Disk Initialization Utility failure on Primary Disk

[htvillanueva]

I have an SCO Unix release 3.2 v4.2. I do get the error : fixn2.sh failed. And failure on disk initialization utility has failed on Primary Disk, And Error : /usr/lib/mkdev/mit_hd has failed. after i have inserted the N2 diskette. I had a 2.11 GB of hard disk

 

[PHV]

Unless you have *very* old hardware, it is not advised to install a so obsolete version of sco unix.

Hope This Help
PH.

 

[htvillanueva]

Our Hard Drive got corrupted due to an error on track 0. So when we replaced it with the same capacity of hard disk we recieve that error.

 

[edfair]

Same capacity, but with a difference in CHS?
This is IDE? What are the drive specs or maker/model?


Ed Fair
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[htvillanueva]

For: Ed Fair

We replaced the same type of Hard Disk.

Specs: Western Digital Caviar 22100
2111.8 MB
4092 Cylinders
16 Heads
63 Sectors
Model WDAC22100-07H

 

[edfair]

There is a limitation on the boot partition of something like 1024 cylinders. Since I've never had one that big I've never studied the problems that go with it. So it may not apply. I'll look in the book tonight.

Ed Fair
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[htvillanueva]

For Ed Fair

They said that Unix SCO Release 3.2/V4.2 doesn't support greater than 1024 cylinders. So what i did was to change the bios setting of that hard disk to believe that i do have a 1024 cyl, 16 heads and 63 sectors hard disk. And i also disabled the LBA. After i reboot the system, and have loaded the N1 disk until N2 initialization it showed the actual drive capacity of 4092 cylinders even though i had changed it at the bios setting. And then the error occurs.

Hope this would add in finding the right solution.

HTV

 

[edfair]

Per hardware configutation guide, I assume that you would leave the CMOS at the 4096 but would set the drive up using divvy to use the first partition within the 1024. This is in the section where you have a choice of manually setting the drive up.
The divvy would have total blocks available. You would use 25% for the first partition. And probably the rest for a separate partition.

I've not done it. Somebody else pasted that they have used up to 14gb drives with 4.2 by going 2gb per partition on the 7 partitions you'll see in divvy.

Ed Fair
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[htvillanueva]

For Ed Fair

Do you have a copy for these procedure? I am not very much familiar with divvy. will this command be used after N1 boot?

 

[edfair]

N1 boot should call for N2. Choose fresh install. Then keyboard. Then fully configurable. This should report the drive and CHS.
Choose to use entire disk. And accept the default swap value.
Next part asks if you want to manually adjust. Answer yes.

Presents you with the divvy table. Partition 1 ending block should be no larger than 25% of the total # of blocks available on the drive.
Swap space should be the same or larger that what was originally put there by the system.
You can now create another partition using the rest of the space, starting after the swap space and ending at the last block that swap space started with. I usually name my additional partitions as u,v,w, and x. (habit, no reason)Your 2 partitions should be marked as new filesystems.
When you quit out of this screen you have the option of installing or reallocating, when you install it the install creates it by formatting and the load continues.
After the system is installed , and it will go on root, you probably will need to put your additional filesystem into use. Done from root with mkdev fs. You name the partition and tell it where on the root to mount it. You tell it the device name u, system accepts it as /dev/u, it asks where to put it, you tell it u and it creates the mount point /u.
You have to name the mount point to match whatever you had before if you want to restore existing stuff from backup into the system.

Hope I haven't confused you.

Ed Fair
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.

 

[htvillanueva]

I already had made it through the N1 and N2 . I get a cpio error in extraction.
What i notoced during bootup was a No SCSI boot device found. I had checked the connections and its ok. Any suggestions?
Thanks
htv

 

[edfair]

This gets into another ballgame.
What kind of SCSI controller are you using? If it isn't one that 4.2 recognizes it will partially set up but die like this.
Usual solution is to define the driver for the controller at the beginning of OS load by using a BTLD "boot time loadable driver" or by telling it at boot time what special one to use.
In the first case, boot with N1, at the boot: prompt tell it "link", it will ask what driver to link, and you feed the appropriate floppy when it asks for it.
In the second case you define the controller. I;ll dig the book out when you tell up what you have.

Ed Fair
Any advice I give is my best judgement based on my interpretation of the facts you supply. Help increase my knowledge by providing some feedback, good or bad, on any advice I have given.