96 lines
4.4 KiB
HTML
96 lines
4.4 KiB
HTML
<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 3.2 Final//EN">
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<HTML>
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<META NAME="GENERATOR" CONTENT="SGML-Tools 1.0.9">
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<TITLE>Large Disk HOWTO: Large disks</TITLE>
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<LINK HREF="Large-Disk-HOWTO-2.html" REL=next>
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<LINK HREF="Large-Disk-HOWTO.html#toc1" REL=contents>
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<BODY>
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<A HREF="Large-Disk-HOWTO-2.html">Next</A>
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Previous
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<A HREF="Large-Disk-HOWTO.html#toc1">Contents</A>
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<HR>
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<H2><A NAME="s1">1. Large disks</A></H2>
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<P>You got a new disk. What to do? Well, on the software side:
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use <CODE>fdisk</CODE> or <CODE>cfdisk</CODE> to create partitions,
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and then <CODE>mke2fs</CODE> or <CODE>mkreiserfs</CODE> or so to create a filesystem,
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and then <CODE>mount</CODE> to attach the new filesystem to the big file hierarchy.
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Make sure you have relatively recent versions of these utilities -
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often old versions have problems handling large disks.
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<P>You need not read this HOWTO since there are <EM>no</EM> problems
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with large hard disks these days.
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<P>Long ago, disks were large when they had a capacity larger than
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528 MB, or than 8.4 GB, or than 33.8 GB. These days the interesting
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limit is 137 GB. In all cases, sufficiently recent Linux kernels
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handle the disk fine.
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<P>Sometimes booting requires some care, since Linux cannot help you
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when it isn't running yet. But again, with a sufficiently recent
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BIOS and boot loader there are no problems.
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Most of the text below will treat the cases of
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(i) ancient hardware,
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(ii) broken hardware or BIOS,
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(iii) several operating systems on the same disk,
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(iv) booting old systems.
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<P><B>Advice</B>
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<P>For large SCSI disks: Linux has supported them from very early on.
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No action required.
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<P>For large IDE disks (over 8.4 GB): make sure your kernel is 2.0.34 or later.
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<P>For large IDE disks (over 33.8 GB): make sure your kernel is
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2.0.39/2.2.14/2.3.21 or later.
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<P>For large IDE disks (over 137 GB): make sure your kernel is
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2.4.19/2.5.3 or later.
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<P>If the kernel boots fine, and the boot messages indicate that it
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recognizes the disk correctly, but there are problems with utilities,
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upgrade the utilities.
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<P>If
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<A HREF="Large-Disk-HOWTO-5.html#LILO">LILO</A> hangs at boot time, make sure you have
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version 21.4 or later, and specify the keyword <CODE>lba32</CODE>
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in the configuration file <CODE>/etc/lilo.conf</CODE>. With an older version
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of LILO, try both with and without the <CODE>linear</CODE> keyword.
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<P>There may be geometry problems that can be solved by giving
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an explicit geometry to kernel/LILO/fdisk.
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<P>If you have an old <CODE>fdisk</CODE> and it warns about
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<A HREF="Large-Disk-HOWTO-6.html#overlap">overlapping</A> partitions:
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ignore the warnings, or check using <CODE>cfdisk</CODE> that really all is well.
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<P>For HPT366, see the
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<A HREF="http://www.csie.ntu.edu.tw/~b6506063/hpt366/">Linux HPT366 HOWTO</A>.
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<P>If at boot time the kernel cannot read the partition table,
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consider the possibility that UDMA66 was selected while
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the controller or the cable or the disk drive did not
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support UDMA66. In such a case every attempt to read will
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fail, and reading the partition table is the first thing
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the kernel does. Make sure no UDMA66 is used.
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<P>If the BIOS hangs at boot time because of a large disk, and
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flashing a newer version is not an option, take the disk out
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of the BIOS setup. If you have to boot from the disk, look
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whether a capacity clipping jumper helps.
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<P>If you think something is wrong with the size of your disk,
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make sure that you are not confusing binary and decimal
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<A HREF="Large-Disk-HOWTO-2.html#units">units</A>
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,
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and realize that the free space that <CODE>df</CODE> reports on an empty disk
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is a few percent smaller than the partition size, because there
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is administrative overhead. Software that does not understand
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48-bit addressing will view a 137+ GB disk as having a capacity
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of 137 GB. When a capacity clipping
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<A HREF="Large-Disk-HOWTO-11.html#jumpers">jumper</A>
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is present, a larger disk may have been clipped to 33 GB or to 2 GB.
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<P>If for a removable drive the kernel reports two different sizes,
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then one is found from the drive, and the other from the disk/floppy.
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This second value will be zero when the drive has no media.
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<P>Now, if you still think there are problems, or just are curious,
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read on.
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<P>Below a rather detailed description of all relevant details.
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I used kernel version 2.0.8 source as a reference.
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Other versions may differ a bit.
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<P>
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<HR>
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<A HREF="Large-Disk-HOWTO-2.html">Next</A>
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Previous
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<A HREF="Large-Disk-HOWTO.html#toc1">Contents</A>
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