SUMMARY: hardware hard disks limits in ultra 10?

From: Horacio Lopez -CITI STR (hlopez@citi.com.mx)
Date: Thu Aug 05 1999 - 11:34:08 CDT


Hello Sun Managers,

Well, first of all I want to thank to:

Michael Cunningham
John Sullivan
Imre Kolos
Timothy Lindgren

The most fully explained was Imre Kolos:

>Hi,
>
>this is a bug, has been reported to Sun multiple times,
>for example SunSolve bug id: 4155713.
>It concludes:
>
>| Work Around No workaround
>| Integrated in Releases s998_20
>| Duplicate of (none)
>| Patch ID (none)
>| See Also (none)
>| Summary (none)
>
>I'm just now inquiring Sun support about this,
>upto now they only said that release s998_20 means Solaris7,
>but I'd need a fix for 2.6 too, I waiting for there answer
>about what to expect for 2.6.
>
>regards,
>Imre

Thats right, actually the bug's description is:

-------------------------------------------------------------
Bug ID Synopsis
4155713 Can not use IDE Disks greater than 8GB to full
                capacity

                
Category kernel
Subcategory driver
State integrated

Description

                
We can not use IDE disks greater than 8GB to full capacity
on darwin.

The way the capacity is computed in the ide target disk
driver is - it uses the CHS values given by the drives identify command to
compute the capacity.

In drives greater that 8GB, the ide drive manufacturers
show the the CHS value of - 16383C, 16H, 63Sectors/track which does not
cover the complete disk.
                
This is due to BIOS legacy on IBM PC's. Most of the BIOS
can not understand cylinder > 14 bits.
                
The complete disk can be accessed through the LBA value
which is to be used to access beyong 8GB (approx).

Need to modify "dad" target driver so that it uses the LBA
value to compute the capacity rather than relying on CHS value.

-------------------------------------------------------------

And as John Sullivan said, it seems they solved it in Solaris 7 but not
yet in Solaris 2.6:

>Unfortunately, Sun never fixed the EIDE driver in 2.6. Solaris 7
>supports disks >8.4G, Solaris 2.6 only sees the first 8.4G or so.
>
>--------------------------------------------------------------------
>John Sullivan

I did my own tests and installed Solaris 7 hw 3/99 on an ultra 10 and
saw the 13GB also could install the solaris 7 on it.

Unfortunatelly the system won't boot (some problems with the /var slide).
There is another problem already talked on the sunman-list about a kernel
patch 106541-05 that doesn't properly process postpatch.

It seems that I have to run the upgrade option.

My original question:

>
> Hello Sun Managers,
>
> I've a ultra 10, solaris 2.6 hw 5/98 . I'm trying to install
> a brand new IDE 13GB disk on it. The NVRAM (probe-ide command at ok)
> sees the disk but it's imposible to install the solaris.
>
> Another brand new IDE 8.6GB disk works perfectly. At sun's
> homepage page seems that the ultra 10 acepts up to 9GB disks but there is
> no especial note about it.
>
> Does anyone knows a whitepaper/info about the hard disks
> limits on this machines?
>
> Anyone who had installed a disk on this ultra with more than 9GB?
>
>

Thank you all!

P.S. I apologize for the the late summay and for some problems with our
DNS that made the original message repeat several times on the list.

======================================================================
             Horacio Lopez Padilla
      Soporte Tecnico/Technical Support

               << C I T I >>
Sendero Sur 285-A Col. Contry Monterrey, N.L. 64860 MEXICO
Tel. (8) 357 22 67 From USA/Canada 011 528 357 22 67
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e-mail hlopez@citi.com.mx URL http://www.citi.com.mx
======================================================================



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