4.x. -- .-------------------------------------------------------------------------. / [- O] Rick Stevens (All opinions are mine. Everyone ignores them anyway.) \ | ? +--------------------------------------------------------------------| | V | uunet!zardoz!tmiuv0!rick (<-- Work (ugh!)) | |--------+ uunet!zardoz!xyclone!sysop (<-- Home Unix (better!)) | | uunet!perigrine!ccicpg!conexch!amoeba2!rps2 (<-- Home Amiga (Best!!) | \ 75006.1355@compuserve.com (CIS: 75006,1355) (<-- CI$) / `-------------------------------------------------------------------------' "I was Caesarean born. When I leave the house, I use the window." - Steven Wright
det@hawkmoon.MN.ORG (Derek E. Terveer) (06/14/90)
In article <23566@adm.BRL.MIL> RSPELLMAN@bat.bates.edu writes: > [...] WD1003-RAH controller. The controller and drive are RLL. The bios > doesn't have a drive type that corresponds with the drive. > When I install UNIX, it will only format the first 614 cylinders. > [..] it croaks when trying to format the 615th cylinder. > Is there some way I can get UNIX to use the whole drive? If it is a relatively recent controller, it should have its own bios and menu program built into the card. This is the case with the wd1006v card. Try booting a dos floppy and then type: A> debug g=cc00:5 and see if you get a menu. If you *do* get a menu, one of the choices should be the specification of drive parameters (perhaps disk type #1). Of course, you should check out the USER'S guide that should accompany the controller or you can order one from western digital by calling 1-800-356-5787. derek -- Derek Terveer det@hawkmoon.MN.ORG
det@hawkmoon.MN.ORG (Derek E. Terveer) (06/15/90)
In article <2336@tmiuv0.uucp> rick@tmiuv0.uucp writes: > You should use the "user defined" drive type (under AMI BIOS, it's number > 47, I believe). Run your AT setup program and select the "user defined" > drive type. Give it the full geometry of the drive (1024 cylinders, > etc.). Unix should have no problems after that. Unfortunately (for me, at any rate), I have an AMI BIOS + WD1006V-SR2 config- uration that doesn't seem to like to talk to each other very well. If I use the BIOS "user defined" type of 47 and set my disk drive (a miniscribe 6085: MFM 1024 tracks, 8 heads, 17spt) parameters to 1024cyl, 8hds, 26spt, and then run dos and debug to get into the wd menu, type 47 appears as 0,0,0 and the low level format croaks, i.e., the machine hangs (no ctl-alt-del). In fact, you normally can't even access type 47 from the wd menu -- you must go to type 0, and then back up one type to get to 47. Otherwise, when scrolling forward through the selections it jumps from type 46 to 0. Very strange. Now, if I use the wd "user defined" type of 1 and set my disk drive parameters, when I get back into the wd menu (which I "must" do because it wants to reboot right after setting the parameters), the drive parameters are set to the AMI BIOS's idea of drive type 1, i.e., some disk with 305 cylinders, etc. Apparently, the wd board can not overwrite the parameters in the CMOS RAM used by the AMI BIOS. Very inconvenient. So, the wd bios can't write into the AMI BIOS to save its user defined parameters and the AMI BIOS user defined parameters don't appear to be noticed by the wd board. (Which came first? the cpu bios or the controller bios? (:-)) I quoted the "must" in the parenthetical sentence, two paragraphs above, because I discovered that if I control-c the menu program just after "writing" the parameters into the BIOS and just before I type return to initiate the reboot and then rerun the wd menu program (g=cc00:5) the parameters that I entered for the "user defined" type are still there (even though they weren't written into the bios) and I can format the drive successfully (at 26spt and not 31 -- it doesn't seem to want to accept 31 for some reason) with the specified parameters. Fortunately, unix doesn't really use the bios disk parameters for anything other than booting, so as long as the bios thinks that there is a disk of some sort out there that is bootable from the first few sectors on track 0, everything should be ok. Anyway, I also talked (afterward) to wd tech support and they stated that if you use a disk type of 0, i.e., "undefined or no drive present" then, when you select the low level format option, it will prompt you on the fly for the disk parameters -- so that is another way of getting around the problem (if it works, that is). I haven't had a chance to try this since I have already gone through the entire format/surface_scan cycle several times already and I am just plumb tired of formatting and installing unix! I will try this next time. derek -- Derek Terveer det@hawkmoon.MN.ORG