[comp.os.minix] Major hard disk problems

werner@nikhefk.UUCP (Werner Vogels) (10/16/87)

I'm  having  major  problems  with  my  hard  disk  (DTC   5150CX
controller, Seagate 10MB drive) running MINIX 1.2.

Setting up the hard disk gave no problems. I made  four  partions
(5,  4,  0.5,  0.5  Mb)  with the intension of loading /root from
/dev/hd3. Creating the filesystems gave minor problems : the  two
large  filesystems  (hd1,  hd2)  had to be created with about 200
blocks less then their sizes, otherwize mkfs would fail.   Beside
these  small problems everything went perfect and i moved all the
sources and binaries to the hard disk and dumped the root filesys-
tem on hd3.

Now the problems start. After I rebooted I ran fsck on  the  hard
disk  from  the  bootmenu  : all the filesystems were reported as
having a bad magic number in the superblock  and  thus  fail  any
further  check.  Loading the /root from  hd3 (just leave the boot
floppy in fd0) resulted  in  the  message  that  /dev/hd3  didn`t
contain  the root filesystem.  Starting the load from floppy gave
no problems and to my surprise Minix recognized hd1, hd2 and  hd3
as being perfect filesystems and mounted them without problems.

 I wasn't happy with not being able to boot from  hard  disk  and
planned  to  have  a  look at the software to locate my problems.
First I did a test on building a new Minix. I  made  a  new  boot
floppy  with  "build"  and the binaries from the tools directory.
Booting gave no problems. Now fsck  reported  that  he  got  read
errors  from  the  hard  disk  devices.  After loading /root from
floppy Minix didn't want to communicate with the  winchester  any
more  and kept on giving read errors on all the hard disk devices
and reporting "no valid filesystem".

 I worked a couple of nights on the  solution  but  everytime  it
failed  because  every new Minix still can't read the hard disk (
the PH- boot floppy can).


Is there anybody who can give me some help with these problems. I
would like to be able to boot from the hard (as described by ast)
and build a new boot floppy without loosing my hard disk (are the
tools/binaries different from the startup binaries ?).


Werner H.P. Vogels

National Institute for Nuclear Physics and High-energy Physics
Section Nuclear Physics, Computer Systems Group.
postbus 4395 1009 AJ Amsterdam
The Netherlands
tel: +31 20 5922030
E-mail: ..!mcvax!nikhefk!werner (UUCP)

bdale@winfree.UUCP (Bdale Garbee) (10/20/87)

In article <259@nikhefk.UUCP> werner@nikhefk.UUCP (Werner Vogels) writes:
>I'm  having  major  problems  with  my  hard  disk  (DTC   5150CX
>controller, Seagate 10MB drive) running MINIX 1.2.

My setup is a DTC5287 AT-RLL controller with floppy, and a Rodime 204.

>Now the problems start. After I rebooted I ran fsck on  the  hard
>disk  from  the  bootmenu  : all the filesystems were reported as
>having a bad magic number in the superblock  and  thus  fail  any
>further  check. 

My experiences closely duplicate yours.

>Is there anybody who can give me some help with these problems. I
>would like to be able to boot from the hard (as described by ast)
>and build a new boot floppy without loosing my hard disk (are the
>tools/binaries different from the startup binaries ?).

I have just moved to a new house, and so have had my AT/Minix setup
shut down for some time.  High on the list of priorities in the next
couple of weeks is to bring Minix up on the AT, and make all the bits 
behave... I'd be pleased to hear anything you find wrong, and will
post here anything that I can figure out...
-- 
Bdale Garbee, N3EUA			phone: 303/495-0091 h, 303/590-2868 w
uucp: {bellcore,crash,hp-lsd,ncc,pitt,usafa}!winfree!bdale
arpa: bdale@net1.ucsd.edu		packet: n3eua @ k0hoa, Colorado Springs
fido: sysop of 128/19 at 303/495-2061, 2400/1200/300 baud, 24hrs/day