DOCUMENT ID: 1130-02 SYNOPSIS: How to find correct geometry for IDE drives during installation OS RELEASE: PRODUCT: Solaris x86 KEYWORDS: correct geometry IDE drive install DESCRIPTION How to find the correct geometry for IDE drives during installation of Solaris x86. SOLUTION: If you are not sure of the geometry of the IDE hard drive, you can run "fdisk -G" utility from x86 installation. Regardless of your CMOS information, the installation will succeed, since x86 does not rely on the "TYPE" definition under CMOS to define the geometry of IDE drives. If the "TYPE" definition of your IDE drive is incorrect under CMOS configuration, you will not be able to reboot the system after x86 installation is done on the IDE drive. You will get an error message such as: "Missing partition boot record" When you don't know the "TYPE" of your geometry, you can do the following: (you'll use fdisk utility from x86 to get the geometry you need, then break out of x86 installation, set the correct geometry, and reinstall x86) 1. Reboot your system using solaris boot diskette and CDROM. 2. Select 'Exit to the shell' after you are asked to take the diskette out by responding to theprompt. 3. Type the following command: # fdisk -G /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0p0 You will get something like this: * Physical geometry for device /dev/rdsk/c0t0d0p0 * PCYL NCYL ACYL BCYL NHEAD NSECT SECSIZ 762 760 2 0 8 39 512 Here, in case of IDE drives, the PCYL value is the value of Logical Cylinder for the IDE drive, and you need to use this value for your cylinder size under CMOS, along with NHEAD and NSECT values. 4. Reboot. 5. Run CMOS and define "TYPE" for your IDE drive. 6. Restart x86 installation. DATE APPROVED: 10/10/95