psm@.bu.edu (03/06/90)
From wyserd!psm Sat Mar 3 10:14:42 1990 Return-Path: <wyserd!psm> Received: from BU.EDU by bu-it.bu.edu (4.0/SMI-4.0) id AA05042; Sat, 3 Mar 90 10:14:34 EST Received: by BU.EDU (1.97) Sat, 3 Mar 90 10:14:30 EST Received: by wyserd.UUCP (5.51/smail2.2/06-30-87) id AA00201; Sat, 3 Mar 90 10:13:05 EST Date: Sat, 3 Mar 90 10:13:05 EST From: wyserd!psm (Peter Mager) Message-Id: <9003031513.AA00201@wyserd.UUCP> To: bu!psm Subject: controller interface problem with isc unix Status: RO Hard Disk Partition Tables & ISC Unix I've twice had the problem after changing peripheral boards on my system (A Wyse 3216 with Western Digital WD1007WA2 controller and ESDI disk) that it became impossible to boot Unix from my hard disk (using ISC/Interactive's port (Version 2.0.2) of System 5, Release 3.2). The relevant message was "Missing Operating System" + hang while trying to boot. When I spoke with ISC tech support the first time, they told me: Bad Luck. You've got flaky hardware. Better return the disk while its still under warranty. Instead, I did a low level reformat, ran diagnostics for two days, and rebuilt the system from scratch. The 2nd time, I went to work with Norton Utilities & some other tools to try to figure out what was really going on. The reason I was more optimistic is that the DOS partition on the same disk seemed fine. I was even able to boot DOS from it by using DOS fdisk to change the active partition from Unix to DOS & then powering on or hitting <cntrl><alt><del>. Changing back to make the Unix partition active led to the same message: "Missing Operating System". Trying to boot from the Unix boot floppy and rebuild the partition table led to the message: *device error:sector not found controller 0 (Primary AT hard disk), Disk Drive 0, Absolute Sector 0 Warning: dsk_open: error 5 reading fdisk on dev 000001 Disk parms currently configured are as follows: sectors/track:63 heads/cyl=32, cyl=308 None of these values may be modified using the installed controller. ... Trying to reenter the partition information using the Unix install utility led to the messages: device error: sector not found Controller 0 (primary AT hard disk), disk drive 0, abs sector 0, /dev/rdsk/0p0: I/O error No Unix fdisk partition found, cannot initialize Cannot initialize the hard disk. To try again, type INSTALL at the # prompt. # Typing INSTALL & some partitioning information led to the message: device error: sector not found Controller 0, abs sector 0 fdisk: error writing boot record. Cannot partition hard disk. You may have an unformatted hard disk. Well, it sounded pretty drastic, but DOS worked fine, and was even bootable from the hard disk if I used DOS fdisk to make it the active partition. In addition some low level poking around with the Norton utilities & other tools showed nothing wrong. But the Unix information about heads/cylinder and number of cylinders seemed wrong. So .. I accessed the controller ROM using DEBUG, ran some controller level routines that among other things did a disk verify, exited, and, presto, I could now boot Unix as usual and all my Unix file structures looked OK. I'm still puzzled over why a DOS boot worked without reinitializing the controller, but that the Unix boot didn't. Anyone have an explanation for this quirky behavior? Peter Mager wyserd!psm@bu.edu -- Peter Mager (wyserd!psm@bu.edu)