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OdinsDream
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 Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2003 11:28 pm Post subject: FDISK shows capacity as exactly 120000000000 bytes. |
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My apologies if this is considered cross-posting. I feel like this is a better place for this topic, plus, it seems to be unrelated to installation matters, and has become quite a bit more complicated and refined. Here's the previous thread:
https://forums.gentoo.org/viewtopic.php?t=95143
I'm having serious trouble getting access to a new Western Digital 120 drive I just purchased, but the LiveCD is able to read it just fine.
My dmesg output shows this:
hde: setmax LBA 234441648, native 234375000
...among other things. But, this seems to be one of the main differences between when I boot with my kernel, and when I boot with the LiveCD. The LiveCD does not show the above message, anywhere.
Later, when the system attempts to check the root partition, it fails, seeming to mention that it's tried to access a block that isn't available.
I've put a Promise PDC20268 IDE controller card into the system to try and rule out any complications my regular chipset (ALI15x3) may be causing. This gave no differences at all. The same problem is occurring.
I can successfully run reiserfsck from the LiveCD on the partition; no errors are found. I can not run it from repair-mode console, I get the message:
bread: Cannot read the block (29159982): (Input/output error).
Please, someone help  Let me know if there's any information you need.
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Last edited by OdinsDream on Fri Oct 17, 2003 3:29 pm; edited 1 time in total |
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OdinsDream
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| Posted: Sat Oct 11, 2003 11:35 pm Post subject: |
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I've just tried running:
badblocks /dev/hde3 29159985 29159980
from the LiveCD, it returns no results. I'm assuming that either I did the command incorrectly, or there are no bad blocks found. This would indicate that the previous bread message that I get from an actual boot is ill-informed.
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cyrillic
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Joined: 19 Feb 2003
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Location: Groton, Massachusetts USA
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| Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2003 12:31 am Post subject: |
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Have you tried to wipe the entire drive clean and start with a new partition table. I know this takes a long time, but it always works (for me) when I need to fix harddrive geometry problems or corrupted partitions.
| Code: | # dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hde bs=8192
# fdisk /dev/hde |
If you still get errors after this, then it is probably a hardware problem. |
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OdinsDream
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| Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2003 12:58 am Post subject: |
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| cyrillic wrote: | Have you tried to wipe the entire drive clean and start with a new partition table. I know this takes a long time, but it always works (for me) when I need to fix harddrive geometry problems or corrupted partitions.
| Code: | # dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/hde bs=8192
# fdisk /dev/hde |
If you still get errors after this, then it is probably a hardware problem. |
I'm hesitant to go this far... the LiveCD is entirely capable of mounting the partition, running checks, and allows me to edit any files. It seems that there's just something wrong with the kernel I've created. It is definitely a different version than the one used by the LiveCD.
What's so puzzling about this:
I am replacing an existing Western Digital 120GB drive with a new blank one, of the same model and size. I've been running Gentoo on that drive for months.
This new, nearly identical drive, is giving me such trouble. The only difference being I'm using ReiserFS instead of ext3.
Interestingly, only this new drive shows the message above, setmax LBA, the other drive, sitting currently on the secondary channel, never gets this message. Both drives are set identically in the BIOS (everything's set to Auto)
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cyrillic
Watchman
Joined: 19 Feb 2003
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Location: Groton, Massachusetts USA
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| Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2003 1:35 am Post subject: |
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| OdinsDream wrote: | | Interestingly, only this new drive shows the message above, setmax LBA, the other drive, sitting currently on the secondary channel, never gets this message. Both drives are set identically in the BIOS (everything's set to Auto) |
Look at the output of Check if the two drives are showing the same number of heads, sectors/track and cylinders. Also check if any partitions overlap or extend beyond the last cylinder of the drive.
The number of heads and other parameters can be changed using fdisk's "experts only" menu, but it might screw up existing partitions (I've only done this on blank harddrives). |
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OdinsDream
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| Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2003 1:12 pm Post subject: |
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| cyrillic wrote: | | OdinsDream wrote: | | Interestingly, only this new drive shows the message above, setmax LBA, the other drive, sitting currently on the secondary channel, never gets this message. Both drives are set identically in the BIOS (everything's set to Auto) |
Look at the output of Check if the two drives are showing the same number of heads, sectors/track and cylinders. Also check if any partitions overlap or extend beyond the last cylinder of the drive.
The number of heads and other parameters can be changed using fdisk's "experts only" menu, but it might screw up existing partitions (I've only done this on blank harddrives). |
I've noticed that the LiveCD's fdisk says nothing about the disk being large, but fdisk from the repair console (after booting with my own kernel) warns me of the disk's size, and possible incompatibility.
Each disk shows as LBA in the ESCD bootup box, as well as to the separate IDE controller card.
fdisk -l on both drives shows the same number of heads (255), cylinders (14593) and sectors/track (63)... from the LiveCD.
However, fdisk -l from a regular boot shows something different for the "bad" disk!!
Here's the breakdown:
| Code: |
Bad disk:
Disk /dev/hde: 120.0 GB, 120000000000 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14589 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
Good disk:
Disk /dev/hdf: 120.0 GB, 120034123776 bytes
255 heads, 63 sectors/track, 14593 cylinders
Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 = 8225280 bytes
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Now, again, the LiveCD deals with both disks identically. The output above is from booting the system with the 2.4.20-gentoo-r7 kernel I compiled during the installation.
Both disks show the information in the "good disk" output above, when I use fdisk from the LiveCD.
What's going on here? How can I get the kernel to stop doing "setmax LBA" ?
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cyrillic
Watchman
Joined: 19 Feb 2003
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Location: Groton, Massachusetts USA
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| Posted: Sun Oct 12, 2003 11:33 pm Post subject: |
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That is really strange.
I have no idea what is causing it though. |
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OdinsDream
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| Posted: Tue Oct 14, 2003 5:05 pm Post subject: |
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What could cause fdisk to report the harddrive size as exactly 120000000000 bytes? That does sound a bit fishy... especially since the other drive (same model, same size) is 120034123776.
Anyone have an idea?
Since then, I've just put my old gentoo system back as the Master, and I've been running from it. However, the same problem is still occurring... the drive on Slave, now, still shows the round size, and is inaccessible.
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Don't blame me. I didn't vote for him.
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OdinsDream
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| Posted: Fri Oct 17, 2003 3:30 pm Post subject: |
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Just wondering if anyone has some insight. This is still plaguing me.
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Malakin
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| Posted: Sat Oct 18, 2003 1:51 am Post subject: |
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| Try a vanilla sources kernel and see if there's any difference. |
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OdinsDream
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| Posted: Sat Oct 18, 2003 2:33 pm Post subject: |
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| Malakin wrote: | | Try a vanilla sources kernel and see if there's any difference. |
I'll try that later tonight. However, the kernel I'm currently using (I've reverted back to my standard sytem) is a gentoo-sources kernel which I've been using for many months.
The most especially odd thing... this kernel is dealing with another identical drive just fine. The size is reported not as a round number. It's the other drive that gives me trouble, regardless of what channel or even what IDE controller card I run it from.
Again, it does NOT give me trouble when used from the latest LiveCD. Its size is reported appropriately un-round. Very Very odd.
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