Ultrix Disk Partitioning Problem

[dfk at unido.UUCP]

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:

#
#       MicroVAX 2 configured and butchered by snoopy
#
machine         mvax
cpu             "MVAX"
ident           qtecvax
timezone        -1 dst 4
maxusers        16
maxuprc         25
physmem         16

config          vmunix          root on ra0 swap on ra0

controller      uba0    at nexus ?
controller      uda1    at uba0 csr 0160344 vector udintr
controller      uda0    at uba0 csr 0172150 vector udintr
disk            ra0     at uda0 drive 0
disk            ra1     at uda0 drive 1
disk            ra2     at uda0 drive 2
disk            ra3     at uda0 drive 3
disk            ra4     at uda1 drive 4
device          dhu0    at uba0 csr 0160440 flags 0xff  vector dhurint dhuxint
device          dhu1    at uba0 csr 0160460 flags 0xff  vector dhurint dhuxint
controller      zs0     at uba0 csr 0172520             vector tsintr
device          ts0     at zs0 drive 0
pseudo-device   pty

##############end of config file

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
sizes of the ra81 disc in /etc/disktab (which is where I think
the driver gets the information from) to follow the eagle
partitions mentioned in hp(4). Here is the bit of the disktab
file:

ra81|RA81|RA81 with eagle values :\
        :ty=winchester:ns#48:nt#20:nc#842:rm#3961:\
        :pa#15884:ba#8192:fa#1024:\
        :pb#66880:pc#808320:\
        :pd#15884:bd#4096:fd#1024:\
        :pe#55936:pf#109248:pg#432768:\
        :be#4096:fe#1024:bf#4096:ff#1024:\
        :bg#4096:fg#1024:\
        :ph#291346:bh#8192:fh#1024:

I then used /etc/chpt (change partitions) to bung those values
into the new discs superblock. Here is the output of the
/etc/chpt -q /dev/rra4a:

/dev/rra4a
Current partition table:
partition     bottom        top       size    overlap
    a              0      15883      15884    c
    b          16320      83199      66880    c
    c              0     808319     808320    a,b,d,e,f,g,h
    d         375360     391243      15884    c,g
    e         391680     447615      55936    c,g
    f         698880     808126     109248    c,g
    g         375360     808126     432768    c,d,e,f
    h          83520     374865     291346    c

HERE IT COMES: the eagle disc works fine up to a point. I can make a
file system on partitions a,b,c,d,e,h. When I try to make a
filestore (using /etc/newfs /dev/rra4x ra81) on the F or G
partitions I get an error message:
Write failed sn xxxxx on /dev/rra4y where y is the partition
concerned and N.B. xxxxx is a number which is ALWAYS THE
PARTITION SIZE MINUS ONE ! This is true even if I change the
partition sizes. (I tried decreasing them by updating disktab
and using chpt again).

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.

Whats going wrong ? Whats happening ?

APOLOGY: Please forgive the length. I have tried to state the
problems with background info as detailed as possible so that you
know whats going on.

THANKS: for your help if you can give me some. I would really
like to use that machine soon. PLEASE HELP NOW.

Lots of love
Seb

"There are three types of people:

- those who make things happen
- those who watch things happening
- and those who wonder what happened"

...\!mcvax\!unido\!ecrcvax\!snoopy /* N.B. valid csh address */