i386/61890: [fdisk] FDisk uses incorrect calculations for disk geometry guessing and validation

[Porter Taylor]

The following reply was made to PR i386/61890; it has been noted by GNATS.

From: Porter Taylor <pbtaylor at mitre.org>
To: bug-followup at freebsd.org
Cc: c0d3h4x0r at hotmail.com
Subject: Re: i386/61890: [fdisk] FDisk uses incorrect calculations for disk
 geometry guessing and validation
Date: Mon, 18 Jul 2005 09:35:45 -0500

 This bug is still alive in the ia64 5.4 RELEASE installer.
 
 Disk: Samsung SpinPoint SP2004C, 200GB, SATA
 Motherboard: Abit AN8 Ultra, Award BIOS (ver ?)
 BIOS reported disk geometry: 65535/16/255 (as I remember, sorry)
 
 FreeBSD installer refuses to accept this geometry in "Set Disk Geometry" 
 operation and insists on using its own calculated geometry. 
 Consequently, I aborted installation not knowing the consequences.
 
 Kudos to Keith F. Kelly for the original bug report and analysis.  I'll 
 probably try his workaround tips (but I worry about partitions shared 
 with other OSs on the computer).
 
 Kudos to the FreeBSD team for so much outstanding work --
 but NOT ON THIS SERIOUS BUG!  This is a SHOWSTOPPER for many.  Please 
 fix it, guys.
 
 Porter.Taylor at alumni.rice.edu