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 the  prompt.

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