Subject: Weird HD problems

From: Matt Godbolt <[email-masked]>
Date: Fri, 13 Jun 1997 12:03:34 +0100 (BST)

Okey-doek - I've finally persuaded linux to install on my computer...after
swapping my ARM710 for an ARM610 and disconnecting my slave IDE drive.
This is a *bit* of a pain - as when I boot with the (larger) IDE drive
connected, this is what I get : (vaguely - I had to copy it onto paper)

Console: colour A-series 128x96x256 1 virtual console (max 63)
Installed expansion cards:
  0 : [0000:0003] Acorn Ether1
Calibrating delay loop...ok - 26.52 BogoMIPS
Memory: 23040/24576K available (764k kernel, 36 reserved, 736k data)
Swansea Uni etc etc
IP etc etc
Linux version 2.0.30 (src@raistlin) (gcc 2.7.2.2) #20 Sun May 18 16:15:36
BST 1997
Keyboard driver v1.00
Ramdisk: 16 of 4096K size
hda: Conner Peripherals 540MB - CFS514A, 516MB w/0kb Cache, LBA,
CHS=1048/16/63
hdb: Maxtor 71084A, 1036MB, w/64kw Cache, LBA, CHS=2105/16/63
_

Where the '_' on the last line is the now non-flashing cursor...the
machine has hung completely.

If I put the ARM710 in, the screen doesn't even clear and the 'Enter extra
args : ' is left.

When I disconnect the Maxtor (which is configured as slave) the machine
boots into linux fine...until the console reaches about the 10th line -
then the text fragments up.

It looks to me (as a games programmer) like the table used to calculate
the start-of-line addresses is being killed from about 13 lines down.
Everything else seems to work fine, apart from this!  Luckily I could
install the whole she-bang by squinting and running the install parallel
on a mates machine.

I have a 24Mb machine with 1Mb of VRAM, the Acorn Ether1 card (uck) and
nowt else too exciting bar the two drives which incidentally fight
occasionally under Risc OS (one hangs for a few seconds before reporting a
phantom disc error.  Before anyone asks, yes, one is master, the other
slave.

For RPC owners:
Another point to note - if your kernel hangs before reading the disc drive
while booting from the root disc - then you may need to flick the tiny
switch at the back of your disc drive.  For some reason some RPCs were
shipped with this switch in the wrong position, and Linux can't find the
floppy drive, although somehow Acorn bodges RISC OS to find it ok.

Hope this helps!

Take care,

Matt
-==-

---

From: Philip Blundell <[email-masked]>
Date: Sat, 14 Jun 1997 00:55:52 +0100 (BST)

> floppy drive, although somehow Acorn bodges RISC OS to find it ok.

RISC OS scans all the attached drives and assigns them numbers
sequentially, whereas Linux has a fixed mapping between names and physical
devices.  It's not really a "bodge".

p.