The Design and Implementation of the FreeBSD Operating System, Second Edition
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FreeBSD/Linux Kernel Cross Reference
sys/Documentation/ide.txt

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    1 ide.txt -- Information regarding the Enhanced IDE drive in Linux 2.2/2.3/2.4
    2 ===============================================================================
    3 
    4    +-----------------------------------------------------------------+
    5    |  The hdparm utility for controlling various IDE features is     |
    6    |  packaged separately.  Look for it on popular linux FTP sites.  |
    7    +-----------------------------------------------------------------+
    8 
    9 See description later on below for handling BIG IDE drives with >1024 cyls.
   10 
   11 Major features of the 2.1/2.2 IDE driver ("NEW!" marks changes since 2.0.xx):
   12 
   13 NEW!    - support for IDE ATAPI *floppy* drives
   14         - support for IDE ATAPI *tape* drives, courtesy of Gadi Oxman
   15                 (re-run MAKEDEV.ide to create the tape device entries in /dev/)
   16         - support for up to *four* IDE interfaces on one or more IRQs
   17         - support for any mix of up to *eight* IDE drives
   18         - support for reading IDE ATAPI cdrom drives (NEC,MITSUMI,VERTOS,SONY)
   19         - support for audio functions
   20         - auto-detection of interfaces, drives, IRQs, and disk geometries
   21                 - "single" drives should be jumpered as "master", not "slave"
   22                   (both are now probed for)
   23         - support for BIOSs which report "more than 16 heads" on disk drives
   24         - uses LBA (slightly faster) on disk drives which support it
   25         - support for lots of fancy (E)IDE drive functions with hdparm utility
   26         - optional (compile time) support for 32-bit VLB data transfers
   27         - support for IDE multiple (block) mode (same as hd.c)
   28         - support for interrupt unmasking during I/O (better than hd.c)
   29         - improved handshaking and error detection/recovery
   30         - can co-exist with hd.c controlling the first interface
   31         - run-time selectable 32bit interface support (using hdparm-2.3)
   32         - support for reliable operation of buggy RZ1000 interfaces
   33                 - PCI support is automatic when rz1000 support is configured
   34         - support for reliable operation of buggy CMD-640 interfaces
   35                 - PCI support is automatic when cmd640 support is configured
   36                 - for VLB, use kernel command line option:   ide0=cmd640_vlb
   37                 - this support also enables the secondary i/f when needed
   38                 - interface PIO timing & prefetch parameter support
   39         - experimental support for UMC 8672 interfaces
   40         - support for secondary interface on the FGI/Holtek HT-6560B VLB i/f
   41                 - use kernel command line option:   ide0=ht6560b
   42         - experimental support for various IDE chipsets
   43                 - use appropriate kernel command line option from list below
   44         - support for drives with a stuck WRERR_STAT bit
   45         - support for removable devices, including door lock/unlock
   46         - transparent support for DiskManager 6.0x and "Dynamic Disk Overlay"
   47         - works with Linux fdisk, LILO, loadlin, bootln, etc..
   48         - mostly transparent support for EZ-Drive disk translation software
   49                 - to use LILO with EZ, install LILO on the linux partition
   50                   rather than on the master boot record, and then mark the
   51                   linux partition as "bootable" or "active" using fdisk.
   52                   (courtesy of Juha Laiho <jlaiho@ichaos.nullnet.fi>).
   53         - auto-detect of disk translations by examining partition table
   54         - ide-cd.c now compiles separate from ide.c
   55         - ide-cd.c now supports door locking and auto-loading.
   56                 - Also preliminary support for multisession
   57                   and direct reads of audio data.
   58         - experimental support for Promise DC4030VL caching interface card
   59                 - email thanks/problems to: peterd@pnd-pc.demon.co.uk
   60         - the hdparm-3.1 package can be used to set PIO modes for some chipsets.
   61 NEW!    - support for setting PIO modes with the OPTi 82C621, courtesy of Jaromir Koutek.
   62 NEW!    - support for loadable modules
   63 NEW!    - optional SCSI host adapter emulation for ATAPI devices
   64 NEW!    - generic PCI Bus-Master DMA support
   65 NEW!            - works with most Pentium PCI systems, chipsets, add-on cards
   66 NEW!            - works with regular DMA as well as Ultra DMA
   67 NEW!            - automatically probes for all PCI IDE interfaces
   68 NEW!    - generic support for using BIOS-configured Ultra-DMA (UDMA) transfers
   69 
   70 
   71 ***  IMPORTANT NOTICES:  BUGGY IDE CHIPSETS CAN CORRUPT DATA!!
   72 ***  =================
   73 ***  PCI versions of the CMD640 and RZ1000 interfaces are now detected
   74 ***  automatically at startup when PCI BIOS support is configured.
   75 ***
   76 ***  Linux disables the "prefetch" ("readahead") mode of the RZ1000
   77 ***  to prevent data corruption possible due to hardware design flaws.
   78 ***
   79 ***  For the CMD640, linux disables "IRQ unmasking" (hdparm -u1) on any
   80 ***  drive for which the "prefetch" mode of the CMD640 is turned on.
   81 ***  If "prefetch" is disabled (hdparm -p8), then "IRQ unmasking" can be
   82 ***  used again.
   83 ***
   84 ***  For the CMD640, linux disables "32bit I/O" (hdparm -c1) on any drive
   85 ***  for which the "prefetch" mode of the CMD640 is turned off.
   86 ***  If "prefetch" is enabled (hdparm -p9), then "32bit I/O" can be
   87 ***  used again.
   88 ***
   89 ***  The CMD640 is also used on some Vesa Local Bus (VLB) cards, and is *NOT*
   90 ***  automatically detected by Linux.  For safe, reliable operation with such
   91 ***  interfaces, one *MUST* use the "ide0=cmd640_vlb" kernel option.
   92 ***
   93 ***  Use of the "serialize" option is no longer necessary.
   94 
   95 This is the multiple IDE interface driver, as evolved from hd.c.
   96 It supports up to six IDE interfaces, on one or more IRQs (usually 14 & 15).
   97 There can be up to two drives per interface, as per the ATA-2 spec.
   98 
   99 Primary:    ide0, port 0x1f0; major=3;  hda is minor=0; hdb is minor=64
  100 Secondary:  ide1, port 0x170; major=22; hdc is minor=0; hdd is minor=64
  101 Tertiary:   ide2, port 0x1e8; major=33; hde is minor=0; hdf is minor=64
  102 Quaternary: ide3, port 0x168; major=34; hdg is minor=0; hdh is minor=64
  103 fifth..     ide4, usually PCI, probed
  104 sixth..     ide5, usually PCI, probed
  105 
  106 To access devices on interfaces > ide0, device entries must first be
  107 created in /dev for them.  To create such entries, simply run the included
  108 shell script:   /usr/src/linux/scripts/MAKEDEV.ide
  109 
  110 Apparently many older releases of Slackware had incorrect entries
  111 in /dev for hdc* and hdd* -- this can also be corrected by running MAKEDEV.ide
  112 
  113 ide.c automatically probes for most IDE interfaces (including all PCI ones),
  114 for the drives/geometries attached to those interfaces, and for the
  115 IRQ numbers being used by the interfaces (normally 14, 15 for ide0/ide1).
  116 
  117 For special cases, interfaces may be specified using kernel "command line"
  118 options.  For example,
  119 
  120         ide3=0x168,0x36e,10     /* ioports 0x168-0x16f,0x36e, irq 10 */
  121 
  122 Normally the irq number need not be specified, as ide.c will probe for it:
  123 
  124         ide3=0x168,0x36e        /* ioports 0x168-0x16f,0x36e */
  125 
  126 The standard port, and irq values are these:
  127 
  128         ide0=0x1f0,0x3f6,14
  129         ide1=0x170,0x376,15
  130         ide2=0x1e8,0x3ee,11
  131         ide3=0x168,0x36e,10
  132 
  133 Note that the first parameter reserves 8 contiguous ioports, whereas the
  134 second value denotes a single ioport. If in doubt, do a 'cat /proc/ioports'.
  135 
  136 In all probability the device uses these ports and IRQs if it is attached
  137 to the appropriate ide channel.  Pass the parameter for the correct ide
  138 channel to the kernel, as explained above.
  139 
  140 Any number of interfaces may share a single IRQ if necessary, at a slight
  141 performance penalty, whether on separate cards or a single VLB card.
  142 The IDE driver automatically detects and handles this.  However, this may
  143 or may not be harmful to your hardware.. two or more cards driving the same IRQ
  144 can potentially burn each other's bus driver, though in practice this
  145 seldom occurs.  Be careful, and if in doubt, don't do it!
  146 
  147 Drives are normally found by auto-probing and/or examining the CMOS/BIOS data.
  148 For really weird situations, the apparent (fdisk) geometry can also be specified
  149 on the kernel "command line" using LILO.  The format of such lines is:
  150 
  151         hdx=cyls,heads,sects,wpcom,irq
  152 or      hdx=cdrom
  153 
  154 where hdx can be any of hda through hdh, Three values are required
  155 (cyls,heads,sects).  For example:
  156 
  157         hdc=1050,32,64  hdd=cdrom
  158 
  159 either {hda,hdb} or {hdc,hdd}.  The results of successful auto-probing may
  160 override the physical geometry/irq specified, though the "original" geometry
  161 may be retained as the "logical" geometry for partitioning purposes (fdisk).
  162 
  163 If the auto-probing during boot time confuses a drive (ie. the drive works
  164 with hd.c but not with ide.c), then an command line option may be specified
  165 for each drive for which you'd like the drive to skip the hardware
  166 probe/identification sequence.  For example:
  167 
  168         hdb=noprobe
  169 or
  170         hdc=768,16,32
  171         hdc=noprobe
  172 
  173 Note that when only one IDE device is attached to an interface,
  174 it should be jumpered as "single" or "master", *not* "slave".
  175 Many folks have had "trouble" with cdroms because of this requirement,
  176 so ide.c now probes for both units, though success is more likely
  177 when the drive is jumpered correctly.
  178 
  179 Courtesy of Scott Snyder and others, the driver supports ATAPI cdrom drives
  180 such as the NEC-260 and the new MITSUMI triple/quad speed drives.
  181 Such drives will be identified at boot time, just like a hard disk.
  182 
  183 If for some reason your cdrom drive is *not* found at boot time, you can force
  184 the probe to look harder by supplying a kernel command line parameter
  185 via LILO, such as:
  186 
  187         hdc=cdrom       /* hdc = "master" on second interface */
  188 or
  189         hdd=cdrom       /* hdd = "slave" on second interface */
  190 
  191 For example, a GW2000 system might have a hard drive on the primary
  192 interface (/dev/hda) and an IDE cdrom drive on the secondary interface
  193 (/dev/hdc).  To mount a CD in the cdrom drive, one would use something like:
  194 
  195         ln -sf /dev/hdc /dev/cdrom
  196         mkdir /cd
  197         mount /dev/cdrom /cd -t iso9660 -o ro
  198 
  199 If, after doing all of the above, mount doesn't work and you see
  200 errors from the driver (with dmesg) complaining about `status=0xff',
  201 this means that the hardware is not responding to the driver's attempts
  202 to read it.  One of the following is probably the problem:
  203 
  204   - Your hardware is broken.
  205 
  206   - You are using the wrong address for the device, or you have the
  207     drive jumpered wrong.  Review the configuration instructions above.
  208 
  209   - Your IDE controller requires some nonstandard initialization sequence
  210     before it will work properly.  If this is the case, there will often
  211     be a separate MS-DOS driver just for the controller.  IDE interfaces
  212     on sound cards usually fall into this category.  Such configurations
  213     can often be made to work by first booting MS-DOS, loading the
  214     appropriate drivers, and then warm-booting linux (without powering
  215     off).  This can be automated using loadlin in the MS-DOS autoexec.
  216 
  217 If you always get timeout errors, interrupts from the drive are probably
  218 not making it to the host.  Check how you have the hardware jumpered
  219 and make sure it matches what the driver expects (see the configuration
  220 instructions above).  If you have a PCI system, also check the BIOS
  221 setup; I've had one report of a system which was shipped with IRQ 15
  222 disabled by the BIOS.
  223 
  224 The kernel is able to execute binaries directly off of the cdrom,
  225 provided it is mounted with the default block size of 1024 (as above).
  226 
  227 Please pass on any feedback on any of this stuff to the maintainer,
  228 whose address can be found in linux/MAINTAINERS.
  229 
  230 Note that if BOTH hd.c and ide.c are configured into the kernel,
  231 hd.c will normally be allowed to control the primary IDE interface.
  232 This is useful for older hardware that may be incompatible with ide.c,
  233 and still allows newer hardware to run on the 2nd/3rd/4th IDE ports
  234 under control of ide.c.   To have ide.c also "take over" the primary
  235 IDE port in this situation, use the "command line" parameter:  ide0=0x1f0
  236 
  237 The IDE driver is partly modularized.  The high level disk/cdrom/tape/floppy
  238 drivers can always be compiled as loadable modules, the chipset drivers
  239 can only be compiled into the kernel, and the core code (ide.c) can be
  240 compiled as a loadable module provided no chipset support and no special
  241 partition table translations are needed.
  242 
  243 When using ide.c/ide-tape.c as modules in combination with kerneld, add:
  244 
  245         alias block-major-3 ide-probe
  246         alias char-major-37 ide-tape
  247 
  248 respectively to /etc/modules.conf.
  249 
  250 When ide.c is used as a module, you can pass command line parameters to the
  251 driver using the "options=" keyword to insmod, while replacing any ',' with
  252 ';'.  For example:
  253 
  254         insmod ide.o options="ide0=serialize ide2=0x1e8;0x3ee;11"
  255 
  256 
  257 ================================================================================
  258 
  259 Summary of ide driver parameters for kernel "command line":
  260 ----------------------------------------------------------
  261  "hdx="  is recognized for all "x" from "a" to "h", such as "hdc".
  262  "idex=" is recognized for all "x" from "0" to "3", such as "ide1".
  263 
  264  "hdx=noprobe"          : drive may be present, but do not probe for it
  265  "hdx=none"             : drive is NOT present, ignore cmos and do not probe
  266  "hdx=nowerr"           : ignore the WRERR_STAT bit on this drive
  267  "hdx=cdrom"            : drive is present, and is a cdrom drive
  268  "hdx=cyl,head,sect"    : disk drive is present, with specified geometry
  269  "hdx=autotune"         : driver will attempt to tune interface speed
  270                                 to the fastest PIO mode supported,
  271                                 if possible for this drive only.
  272                                 Not fully supported by all chipset types,
  273                                 and quite likely to cause trouble with
  274                                 older/odd IDE drives.
  275  "hdx=slow"             : insert a huge pause after each access to the data
  276                                 port. Should be used only as a last resort.
  277  "hdx=swapdata"         : when the drive is a disk, byte swap all data
  278 
  279  "hdxlun=xx"            : set the drive last logical unit
  280 
  281  "idebus=xx"            : inform IDE driver of VESA/PCI bus speed in MHz,
  282                                 where "xx" is between 20 and 66 inclusive,
  283                                 used when tuning chipset PIO modes.
  284                                 For PCI bus, 25 is correct for a P75 system,
  285                                 30 is correct for P90,P120,P180 systems,
  286                                 and 33 is used for P100,P133,P166 systems.
  287                                 If in doubt, use idebus=33 for PCI.
  288                                 As for VLB, it is safest to not specify it.
  289                                 Bigger values are safer than smaller ones.
  290 
  291  "idex=noprobe"         : do not attempt to access/use this interface
  292  "idex=base"            : probe for an interface at the addr specified,
  293                                 where "base" is usually 0x1f0 or 0x170
  294                                 and "ctl" is assumed to be "base"+0x206
  295  "idex=base,ctl"        : specify both base and ctl
  296  "idex=base,ctl,irq"    : specify base, ctl, and irq number
  297  "idex=autotune"        : driver will attempt to tune interface speed
  298                                 to the fastest PIO mode supported,
  299                                 for all drives on this interface.
  300                                 Not fully supported by all chipset types,
  301                                 and quite likely to cause trouble with
  302                                 older/odd IDE drives.
  303  "idex=noautotune"      : driver will NOT attempt to tune interface speed
  304                                 This is the default for most chipsets,
  305                                 except the cmd640.
  306  "idex=serialize"       : do not overlap operations on idex and ide(x^1)
  307  "idex=reset"           : reset interface after probe
  308  "idex=dma"             : automatically configure/use DMA if possible.
  309  "idex=nohighio"        : don't use i/o to high memory addresses on this
  310                                 interface. i/o to memory locations higher
  311                                 than ~860MiB will be bounced.
  312 
  313  The following are valid ONLY on ide0,
  314  and the defaults for the base,ctl ports must not be altered.
  315 
  316  "ide0=dtc2278"         : probe/support DTC2278 interface
  317  "ide0=ht6560b"         : probe/support HT6560B interface
  318  "ide0=cmd640_vlb"      : *REQUIRED* for VLB cards with the CMD640 chip
  319                           (not for PCI -- automatically detected)
  320  "ide0=qd65xx"          : probe/support qd65xx interface
  321  "ide0=ali14xx"         : probe/support ali14xx chipsets (ALI M1439/M1445)
  322  "ide0=umc8672"         : probe/support umc8672 chipsets
  323 
  324 There may be more options than shown -- use the source, Luke!
  325 
  326 Everything else is rejected with a "BAD OPTION" message.
  327 
  328 ================================================================================
  329 
  330 Some Terminology
  331 ----------------
  332 IDE = Integrated Drive Electronics, meaning that each drive has a built-in
  333 controller, which is why an "IDE interface card" is not a "controller card".
  334 
  335 IDE drives are designed to attach almost directly to the ISA bus of an AT-style
  336 computer.  The typical IDE interface card merely provides I/O port address
  337 decoding and tri-state buffers, although several newer localbus cards go much
  338 beyond the basics.  When purchasing a localbus IDE interface, avoid cards with
  339 an onboard BIOS and those which require special drivers.  Instead, look for a
  340 card which uses hardware switches/jumpers to select the interface timing speed,
  341 to allow much faster data transfers than the original 8MHz ISA bus allows.
  342 
  343 ATA = AT (the old IBM 286 computer) Attachment Interface, a draft American
  344 National Standard for connecting hard drives to PCs.  This is the official
  345 name for "IDE".
  346 
  347 The latest standards define some enhancements, known as the ATA-2 spec,
  348 which grew out of vendor-specific "Enhanced IDE" (EIDE) implementations.
  349 
  350 ATAPI = ATA Packet Interface, a new protocol for controlling the drives,
  351 similar to SCSI protocols, created at the same time as the ATA2 standard.
  352 ATAPI is currently used for controlling CDROM and TAPE devices, and will
  353 likely also soon be used for Floppy drives, removable R/W cartridges,
  354 and for high capacity hard disk drives.
  355 
  356 How To Use *Big* ATA/IDE drives with Linux
  357 ------------------------------------------
  358 The ATA Interface spec for IDE disk drives allows a total of 28 bits
  359 (8 bits for sector, 16 bits for cylinder, and 4 bits for head) for addressing
  360 individual disk sectors of 512 bytes each (in "Linear Block Address" (LBA)
  361 mode, there is still only a total of 28 bits available in the hardware).
  362 This "limits" the capacity of an IDE drive to no more than 128GB (Giga-bytes).
  363 All current day IDE drives are somewhat smaller than this upper limit, and
  364 within a few years, ATAPI disk drives will raise the limit considerably.
  365 
  366 All IDE disk drives "suffer" from a "16-heads" limitation:  the hardware has
  367 only a four bit field for head selection, restricting the number of "physical"
  368 heads to 16 or less.  Since the BIOS usually has a 63 sectors/track limit,
  369 this means that all IDE drivers larger than 504MB (528Meg) must use a "physical"
  370 geometry with more than 1024 cylinders.
  371 
  372    (1024cyls * 16heads * 63sects * 512bytes/sector) / (1024 * 1024) == 504MB
  373 
  374 (Some BIOSs (and controllers with onboard BIOS) pretend to allow "32" or "64"
  375  heads per drive (discussed below), but can only do so by playing games with
  376  the real (hidden) geometry, which is always limited to 16 or fewer heads).
  377 
  378 This presents two problems to most systems:
  379 
  380         1. The INT13 interface to the BIOS only allows 10-bits for cylinder
  381         addresses, giving a limit of 1024cyls for programs which use it.
  382 
  383         2. The physical geometry fields of the disk partition table only
  384         allow 10-bits for cylinder addresses, giving a similar limit of 1024
  385         cyls for operating systems that do not use the "sector count" fields
  386         instead of the physical Cyl/Head/Sect (CHS) geometry fields.
  387 
  388 Neither of these limitations affects Linux itself, as it (1) does not use the
  389 BIOS for disk access, and it (2) is clever enough to use the "sector count"
  390 fields of the partition table instead of the physical CHS geometry fields.
  391 
  392         a) Most folks use LILO to load linux.  LILO uses the INT13 interface
  393         to the BIOS to load the kernel at boot time.  Therefore, LILO can only
  394         load linux if the files it needs (usually just the kernel images) are
  395         located below the magic 1024 cylinder "boundary" (more on this later).
  396 
  397         b) Many folks also like to have bootable DOS partitions on their
  398         drive(s).  DOS also uses the INT13 interface to the BIOS, not only
  399         for booting, but also for operation after booting.  Therefore, DOS
  400         can normally only access partitions which are contained entirely below
  401         the magic 1024 cylinder "boundary".
  402 
  403 There are at least seven commonly used schemes for kludging DOS to work
  404 around this "limitation".  In the long term, the problem is being solved
  405 by introduction of an alternative BIOS interface that does not have the
  406 same limitations as the INT13 interface.  New versions of DOS are expected
  407 to detect and use this interface in systems whose BIOS provides it.
  408 
  409 But in the present day, alternative solutions are necessary.
  410 
  411 The most popular solution in newer systems is to have the BIOS shift bits
  412 between the cylinder and head number fields.  This is activated by entering
  413 a translated logical geometry into the BIOS/CMOS setup for the drive.
  414 Thus, if the drive has a geometry of 2100/16/63 (CHS), then the BIOS could
  415 present a "logical" geometry of 525/64/63 by "shifting" two bits from the
  416 cylinder number into the head number field for purposes of the partition table,
  417 CMOS setup, and INT13 interfaces.  Linux kernels 1.1.39 and higher detect and
  418 "handle" this translation automatically, making this a rather painless solution
  419 for the 1024 cyls problem.  If for some reason Linux gets confused (unlikely),
  420 then use the kernel command line parameters to pass the *logical* geometry,
  421 as in:  hda=525,64,63
  422 
  423 If the BIOS does not support this form of drive translation, then several
  424 options remain, listed below in order of popularity:
  425 
  426         - use a partition below the 1024 cyl boundary to hold the linux
  427         boot files (kernel images and /boot directory), and place the rest
  428         of linux anywhere else on the drive.  These files can reside in a DOS
  429         partition, or in a tailor-made linux boot partition.
  430         - use DiskManager software from OnTrack, supplied free with
  431         many new hard drive purchases.
  432         - use EZ-Drive software (similar to DiskManager).  Note though,
  433         that LILO must *not* use the MBR when EZ-Drive is present.
  434         Instead, install LILO on the first sector of your linux partition,
  435         and mark it as "active" or "bootable" with fdisk.
  436         - boot from a floppy disk instead of the hard drive (takes 10 seconds).
  437 
  438 If you cannot use drive translation, *and* your BIOS also restricts you to
  439 entering no more than 1024 cylinders in the geometry field in the CMOS setup,
  440 then just set it to 1024.  As of v3.5 of this driver, Linux automatically
  441 determines the *real* number of cylinders for fdisk to use, allowing easy
  442 access to the full disk capacity without having to fiddle around.
  443 
  444 Regardless of what you do, all DOS partitions *must* be contained entirely
  445 within the first 1024 logical cylinders.  For a 1Gig WD disk drive, here's
  446 a good "half and half" partitioning scheme to start with:
  447 
  448         geometry = 2100/16/63
  449         /dev/hda1 from cyl    1 to  992         dos
  450         /dev/hda2 from cyl  993 to 1023         swap
  451         /dev/hda3 from cyl 1024 to 2100         linux
  452 
  453 To ensure that LILO can boot linux, the boot files (kernel and /boot/*)
  454 must reside within the first 1024 cylinders of the drive.  If your linux
  455 root partition is *not* completely within the first 1024 cyls (quite common),
  456 then you can use LILO to boot linux from files on your DOS partition
  457 by doing the following after installing Slackware (or whatever):
  458 
  459         0. Boot from the "boot floppy" created during the installation
  460         1. Mount your DOS partition as /dos (and stick it in /etc/fstab)
  461         2. Move /boot to /dos/boot with:  cp -a /boot /dos ; rm -r /boot
  462         3. Create a symlink for LILO to use with:  ln -s /dos/boot /boot
  463         4. Move your kernel (/vmlinuz) to /boot/vmlinuz:  mv /vmlinuz /boot
  464         5. Edit /etc/lilo.conf to change /vmlinuz to /boot/vmlinuz
  465         6. Re-run LILO with:  lilo
  466 
  467         A danger with this approach is that whenever an MS-DOS "defragmentation"
  468         program is run (like Norton "speeddisk"), it may move the Linux boot
  469         files around, confusing LILO and making the (Linux) system unbootable.
  470         Be sure to keep a kernel "boot floppy" at hand for such circumstances.
  471         A possible workaround is to mark the Linux files as S+H+R (System,
  472         Hidden, Readonly), to prevent most defragmentation programs from
  473         moving the files around.
  474 
  475 If you "don't do DOS", then partition as you please, but remember to create
  476 a small partition to hold the /boot directory (and vmlinuz) as described above
  477 such that they stay within the first 1024 cylinders.
  478 
  479 Note that when creating partitions that span beyond cylinder 1024,
  480 Linux fdisk will complain about "Partition X has different physical/logical
  481 endings" and emit messages such as "This is larger than 1024, and may cause
  482 problems with some software".   Ignore this for linux partitions.  The "some
  483 software" refers to DOS, the BIOS, and LILO, as described previously.
  484 
  485 Western Digital ships a "DiskManager 6.03" diskette with all of their big
  486 hard drives.  Use BIOS translation instead of this if possible, as it is a
  487 more generally compatible method of achieving the same results (DOS access
  488 to the entire disk).  However, if you must use DiskManager, it now works
  489 with Linux 1.3.x in most cases.  Let me know if you still have trouble.
  490 
  491 My recommendations to anyone who asks about NEW systems are:
  492 
  493         - buy a motherboard that uses the Intel Triton chipset -- very common.
  494         - use IDE for the first two drives, placing them on separate interfaces.
  495                 - very fast 7200rpm drives are now available
  496                 (though many problems have been reported with Seagate ones).
  497         - place the IDE cdrom drive as slave on either interface.
  498         - if additional disks are to be connected, consider your needs:
  499                 - fileserver?  Buy a SC200 SCSI adaptor for the next few drives.
  500                 - personal system?  Use IDE for the next two drives.
  501                 - still not enough?  Keep adding SC200 SCSI cards as needed.
  502 
  503 Most manufacturers make both IDE and SCSI versions of each of their drives.
  504 The IDE ones are usually as fast and cheaper, due to lower command overhead
  505 and the higher data transfer speed of UDMA2.  But fast/ultrawide/superlative
  506 SCSI is still king of the heap, especially for servers, if you've got the bucks.
  507 
  508 mlord@pobox.com
  509 --
  510 For current maintainers of this stuff, see the linux/MAINTAINERS file.

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