Can't add new 1TB disk in FreeBSD 6.1

[Don O'Neil]

> On Mon, Oct 06, 2008 at 08:03:46AM -0700, Don O'Neil wrote:
> 
> > > I just swapped out an old 500G disk with a 1TB one and I'm trying 
> > > to label it and mount it...
> > > 
> > > If I run bsdlabel -w ad4, I get:
> > > 
> > > bsdlabel: Geom not found
> > > 
> > > If I run sysinstall, it tells me that it can't write to the disk.
> > > 
> > > I've tried an old 'bypass': sysctl kern.geom.debugflags=16, but 
> > > that didn't help.
> > > 
> > > Can anyone help me get this new disk installed without having to 
> > > boot off a recovery CD? The server is 500 miles away from me and I 
> > > don't have direct console access.
> > > Can you provide output from dmesg, as well as "geom disk list"?
> > 
> > OK... I tried:
> > 
> > # dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/ad4 bs=512 count=1000
> > dd: /dev/ad4: Operation not permitted
> > 
> > # fdisk /dev/ad4
> > ******* Working on device /dev/ad4 ******* parameters extracted from 
> > in-core disklabel are:
> > cylinders=1938021 heads=16 sectors/track=63 (1008 blks/cyl)
> > 
> > Figures below won't work with BIOS for partitions not in cyl 1 
> > parameters to be used for BIOS calculations are:
> > cylinders=1938021 heads=16 sectors/track=63 (1008 blks/cyl)
> > 
> > fdisk: invalid fdisk partition table found Media sector size is 512
> > Warning: BIOS sector numbering starts with sector 1 Information from 
> > DOS bootblock is:
> > The data for partition 1 is:
> > sysid 165 (0xa5),(FreeBSD/NetBSD/386BSD)
> >     start 63, size 1953525105 (953869 Meg), flag 80 (active)
> >         beg: cyl 0/ head 1/ sector 1;
> >         end: cyl 612/ head 15/ sector 63 The data for partition 2 
> > is:
> > <UNUSED>
> > The data for partition 3 is:
> > <UNUSED>
> > The data for partition 4 is:
> > <UNUSED>
> 
> 
> OK.   That looks pretty normal.
>
> Well, except for not allowing the dd to the disk.  
> I haven't had that happen on a disk.  (I used to see that a lot on DAT
tapes)
>
> So, maybe, as someone else suggested, you also need:
>
> > OK... I tried:
> > 
> > # dd if=/dev/zero of=/dev/ad4 bs=512 count=1000
> > dd: /dev/ad4: Operation not permitted
> > 
> Did you "sysctl kern.geom.debugflags=16" before doing this?
> > 
> What's happening here is that GEOM isn't letting you overwrite the MBR 
> on the disk.  Setting kern.geom.debugflags=16 should permit that to 
> happen.
> 
>
> But, do the following too.  
>
> 
> Did you try doing an:     fdisk -I ad4   or  maybe  fdisk -BI ad4
> 
> It takes that to get fdisk to initialize the disk.
> (the -B puts the master boot block there.
> 
> Just doing an    fdisk ad4   only had fdisk read out stuff
> and there isn't anything there yet to read - so of course it is 
> invalid.
> 
> 
> > 
> > Geometry output:
> > 
> > Geom name: ad4
> > Providers:
> > 1. Name: ad4
> >    Mediasize: 1000204886016 (932G)
> >    Sectorsize: 512
> >    Mode: r0w0e0
> >    fwsectors: 63
> >    fwheads: 16
> > 
> > Nothing exciting coming from dmesg.

I tried kern.geom.debugflags=16 originally, still doesn't help.

Someone else recommended running sade(8) and properly configuring this disk.
What is sade(8)? I don't have such an application on 6.1, and there is
nothing in the ports. I think that sade is a 7.0+ tool.

Any other ideas?