Date: Wed, 29 Mar 2000 04:06:08 -0800 (PST) From: Andre Hedrick <andre@linux-ide.org> To: "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@transmeta.com> Subject: Re: Answer (Re: Cylinder limits jumper for drives over 32GB) On Tue, 28 Mar 2000, H. Peter Anvin wrote: > Andre... what we're trying to figure out if there is a way to this > *TRANSIENTLY*, so that a reset will set it back to the old value. > > However, if plugging in manual values in the BIOS works then that's > probably the recommended way, unless there really is an easy way to work > around. > > Remember... most hardware/firmware is broken. Part of what makes a good > OS is to work with broken hardware without sacrificing working with > properly working hardware. God knows I've messed lots with BIOS bugs. Peter, Please trust that I know the world is full of broken hardware, and even if you follow the exact OEM directions for the hardware, it still can go wrong. I see some of the worst night/day-mares in ATA hardware than anyone can imagine. There is only three possible solutions for the 05/14/99 (and older) AWARD BIOS problem........ 1) Users purchase an ADD-ON card that will handle the large drives. 2) Users issues a bogus geometry to the BIOS and we ignore it and use the entire disk. 3) Users runs OEM capacity shrinking tool. Depend on Linux to issue READ/SET_MAX_ADDRESS and update the values "soft" and not clobber the "protected memory area". In principle, a reboot/power-cycle will revert the capacity back to 32GB so that one may reboot with out a hang. This is the preferred order in my book. FYI, I am working with the ADD-ON card manufacturers to get them to correct their BIOS code to prevent this problem. Cheers, Andre Hedrick The Linux ATA/IDE guy I only got wierded out because of potential partition fragmentation if any goes wrong. - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.rutgers.edu Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/