On 10/11/09, Nick Holland <nick@holland-consulting.net> wrote:
quoted text
> Michael wrote:
>> On 10/11/09, Fred Crowson <fred.crowson@googlemail.com> wrote:
>>> On 10/11/09, Michael <beriah@opensuse.us> wrote:
>>>> I think I found the source of several problems on my hd.
>>>> I have an 40 gig hd (WDC WD400BB-75DEA0) that right now has:
>>>> #1: primary partition with Windows 2kpro
>>>> #2: extended partition with Windows D partition, PCLinuxOS, and extra
>>>> ext2fs partitions for files
>>>> #3. end of hd has my primary partition with OpenBSD 4.4
>>>>
>>>> OpenBSD and dos(partition magic) both show geometry of 4863,255,63
>>>> linux shows geometry of 4865,255,63). Actual sectors (even printed on
>>>> hd) is 78125000, but linux shows 78156225.
>
> well, if Linux is not using those last two cylinders, don't sweat
> it, it Just Doesn't Matter.  It only matters if you try to write
> something where nothing is.
>
> If I tell you the edge of the cliff is 100M. away, and someone else
> tells you it is 102M. away, and you are pretty sure that ONE of us
> is telling the truth, you can wander 100M minus your shoe size
> safely.  The fact that we disagree doesn't mater, just don't go those
> last 2M.  If OpenBSD is the more conservative report, and you have
> OpenBSD at the end of the disk, you should have no issues.
>
>>>> I don't know what to do to fix that.
>
> don't even try.  you will just break things.
>
>>>> The systems have been running ok, but I can't mount the PCLinuxOS
>>>> partition from OpenBSD
>
> is it ext2?  if not, that would be expected.
>
>>>> and when trying to install 4.5 or 4.6, I get
>>>> the ERR M problem.
>
> totally unrelated.
>
> Could your machine your machine have a BIOS limitation?  32G is a not
> uncommon BIOS limitation, if you had your OpenBSD partition above that
> point, a BIOS upgrade would be high on my list of things to check.
>
> There were some motherboards shipping with buggy BIOSs with 32G issues
> long after much larger disks were commonplace.
>
>>>> I use Windows strictly for powerpoint files and I don't get on the
>>>> internet with it, linux for flash and other junk like that. OpenBSD is
>>>> my main running system.
>>>>
>>>> Any help greatly appreciated. I tried google, but didn't see anything
>>>> to fix this.
>>>
>>> How are you getting the various OS to boot?
>>>
>>> A bit more info would be a help...
>>>
>>> Fred
>>>
>> Didn't think about that :)
>> Was 2nd guessing what info would be needed (good info=OpenBSD vs bad
>> info=linux).
>> Right now, I'm using Air-Boot, but also have used grub.
>
> Ick.  ok, what happens if you quit trying to be fancy, and just set
> the active partition to OpenBSD and quit trying to multiboot it?
> No Air-boot, no grub, just a standard MBR/PBR?
> Considering how some of those multi-boot programs try to "help" you,
> nothing surprises me when they break.
>
> The PBR (what is giving you the "ERR M", see FAQ14) has a relatively
> small set of things that can go wrong.  ERR M means that what it was
> installed to load is not (currently) /boot.  This means either the
> BIOS delivered something other than /boot, or you are running a PBR
> that hasn't been updated since your last OpenBSD install (hint: some
> multiboot systems will save a copy of your PBR for them to use,
> instead of the one OpenBSD installs to boot the OS, and they rarely
> know when to update it when you reinstall the system!) or the /boot
> file got clobbered somehow.
>
> Nick.
>
>
Thanks Nick for all the info. "I had to sleep on it" :)
I don't know if we got off-track or I don't know/understand the problem.
These systems have been booting and running for quite some time
(years), except for when I do fresh installs of OpenBSD. No problems
with the bootloader.
I'm on OpenBSD now, so I can give this info:

# disklabel wd0
# Extended partition 1: type 0F start 12562830 size 51568650
# Extended partition 1: type 05 start 13028715 size 25591545
# Extended partition 1: type 05 start 38620260 size 1028160
# Inside MBR partition 2: type A6 start 64131480 size 14024745
# /dev/rwd0c:
type: ESDI
disk: ESDI/IDE disk
label: WDC WD400BB-75DE
flags:
bytes/sector: 512
sectors/track: 63
tracks/cylinder: 255
sectors/cylinder: 16065
cylinders: 4863
total sectors: 78125000
rpm: 3600
interleave: 1
trackskew: 0
cylinderskew: 0
headswitch: 64131480            # microseconds
track-to-track seek: 78125000   # microseconds
drivedata: 0

16 partitions:
#                size           offset  fstype [fsize bsize  cpg]
  a:          1028160         64131480  4.2BSD   2048 16384    1
  b:          1060290         65159640    swap
  c:         78125000                0  unused      0     0
  d:          3084480         66219930  4.2BSD   2048 16384    1
  e:          6152895         69304410  4.2BSD   2048 16384    1
  f:          2265165         75457305  4.2BSD   2048 16384    1
  i:         12562767               63   MSDOS
  j:         13028652         12562893   MSDOS
  k:         25591482         25591608  ext2fs
  l:          1028097         51183153 unknown
  m:         11920167         52211313  ext2fs

 fdisk wd0
Disk: wd0       geometry: 4863/255/63 [78125000 Sectors]
Offset: 0       Signature: 0xAA55
            Starting         Ending         LBA Info:
 #: id      C   H   S -      C   H   S [       start:        size ]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 0: 0B      0   1   1 -    781 254  63 [          63:    12562767 ] Win95 FAT-32
 1: 0F    782   0   1 -   3991 254  63 [    12562830:    51568650 ] Extended LBA
*2: A6   3992   0   1 -   4864 254  63 [    64131480:    14024745 ] OpenBSD
 3: 00      0   0   0 -      0   0   0 [           0:           0 ] unused
Offset: 12562830        Signature: 0xAA55
            Starting         Ending         LBA Info:
 #: id      C   H   S -      C   H   S [       start:        size ]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 0: 0B    782   1   1 -   1592 254  63 [    12562893:    13028652 ] Win95 FAT-32
 1: 05   1593   0   1 -   3185 254  63 [    25591545:    25591545 ] Extended DOS
 2: 00      0   0   0 -      0   0   0 [           0:           0 ] unused
 3: 00      0   0   0 -      0   0   0 [           0:           0 ] unused
Offset: 25591545        Signature: 0xAA55
            Starting         Ending         LBA Info:
 #: id      C   H   S -      C   H   S [       start:        size ]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 0: 83   1593   1   1 -   3185 254  63 [    25591608:    25591482 ] Linux files*
 1: 05   3186   0   1 -   3249 254  63 [    51183090:     1028160 ] Extended DOS
 2: 00      0   0   0 -      0   0   0 [           0:           0 ] unused
 3: 00      0   0   0 -      0   0   0 [           0:           0 ] unused
Offset: 51183090        Signature: 0xAA55
            Starting         Ending         LBA Info:
 #: id      C   H   S -      C   H   S [       start:        size ]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 0: 82   3186   1   1 -   3249 254  63 [    51183153:     1028097 ] Linux swap
 1: 05   3250   0   1 -   3991 254  63 [    52211250:    11920230 ] Extended DOS
 2: 00      0   0   0 -      0   0   0 [           0:           0 ] unused
 3: 00      0   0   0 -      0   0   0 [           0:           0 ] unused
Offset: 52211250        Signature: 0xAA55
            Starting         Ending         LBA Info:
 #: id      C   H   S -      C   H   S [       start:        size ]
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
 0: 83   3250   1   1 -   3991 254  63 [    52211313:    11920167 ] Linux files*
 1: 00      0   0   0 -      0   0   0 [           0:           0 ] unused
 2: 00      0   0   0 -      0   0   0 [           0:           0 ] unused
 3: 00      0   0   0 -      0   0   0 [           0:           0 ] unused

$ uname -a
OpenBSD NYET.my.domain 4.4 GENERIC#0 i386

The problem is that I can't mount wd0m, but can mount all other partitions.
Also, I have been running OpenBSD on it's partition since about 4.2,
but if I try to do a newer install (4.5 or 4.6) on that partition, I
get a installboot error and then the ERR M error when I go ahead and
try to boot it anyway (knowing it won't work).

I just thought that trying to upgrade my system to 4.5 or 4.6 might be
related to how the different systems read what is on the hd.

I can wait till the 1st and install 4.6 again (since I couldn't buy
the cd set this time) with the info you gave me about /boot and see if
it will work.

Thanks for all the help.