QNX 4.25 on 80GB Hard Disk. BIOS Signature Problem

Hi,
I´m trying to create a backup disk for an old system. The smallest
hard drive I could get is 80GB.
The hard drive is Hitachi.
The PC setup assumes the hard disk capacity as 125MB.

When installing QNX 4.25, the installer ask if the machine is a
“value point machine”. I answered “n” and
prompted to accept the Fsys.ide as the driver for the disk. I typed
“n” and was prompted to select the driver from a list. I
selected Fsys.eide.

The step that fails is mounting the partition and says:
NO BIOS SIGNATURE in partition sector.

I tried to force the geometry of the disk to some smaller size disk
configurations ( in the PC setup and with the “install -p”
parameter)
Ex:
install -p " eide -c 16,2114,63"

install -p " eide -c 64,512,63"

install -p " fsys -h64,63 -i eide -c 64,512,63 -l "

With another QNX 4.25 booteable hard drive, I tried to edit the
partition table (using fdisk) of this hard drive in a slave role. But
I got the same messsage.

Any suggestion?

regards,
Roger

On Mon, 26 Jun 2006 21:59:57 +0400, Roge
<rogelio@tecnet-ibermatica.com-dot-ar.no-spam.invalid> wrote:

The smallest hard drive I could get is 80GB.
The hard drive is Hitachi.
The PC setup assumes the hard disk capacity as 125MB.
I’d never use the outdated installation CD to handle the modern hardware.

You can create the boot floppy with Fsys.atapi on it.
Then you could prepare the /dev/hd0 as two partitions:
/dev/hd0t77 (staring at cylinder 0, ending at cylinder 0, i.e. ~8MB
volume, bootable)
/dev/hd0t78 (starting at cylinder 1 till the end of the disk)

Make the /.boot to “mount -p /dev/hd0 /dev/hd0t78 /” and put it onto
/dev/hd0t77.
You may also declare the disk size to “Fsys -H disk80” when creating the
OS image.

I use all this tricks myself.

Tony.

“Tony” <mts.spb.suxx@mail.ru> wrote in message
news:op.tbrnvylho93ri4@mobile.wst.quantum.ru

On Mon, 26 Jun 2006 21:59:57 +0400, Roge
rogelio@tecnet-ibermatica.com-dot-ar.no-spam.invalid> > wrote:

The smallest hard drive I could get is 80GB.
The hard drive is Hitachi.
The PC setup assumes the hard disk capacity as 125MB.
I’d never use the outdated installation CD to handle the modern hardware.

You can create the boot floppy with Fsys.atapi on it.

Warning: Fsys.atapi seems to have problem detecting the geometry of the
slave disk, it seems to ignore LBA.


Then you could prepare the /dev/hd0 as two partitions:
/dev/hd0t77 (staring at cylinder 0, ending at cylinder 0, i.e. ~8MB
volume, bootable)
/dev/hd0t78 (starting at cylinder 1 till the end of the disk)

Make the /.boot to “mount -p /dev/hd0 /dev/hd0t78 /” and put it onto
/dev/hd0t77.
You may also declare the disk size to “Fsys -H disk80” when creating the
OS image.

I use all this tricks myself.

Tony.

We also have the geometry detection problem when addressing a secondary
device.

Is an update version of Fsys.atapi available from somewhere ?

Thanks in advance,
Enrico

Mario Charest wrote:

“Tony” <> mts.spb.suxx@mail.ru> > wrote in message
news:> op.tbrnvylho93ri4@mobile.wst.quantum.ru> …
On Mon, 26 Jun 2006 21:59:57 +0400, Roge
rogelio@tecnet-ibermatica.com-dot-ar.no-spam.invalid> > wrote:

The smallest hard drive I could get is 80GB.
The hard drive is Hitachi.
The PC setup assumes the hard disk capacity as 125MB.
I’d never use the outdated installation CD to handle the modern hardware.

You can create the boot floppy with Fsys.atapi on it.

Warning: Fsys.atapi seems to have problem detecting the geometry of the
slave disk, it seems to ignore LBA.


Then you could prepare the /dev/hd0 as two partitions:
/dev/hd0t77 (staring at cylinder 0, ending at cylinder 0, i.e. ~8MB
volume, bootable)
/dev/hd0t78 (starting at cylinder 1 till the end of the disk)

Make the /.boot to “mount -p /dev/hd0 /dev/hd0t78 /” and put it onto
/dev/hd0t77.
You may also declare the disk size to “Fsys -H disk80” when creating the
OS image.

I use all this tricks myself.

Tony.

I haven’t heard of a QNX 4 Fsys driver in a while. I think you want
to use Fsys.eide. There’s been report of a problem at the 137Gig
boundary, but I haven’t heard of a problem for an 80gig drive before
this.

“maschoen” <maschoen@pobox-dot-com.no-spam.invalid> wrote in message
news:ecnkgs$dda$1@inn.qnx.com

I haven’t heard of a QNX 4 Fsys driver in a while. I think you want
to use Fsys.eide. There’s been report of a problem at the 137Gig
boundary, but I haven’t heard of a problem for an 80gig drive before
this.

Fsys.eide doesn’t support DMA while Fsys.atapi does, major performance
difference.