DOCUMENT ID: 0905-02 SYNOPSIS: Install doesn't display all available space of DOS partition OS RELEASE: 2.1 PRODUCT: Solaris x86 KEYWORDS: large secondary disk DOS partition DESCRIPTION: When a system consists of multiple physical disk drives that include a secondary disk that is greater than 1 gigabyte, and DOS will use at least 256 megabytes on the second disk, Solaris will allow you to create a partition that uses the rest of the disk but may not allow you to create filesystems in that partition. SOLUTION: 1) During the install, move through the screens, selecting your devices, partitioning your drives with the Disk Preparation Utility, selecting CUSTOM install on the Solaris Installation screen. Make your software selection and then go to the Disks/File Systems screen. 2) When in the Disks/File Systems screen, you will see that you cannot properly configure the second disk drive (of significant capacity). You will either be thrown out to the '#' prompt, or will see that there is already '0' space available for you to work with. 3) Go ahead and configure the primary disk drive because this will create a VTOC (Volume Table Of Contents) that we will use as a template for the secondary disk drive(s). 4) Select Begin Install on the Custom Install Configuration. You will then be asked for confirmation. Choose to exit the installation. 5) At the Solaris Installation screen, exit the install. (Yes, really exit the install). 6) We need a DOS formatted floppy as a scratch disk. You can actually use the Boot/Install floppy which is readily handy and can be used again for future systems with similar hardware configurations. You may use /tmp instead as a scratch area, but it is not permanent. 7) At the '#', type /etc/mount -F pcfs /dev/fd0 /mnt 8) Dump the VTOC from the primary disk drive. fmthard -i -n "" /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0p0 > /mnt/vtoc0 9) Make a backup of this file. cp /mnt/vtoc0 /mnt/vtoc0.b (By the way, you can use any filename you choose, but it is limited to the DOS filename size of 8 characters followed by the optional 3 character extension). 10) Just in case, set your terminal type. TERM=AT386;export TERM11) Determine how many cylinders are allocated to the second drive. fdisk /dev/rdsk/c1t0d0p0. (for example). This is an illustration of a system equipped with an IDE primary disk drive and a secondary SCSI disk drive attached to a SCSI HBA (Host Bus Adapter). It is possible that you may have two SCSI disk drives, in which case your second drive would be accessed by c0t1d0p0. t1 relates to SCSI ID #1. Replace 1 with the SCSI ID of your disk, if necessary. This is an example screen from fdisk: Total disk size is 2049 cylinders Cylinder size is 2048 (512 byte) blocks Cylinders Partition Status Type Start End Length % ========= ====== ======== ===== === ====== === 1 EXT-DOS 1 512 512 25 2 Active SOLARIS 513 2048 1536 75 SELECT ONE OF THE FOLLOWING: 1. Create a partition 2. Change Active (Boot from) partition 3. Delete a partition 4. Exit (Update disk configuration and exit) 5. Cancel (Exit without updating disk configuration) Enter Selection: Note the 'Length' field for the Solaris partition. We are going to use this value later, so write it down! Choose '5' to exit fdisk. 12) Edit the VTOC file vi /mnt/vtoc0 13) Retrieve the disk geometry of the second hard disk into /mnt/vtoc0 file a. It is recommended to place this below the "accessible cylinders" line. b press ':' to get to the bottom of the screen. c. type: 'r ! fdisk -G /dev/rdsk/c1t0d0p0. d. comment out these new lines with the '*'. This example introduced these lines: * Physical geometry for device /dev/rdsk/c1t0d0p0 * PCYL NCYL ACYL BCYL NHEAD NSECT SECSIZ 2049 2049 0 0 64 32 512 Make them look like this: * Physical geometry for device /dev/rdsk/c1t0d0p0 * PCYL NCYL ACYL BCYL NHEAD NSECT SECSIZ * 2049 2049 0 0 64 32 512 14) Your /mnt/vtoc0 will look similar to this. (Note, the Dimensions section was modified to reflect the data that was introduced by the three new lines.) * /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s2 default partition map * * Dimensions: * 512 bytes/sector * 55 sectors/track * 12 tracks/cylinder * 2049 cylinders * 2049 accessible cylinders * * Physical geometry for device /dev/rdsk/c1t0d0p0 * PCYL NCYL ACYL BCYL NHEAD NSECT SECSIZ * 2049 2049 0 0 64 32 512 * * Flags: * 1: unmountable * 10: read-only * * Partition Tag Flag First Sector Sector Count 0 2 00 660 66000 1 3 01 66660 98340 2 5 01 0 438900 6 4 00 165000 269280 9 1 01 434200 4620 15) Make it look like this: * /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0s2 default partition map * * Dimensions: * 512 bytes/sector * 55 sectors/track * 12 tracks/cylinder * 2049 cylinders * 2049 accessible cylinders * * Physical geometry for device /dev/rdsk/c1t0d0p0 * PCYL NCYL ACYL BCYL NHEAD NSECT SECSIZ * 2049 2049 0 0 64 32 512 * * Flags: * 1: unmountable * 10: read-only * * Partition Tag Flag First Sector Sector Count 2 5 01 0 438900 16) Replace the value under Sector Count with SOLARIS Cylinder Length Count * NHEAD * NSECT ( 1536 ) ( 64 ) ( 32 ) = 3145728 17) We now have an accurate geometric description of this drive to write back to the VTOC located in sector 2 of the disk drive. 18) Press ':', w, q, and to exit and save this file 19) Write this file back to the disk fmthard -s /mnt/vtoc0 -n "name" /dev/rdsk/c1t0d0s2 20) Re-enter installation. suninstall 21) When you get to the Disks/File Systems screen, use the existing slices option to save yourself some time. Also turn off the preservation of the existing slices to prevent the display of unnecessary messages. 22) After the installation is complete you may need to remove slice 9 from the large disk. Repeat the installation from diskette and CD and then exit to the shell by pressing CTRL-\ at the screen that displays the keyboard language selection. DATE APPROVED: 09/28/95