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cylinder limits large drives OSR5 (539GB or 502GiB)

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From: Bela Lubkin <filbo@armory.com>
Subject: Re: SCO OS 5.0.7 divvy limit with Megaraid & Mylex RAID5 controllers
Date: 15 Jul 2005 05:41:20 -0400
Message-ID: <200507150241.aa07106@deepthought.armory.com> 
References: <db3eat$if$1@newsread.albacom.net>
<zPGdnXsW2ZGivkvfRVn-gQ@comcast.com>
<db5jt0$26c$1@newsread.albacom.net>
<db64ot$i5k$1@newsread.albacom.net>
<200507141317.aa12593@deepthought.armory.com>
<db7r2d$a0q$1@newsread.albacom.net> 

Roberto Zini wrote:

Bela>> A second possibility is something a bit experimental.  As you observe,
Bela>> MP3 incorporates changes to the OSR5 disk geometry system (these
Bela>> actually originated in the "Wd Supplement" portion of MP1, not in the
Bela>> Large Filesystem Performance Supplement).  While developing these
Bela>> changes, I tried to eliminate any obstacles to 127- and 255-sector
Bela>> geometries.  Unfortunately, in the end I was not able to fully test
Bela>> these configurations, so I can't say with 100% certainty that they'll
Bela>> work.  But it wouldn't hurt to try -- if it isn't going to work on a
Bela>> particular driver / drive combination, it will be immediately obvious.
Bela>> 
Bela>> If this drive is going to be the root drive and must be accessed during
Bela>> ISL, boot with:
Bela>> 
Bela>>   Boot
Bela>>   : defbootstr biosgeom=(cyl,255,127)


Rob> This point still puzzles me: do I have to boot with also the WD
Rob> supplement btld or go straight on with the 5.0.7 CD ?

Hmmm, yeah.  I forgot about that part...

If you use the "wd" BTLD from MP3 media, that gets you part of the
necessary kernel changes.  I can't remember at this point whether
linking "wd" also loads an updated "dk" driver (which handles disk
geometry stuff) into the ISL kernel.  The BTLD does go to some trouble
to try to ensure its updated utilities get onto the system despite ISL's
efforts to overwrite them with the OSR507 FCS versions.

Too many complicating factors.  You're right, this isn't worth trying in
an ISL scenario.  Better to install onto a "small" drive or array, then
add large arrays later.

>Bela<
 

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