Re: Compaq Contura Aero and 2.6

• Previous message: James Knott: "Re: Laptop Suggestion - Thinkpad?"
• In reply to: Asbjørn Sloth Tønnesen: "Re: Compaq Contura Aero and 2.6"
• Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ]

Date: Tue, 07 Jun 2005 00:36:04 GMT

Asbjørn Sloth Tønnesen wrote:
> On Mon, 2005-06-06 at 12:27 +0000, Jim wrote:
>
>>[snip]
>>
>>If that doesn't solve things, you might try a DDO such as DiscWizard
>>(available for drive-specific download at www.ontrack.com). The generic
>>DiscWizard software is payware; the free version is good for IBM/Hitachi
>>Deskstars, Travelstars, Seagates, and Maxtors (not sure on Western
>>Digital). If you have any of these drives already present in your
>>system, the workaround goes thusly:
>> 1. Disable drive detection for the channel your new (to be formatted)
>>drive is on.
>> 2. Boot using the DiscWizard software. It should detect the new drive
>>if you have at least one manufacturer-specified drive present according
>>to the software version you downloaded.
>> 3. Partition and format the new drive using DiscWizard.
>> 4. Save and exit settings.
>> 5. Remove floppy and reboot.
>>
>>Your new drive should now be picked up by the kernel. It worked for me
>>(Knoppix/Debian kernel 2.6.3) with no more issues, on a custom build
>>around a Via K5 chipset (Ali Aladdin V Pro board) and a 100GB Seagate
>>Medalist U5 drive (which the board natively couldn't even pick up)
>
>
> I think you forget that this machine is 11 years old (1994), and the
> latest BIOS is from '96. It has a RS232 port, from which I get around
> 2kbps. And then it has a pcmcia slot. It can boot from the pcmcia floppy
> drive, if present. EZ-drive BIOS is needed because the MBs BIOS can't
> handle more than 6.4 GB disks, it simply fails during boot.
>
> The setup with EZ-drive works fine in 2.2 and 2.4, but fails in 2.6.
>

riiight... as I said (probably didn't make clear) Discwizard is bootable
software - needs a spanking brand new floppy to run off of (handy that,
you've got a floppy drive you can boot from, right?). It's
platform-independent, built on Caldera DR-DOS(!), and pretty well fools
the BIOS. The overlay itself is just another layer of rubber before the
road, in that it allows pretty much /any/ board to use pretty much /any/
capacity drive (which is precisely and exclusively what it's designed to
do). For an extreme example, I built my first fileserver using a
486DX/40 and a 40GB hard drive. The 486/Intel motherboard (hard BIOS,
was one of the last RMA-flash jobs like the 386SLC's) natively couldn't
see past 2GB. Afterwards, I could boot Windows 3.11 with no problems.

If everything goes well in the partitioning, on the next boot you should
see a blue banner right after POST - this is the DW DDO at work
initialising the overlay. This being in the MBR, you don't want to be
going lobbing LiLo or grub in there, or you'll be back at square 1.
Chuck your boot manager into your Linux /boot/ partition instead. :)

-- 
Cheers,
Jim
-begin sig-
Opinions expressed in this message may or may not be representative of 
the opinions of its author. You decide.
Linux is not /user-friendly/. It *is* user-friendly. It is not 
ignorant-friendly, nor is it idiot-friendly.
Web: 	http://www.dotware.co.uk
	http://www.dotware-entertainment.co.uk
This is a battle of wits, and it is clear you are unarmed.
-end sig-

• Previous message: James Knott: "Re: Laptop Suggestion - Thinkpad?"
• In reply to: Asbjørn Sloth Tønnesen: "Re: Compaq Contura Aero and 2.6"
• Messages sorted by: [ date ] [ thread ] [ subject ] [ author ]