IDE drive geometry problem

[Bob R. Taylor]

On Thu, 2005-05-26 at 08:09, Michal Jaegermann wrote:
> On Thu, May 26, 2005 at 12:20:08AM -0700, Bob R. Taylor wrote:
> > However, the kernel panics with a
> > message HEADS = 0.
> 
> Even if you will boot with 'hde=noprobe'?

Booting with this option allows the computer to boot but no disk!

> > I did some research and gave the kernel
> > hde=14589,255,63. This got me INVALID HEADS.
> 
> "Disk geometry" is for a long time really an invented fiction.  If you
> do not have any other overriding reasons, like sharing a disk with
> another OS which insist on some particular geometry, then if you have to
> give such numbers do that as 'x,64,32' where 'x' is what you need for
> your disk.  You will end up with 1 Meg cylinders.

I know the disk geometry is fiction. Why is it still used in Linux?

The Maxtor 120G has LBA 240121728 on the drive. I think this is the
total sectors.

I tried booting with hde=noprobe and hde=117246,64,32 and got INVALID
HEADS error.

Booting without hde=noprobe I get the following:

hde: Maxtor CALYPSO, ATA disk drive
hde: 0 sectors (0mb), CHS=0/0/0
hde: INVALID GEOMETRY: 0 PHYSICAL HEADS?

It appears the Maxtor drive is not sending the data the kernel expects?

Thanks, Michal, for your help. I hope you can give me the information I
need to get this drive working. This may be a problem only in the Alpha
port but I certainly hope not!

Bob
-- 
Bob R. Taylor <brtaylor at sanfelipe.com.mx>