Ultrix Disk Partitioning Problem

[Dan Ts'o]

In article <17100006 at unido.UUCP> dfk at unido.UUCP writes:
>
>I'm posting this because Snoopy's site has news problems.
>PLEASE RESPOND TO HIM, NOT TO ME!
>
>-Daniel
>
>==============================================================================
>
>Dear Net,
>
>I am currently attempting to put together a MicroVAX2 with lots
>of mixed hardware. I have one problem doing this to do
>with the eagle disc drive.
>
>Mega-Disclaimer: I am a 4.2 BSD person. This is the first time
>I have ever laid my hands on an ULTRIX driven keyboard.
>Especially the new disc partitioning scheme where you can
>repartition discs quickly (*very, very nice*) is entirely new
>to me. Perhaps I am doing something blatantly silly, but I
>don't know about it.
>
>So here is the problem: the MV2 comes with Ultrix 1.1 (binary
>only) and what I have tried to do is bring up this new Eagle
>disc with the Emulex controller. Here is the config file:

	Maybe I don't know something, but I believe that Ultrix 1.1
is 4.2BSD, even in its disk partitioning software. I am not aware of
any major changes that allow you to repartition the disks any quicker...

	In the following reply, I will assume you are using an Eagle with
an Emulex SC03/MS. If that is not the case, this stuff may be way of base...

>controller      uda1    at uba0 csr 0160344 vector udintr

	Incidentally, to bring it up fast, you can ADB /vmunix, _ubminit
and patch in the right address instead of rebuilding the kernel.

>
>So my problem is: the new eagle has to be an ra disc (for the
>right driver to be used). Ra81's are not the right size (too
>small). What I have therefore tried to do was to redeclare the

	Wrong, RA81's are too large...

>Questions:
>It seems that ULTRIX will not let me write into the last tracks
>of the disc. All the other partitions work fine. I have a faint
>idea that there might a problem with space being reserved by
>the driver for the bad block table. However the partitions are
>declared finished at 808126 and Eagles are 808320 large.

	You are assuming that the SC03/MS gives you the full Eagle. But the
manual says you only get 722,770 (I think). One way to test it is to use dd
to read the C partition til the end. The driver asks the controller what the
size is. The sectors/track and tracks/cylinder specs in /etc/disktab have
no use on a MSCP disk. I believe the (ridiculous) numbers given for the real
RA81 are just numbers which happen to multiply out correctly to the real size.

	BTW, Emulex just told me that a firmware fix is available (Rev D) to
allow the SC03/MS to boot Ultrix 1.1. Previous, the SC03/MS could only be a
secondary (well, non-bootable) disk (although MicroVMS booted fine...)

	I hope this helps.


					Cheers,
					Dan Ts'o
					Dept. Neurobiology
					Rockefeller Univ.
					1230 York Ave.
					NY, NY 10021
					212-570-7671
					...cmcl2!rna!dan
					rna!dan at cmcl2.arpa