[comp.os.minix] Hard disk partitions?

ncoverby@ndsuvax.UUCP (Glen Overby) (12/12/87)

In article <5500001@ucf-cs.ucf.edu> tony@ucf-cs.ucf.edu writes:
> Minix crashes unpredictably.  It will die during the mount command 
>or if it passes that, during a cp -- not necessarily the first cp, 
>but eventually.

At NDSU, we have several people running 1.2 off of hard disks and I have
never heard of anybody having a problem like this (I'm normally first to
hear about problems) I don't know what partitions everybody is using,
but I dont think everybody is on hd1.  I DO know that the one department
machine uses partition #2 with no problems (DOS is on partition one so
that if somebody turns the machine off without parking the hard disk
head it will hopefully land on the DOS FAT rather than our inode table). 

>Does version 1.2 resolve this problem?  (I have the diffs but haven't 
>installed them yet.)

I suggest upgrading to the 1.2 driver (if not the whole thing) and see if
your problem goes away.
-- 
Glen Overby
Bitnet: ncoverby@ndsuvax 
UUCP: uunet!ndsuvax!ncoverby

ast@cs.vu.nl (Andy Tanenbaum) (12/13/87)

In article <5500001@ucf-cs.ucf.edu> tony@ucf-cs.ucf.edu writes:
>If partition 1 is set up for DOS and 2 for Minix, with #2 mounted under
>/usr, Minix crashes unpredictably.  

One thing to remember is that the partition size for partition 1 is one
smaller than for partition 2.

Another possibility is that the MINIX fdisk and the DOS fdisk don't agree
on the meaning of the partition table.  If everyone would create their
partitions from lowest cylinder to highest there would be no ambiguity.
However, if the order in the partition table is different from the cylinder
order, there are at least three interpretations.
  1. Table slot 1 is partition 1
  2. Innermost cylinder is partition 1
  3. Outermost cylinder is partition 1
I believe that the combination of MINIX, DOS, XENIX and Microport together
exhaust the entire list of possibilities.  I don'know if this is related
to your problem (which I otherwise can't understand), but it is worth 
keeping in mind.

Andy Tanenbaum (ast@cs.vu.nl)

tony@ucf-cs.ucf.edu (12/15/87)

I have seen many questions about hard disks and watched the answers
for a while but I haven't seen this problem addressed so here it is.

I am running a standard IBM XT with an IBM 20meg drive.  If partition 1 
is set up for Minix and mounted under /usr, it works like a champ.  
If partition 1 is set up for DOS and 2 for Minix, with #2 mounted under
/usr, Minix crashes unpredictably.  It will die during the mount command 
or if it passes that, during a cp -- not necessarily the first cp, 
but eventually.

Does version 1.2 resolve this problem?  (I have the diffs but haven't 
installed them yet.)

If anyone has given you insight into why Minix 1.1 doesn't like partitions
other than #1, please let me know.  Thanks.

Tony Becker				Phone:    305-275-2699
Dept. of Computer Science
University of Central Florida		Internet: tony@ucf.edu
Orlando, FL  32816

Leisner.Henr@xerox.com (marty) (12/15/87)

I had a similar problem with mismatched partition numbers between DOS fdisk and
Minix.

I accidently blew away my dos partition when I installed Minix on my hard disk.

The winchester driver has a partitition sorting algorithm.  I took that out, so
it seems the Dos fdisk and Minix agree on which partitions are what.  Besides,
the partition sorting really doesn't accomplish anything useful.

marty
ARPA:	leisner.henr@xerox.com
GV:  leisner.henr
NS:  martin leisner:henr801c:xerox