Very Computer

Hi,

  I just purchased a 8.4 Gb IDE disk and I'm attempting to install
Solaris 2.5.1 Server on it.  Has anyone sucessfully installed 2.5.1
(or even 2.6, which I would glady purchase if it solves the problem)
on an IDE > 2.1 Gb?

Details:
+8.4 Gb drive
+BIOS doesn't recognize it, so I'm using MicroHouse's EZDisk
 which makes it appear as 5 disks (2 Gb each, plus an extra).
+Solaris x86 boots and shows the drive two partitions: one is
 Unknown and 2Gb.  The other is extended which is the rest
 of the drive.
+Solaris installer appears to work fine onto the disk, but does
 not boot afterward. The BIOS comes up and goes to the
 drive then it hangs.
+Same exact things happen without EZDisk installed.

Questions:
+Will installing 2.6 be any different?
+Is there a current patch, present or in production?
+Is my BIOS the problem or Solaris understanding of disks?

Additionally:
+Solve it and you'd be a friend for life because otherwise I'll
 probably waste the entire weekend coming to the same
 conclusion of the consesus.
+My apologies if this is in a FAQ.  Just point me to it.

Thanks in advance,
Jason

 >
 > Hi,
 >
 >   I just purchased a 8.4 Gb IDE disk and I'm attempting to install
 > Solaris 2.5.1 Server on it.  Has anyone sucessfully installed 2.5.1
 > (or even 2.6, which I would glady purchase if it solves the problem)
 > on an IDE > 2.1 Gb?
 >
 > Details:
 > +8.4 Gb drive
 > +BIOS doesn't recognize it, so I'm using MicroHouse's EZDisk
 >  which makes it appear as 5 disks (2 Gb each, plus an extra).
 > +Solaris x86 boots and shows the drive two partitions: one is
 >  Unknown and 2Gb.  The other is extended which is the rest
 >  of the drive.
 > +Solaris installer appears to work fine onto the disk, but does
 >  not boot afterward. The BIOS comes up and goes to the
 >  drive then it hangs.
 > +Same exact things happen without EZDisk installed.
 >
 > Questions:
 > +Will installing 2.6 be any different?
 > +Is there a current patch, present or in production?
 > +Is my BIOS the problem or Solaris understanding of disks?
 >
 > Additionally:
 > +Solve it and you'd be a friend for life because otherwise I'll
 >  probably waste the entire weekend coming to the same
 >  conclusion of the consesus.
 > +My apologies if this is in a FAQ.  Just point me to it.
 >
 > Thanks in advance,
 > Jason

FWIW, I've had 2.5, 2.5.1, and 2.6 work on a 2.5 G IDE disk here without
doing anything special (other than using current DU's).  Hardware here
is a Unisys SME with 3 Pentiums and 64 Megs of RAM.

--
Please remove the (hopefully obvious) spam foiler from address when
responding.

My advice is to purchase a new motherboard, which contains the new
translating BIOS. In my experience it's very hard to fool Solaris
about the hardware connected to your system. If memory serves me,
an OS can query the disk directly to determine its capacity, and
that's what Solaris does. It queries your 8.4 GB disk, which in turn
reports back its 8.4 GB capacity.

A problem arises if your drive also reports back that it contains more
than 1024 cyclinders. (Almost all large capacity drives *do* contain
more than 1024 cyclinders.) A problem occurs because an old PC spec
limits drives to less than 1024 cyclinders. Solaris tries to use the
1100th cyclinder, and bang, your PC objects and Solaris panics.

Translating BIOS solves this problem by remapping your drive's
head, cylinder, and sector parameters. This remapping increases
the head and sector counts, which then allows the cylinder count
to decrease to a value below 1024.

For the record, I use Solaris 2.4 on a 486 with a 4 GB, IDE hard drive.
Using the 4 GB drive, it has functioned flawlessly as a server for about a
year.

:   I just purchased a 8.4 Gb IDE disk and I'm attempting to install
: Solaris 2.5.1 Server on it.  Has anyone sucessfully installed 2.5.1
: (or even 2.6, which I would glady purchase if it solves the problem)
: on an IDE > 2.1 Gb?

: Details:
: +8.4 Gb drive
: +BIOS doesn't recognize it, so I'm using MicroHouse's EZDisk
:  which makes it appear as 5 disks (2 Gb each, plus an extra).

Quote:

> Hi,

>   I just purchased a 8.4 Gb IDE disk and I'm attempting to install
> Solaris 2.5.1 Server on it.  Has anyone sucessfully installed 2.5.1
> (or even 2.6, which I would glady purchase if it solves the problem)
> on an IDE > 2.1 Gb?

> Details:
> +8.4 Gb drive
> +BIOS doesn't recognize it, so I'm using MicroHouse's EZDisk
>  which makes it appear as 5 disks (2 Gb each, plus an extra).
> +Solaris x86 boots and shows the drive two partitions: one is
>  Unknown and 2Gb.  The other is extended which is the rest
>  of the drive.
> +Solaris installer appears to work fine onto the disk, but does
>  not boot afterward. The BIOS comes up and goes to the
>  drive then it hangs.
> +Same exact things happen without EZDisk installed.

--
Robert S. Mallozzi
http://cspar.uah.edu/~mallozzir/
Remove XX on reply

Jason.