🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <1992Dec29.162401.29264@eagle.lerc.nasa.gov>, edsver4@cecil.lerc.nasa.gov (Jane Kramer) writes:
>
> [ The customer is trying an installation to a 3rd party disk. ]
>
>I then tried to load 4.3 from my TK50.  When the install program got to the 
>part where it wants to know which disk to load to, it showed all three of my 
>disks as options.  I chose rz2, my newly partitioned disk.  The install 
>program then balked, and said:
>
>	Unable to obtain device geometry for rz2.
>	This is not a supported system disk.
>
>I don't set up new disks everyday, and I've exhausted the "Disk Maintenance" 
>section of the "System and Network Management" volume.  Have I missed any step 
>in initializing the new disk? Or does the primary disk have to be a DEC disk?
>Any advice would really be appreciated.

Before ULTRIX V4 supported disks were known by the installation procedure
since some geometry information was desired by the mkfs(8) used to create
the initial root file system.  Starting in V4, a new I/O control was added,
DEVGETGEOM, that would allow a program to query a disk for it's geometry.
The installation procedure was modified to use this I/O control to get
the information.

Some disks put their geometry information in the places that the ULTRIX
drivers expect and you can perform an installation using these disks.
Other disks don't put their geometry inforation in the expected place
and the installation fails.  The message you're getting is the symtom
of this problem.  The solutions are:

1.  Once the standalone system is loaded, use the System Management
    option and edit the appropriate installation script so that it
    doesn't try to ask the disks it's geometry and uses one you give
    it instead.  The script to modify is install.1.

    It's worth noting that if the early part of the installation
    doesn't recognize the disk and can't get the geometry the later
    part of the installation that creates the /usr (and /var) file
    system(s) won't work either.

2.  Do enough installation on a supported disk to get a working system
    up and then move what file system you want on the other disk to
    that disk.
>
>Thanks.
>-- 
>
>-----------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Jane Kramer
>
--
Alan Rollow				alan@nabeth.cxo.dec.com