LBA issues: was Re: Introduction

["John E. Malmberg" <wb8tyw@xxxxxxx>]

From: John Van Horn <jvanhorn@jackpine.com> writes:


>This is a problem with the "LBA" mode settings for the hard disk setup in
>the bios. The problem seems to be a bit inconsistent, some people say to
>turn it off to correct the problem, some say to turn it on... but most
agree
>this clears up the problem.  There is a reference to this "Hang" in the
back
>of the RH 5.1 manual.
>

LBA issues:

In the case of LINUX, the LBA setting is only used for finding the initial
boot sector.

They should always match the way that you partitioned and formatted the
disk.  If you change the settings, the disk should be repartitioned and
reformatted.

If you boot from a LINUX floppy, the BIOS is not used.  As such LINUX may
not know if LBA is on or not.  It may assume that it is not on, and when you
repartition the hard drive you may get an untranslated view of the disk.

LBA will need to be on if you have a large disk, and are maintaining a DOS
partition for dual booting or other reasons.  LINUX does not need it on,
unless you used DOS to partition the disk.

LBA should always be off for IDE ZIP drives.

-John
WB8TYW#QSL.NET
Free OpenVMS hobbyist licensee, and LINUX user.