Hello NeXT Community: Goal Openstep 4.2 4Gb single partition for use in Previous, SCSI2SD, ZULU SCSI, Blue SCSI and or Original Hard drive then have it replicated so a 32Gb SD drive would nest 6 4Gb partitions on an SD Card SCSI ID 0,1,2,3,4,5 with 6 being for an actual CD rom drive. Currently I have an ISO on SD with 4,5 or 6 2Gb partitions and yes it works with SCSI2SD, ZULU and Blue SCSI pushing the envelop on the tech:)
I use Extreme Pro 100Mbs cards and have the new 300Mbs cards and will be beta testing the new ZULU 2.0 + and future faster ZULU cards for the manufacturer so I say let her rip tater chip:)
Any help appreciated ....the long version hope this makes sense.
My understanding is in Openstep 4.2 a 4Gb Single Partition is possible
and with that 4Gb partition up to 7 4gb drives are bootable and mountable
With NeXTSTEP 3.3 it will build disk on a 4gb drive but creates 2 2gb partitions
and even a 9gb drive but makes a 2gb main partition with 4 smaller partitions which can be mounted modifying the etc/fstab file.
Enter > Disk Tab Entries and a nice example of a Maxtor Atlas with custom Disktabs by Apple2guy.
https://www.nextcomputers.org/forums/index.php?topic=5364.msg30950#msg30950 I'm hoping we can make a 4Gb single partition as I think the largest available image currently is 2.88Gb for Previous :) and
So I'm not sure how the compressed drive image footprints are created in previous and would it work? Someone may have this working already:)
I use the * diskjockey.app to make a single 3.0 gb disk image and it mounted and initialized then successfully built Openstep 4.2 on it in Previous but it divided into 2 partitions :)
*diskjockey.app work once then went kaput not sure what I did lol. Tried deinstalling and reinstalling , no joy for me. Any other apps ?
So it may take a Custom builddisk pointing at the custom disktab entry file created for Previous.....
The thought here is by installing Openstep 4.2 on to it in Previous may be possible in single partition by trying a fresh install from the Openstep 4.2 User Iso route to the 4gb foot print. ?
Or it may be easier to have a clean Openstep 4.2 Install User, Developer and Y2k patches quadfat 4Gb image completed on an actual SCSI Hard drive then see if a Custom build disk is possible to an SD Card either in ZULU SCSI 2.0, BLUE SCSI 2.0 or SCSI2SD which lets you set up partition size in the XML file.
Where is this leading?
So once we have a Clean booting Openstep 4.2 4gb image , we are in business as additional 4Gb partitions can be created and with those images a lot of NeXT Software and Documentation would be installed in a Master SD 32Gb image ...... the would probably hold most of the NeXT software past, present and future because of the small foot prints of the legacy NeXT apps :)
I'm asing for help creating the 4gb footprint , also a nice addition to Previous IMHO and a recipe of how to install it or make the Custom disk tab entry for it as I assume it with probably 512 or 1024 by 139 by 4
Like in SCSI2SD XML
<bytesPerSector>512</bytesPerSector>
<sectorsPerTrack>139</sectorsPerTrack>
<headsPerCylinder>4</headsPerCylinder>
I'm not sure how it works in Previous as far as reading Disk Tabs but my guess is the templates for drive and floppy foot prints follw closely to original NeXT hardshaking formats of 2 gb or less. I recall early versions of NeXTstep 2.1 Had a selection dial so you could toggle and set the size of drive you wanted to initialize and or build making it easy to dd a bootable clone back up with different size drive
So I remember getting a 4gb drive working, vaguely. I did make a custom disktab but there was a trick to it.
The trick involved making the block size on the drive 1024, instead of the standard 512. This let you adjust the disktab to basically increase addressing to 4gb that way.
The problem was that a you cannot boot a drive with 1024 block size. It can be used as a second drive but not as a boot drive.
So the solution I came up with was a kick disk. The kick disk I used was a floppy similar to the floppy used to "kick" installation off an installation cdrom since early nexts could not boot off cdroms. You would put in the floppy and I vaguely recall you would do some variant of the "bsd" command, which would start booting the floppy, and maybe the floppy would then do another BS'd command after it loaded a few drivers which gave it enough driver awareness to see the 1024 block 4gb formatted drive.
I used this set up for a couple of years. Problem is that machine is long gone. I might have some backup of the disktab somewhere and maybe even the floppy. I need to root around it. The problem is I don't have a raw 4gb image and have asked in another thread how to make one using previous, but I don't think I ever got an answer.
One other thing I remember ther was a really good scsiformat command line tool I used that let you select the block size with which to format drives and not the built in next format command. I think the name was something like sdformater. I need to look in my backups. I think it got to version 1.3 or something like that. It should be in some of the archives like peanuts.
Ok so I found the drive formatting command line app. sdformat v 1.3. This let you format with different block sizes.
The man page is below for more detail.
Quote.\" $Id: sdformat.8,v 1.3 1995/01/16 01:20:11
.\"
.\" This software is copyright 1992,1993,1994,1995 by Brian Willoughby.
.\"
.\" Permission is not granted to copy, reproduce or redistribute this software
.\" without express written permission from the author. There must be no
.\" monetary profit gained specifically from the use or reproduction of this
.\" software. It must not be sold, rented, traded or otherwise marketed.
.\" This copyright notice must not be altered, nor should any other part of
.\" the program or documentation. Please contact the author for additional
.\" copies of this software.
.\"
.\" The author makes no claims as to the fitness or correctness of this
.\" software for any use whatsoever, and it is provided as is. Any use of this
.\" software is at the user's own risk.
.\"
.\" Begin macro
.\"
.de Sp
.if t .sp .5v
.if n .sp
..
.\"
.\" Begin sdformat
.\"
.TH SDFORMAT 8 "January 16, 1995" "Brian Willoughby"
.SH NAME
sdformat \- Format SCSI Device
.SH SYNOPSIS
.B sdformat
[ -i\fIid\fP ] [ -u\fIunit\fP ] [ -b\fIblocksize\fP ] [ -f ]
.br
[ -t\fItimeout\fP ] [ -vVq ]
.SH DESCRIPTION
.I sdformat
is a multi-purpose utility for formatting SCSI devices. It includes the ability to request Mode Sense data from the drive, set the block length with a Mode Select Command, and to send a Format Unit Command to the SCSI device. The -f (Format Unit) option should be used with extreme caution; all data on the device being formatted is lost.
.PP
Without the -b or -f options,
.I sdformat
will not make any changes to the device, it will merely display the Mode Sense data. The -b and -f options can be combined into one session, or executed separately. However, it is not advisable to change the block size and then use the drive without issuing a subsequent format operation.
.PP
Any SCSI Command errors are explained using the descriptions from the ANSI X3.131-1986 standard.
.SH OPTIONS
.TP
-i\fIid\fP
.br
\fIid\fP specifies the Target ID of the SCSI device.
.Sp
Default: SCSI #2.
.TP
-u\fIunit\fP
\fIunit\fP specifies the Logical Unit number of the SCSI device. Note: The unit number is rarely used on fixed disks.
.Sp
Default: unit 0.
.TP
-b\fIblocksize\fP
Specify this option to change the Block Length for the SCSI device using the Mode Select Command. \fIblocksize\fP is in bytes; common values are 512, 1024 or 2048.
.Sp
Default: retains the block size which is currently in use on the SCSI device.
.TP
-f
executes a Format Unit Command on the specified SCSI device. If the -b option is specified, the corresponding Mode Select Command will be sent before the format request, allowing a single command line to change the block size and format with one execution. This option should be used with extreme caution; all data on the device being formatted is lost.
.TP
-v
causes the Mode Sense data to be displayed in verbose report format.
.TP
The following options are not normally necessary:
.TP
-q
causes the Mode Sense data to be interpreted according to the Common Command Set extensions to SCSI 1. I have not yet found pre-SCSI 2 documentation on CCS, so this version of
.I sdformat
follows the implementation used by Quantum.
.TP
-t\fItimeout\fP
\fItimeout\fP specifies the number of seconds to use in the call to the SCSI device driver. This option should be used with drives requiring a long time to complete the format operation. If the default timeout is insufficient, supply a larger value using this option, referring to the default SCSI I/O timeout requested as a baseline.
.Sp
Default: the timeout for the SCSI Format Unit Command is computed by multiplying a constant by the number of device blocks.
.TP
-V
reports everything that the \fB-v\fR option does, adding display of the SCSI Command bytes as they are sent to the device driver. However, the ANSI error descriptions are not show to reduce the lenght of the output.
.SH EXAMPLES
.TP
sdformat -b512 -vf
format the drive with SCSI ID 2 using 512 bytes/block and dump verbose
.TP
sdformat -i5 -b1024 -f
format the drive with SCSI ID 5 using 1024 bytes/block
.SH "SEE ALSO"
sdform(8), fdform(8), disk(8)
.SH CAVEATS
No provision is made for adding entries to the device's bad block list.
.SH HISTORY
Written by Brian Willoughby <brianw@sounds.wa.com>
.br
Copyright 1992 through 1995.
I *think* I found my disk tab that has the 1024b/s 4GB partition info:
Quote#
# Copyright (c) 1983,1986 Regents of the University of California.
# All rights reserved. The Berkeley software License Agreement
# specifies the terms and conditions for redistribution.
#
# @(#)disktab 4.11 (Berkeley) 5/31/86
#
# Disk geometry and partition layout tables.
# Key:
# ty type of disk
# ns #sectors/track -- DEV_BSIZE sectors
# nt #tracks/cylinder
# nc #cylinders/disk
# rm rpm, 3600 default
# ss sector size -- MUST ALWAYS BE DEV_BSIZE (1024) FOR NOW
# fp # DEV_BSIZE blocks in front porch
# bp # DEV_BSIZE blocks in back porch
# ng #alternate groups
# gs #sectors per alt group
# ga #alt sectors per group
# ao sector offset to alternates in group
# os name of boot file
# z[0-1] location of "block 0" boot code in DEV_BSIZE blocks
# hn hostname
# ro read only root partition (e.g. 'a')
# rw read/write partition (e.g. 'b')
# p[a-h] partition base in DEV_BSIZE blocks
# s[a-h] partition sizes in DEV_BSIZE blocks
# b[a-h] partition block sizes in bytes
# f[a-h] partition fragment sizes in bytes
# c[a-h] partition cylinders-per-group
# d[a-h] partition density (bytes-per-inode)
# r[a-h] partition minfree
# o[a-h] partition optimization ("space" or "time")
# i[a-h] partition newfs during init
# m[a-h] partition mount point name
# a[a-h] partition auto-mount on insert
# t[a-h] partition file system type ("4.3BSD", "sound" etc.)
#
# Entries may also be used for other compatible drives
# with the same geometry.
# FUJITSU
#
#m2512a|M2512A|FUJITSU M2512A|Fujitsu M2512A|FUJITSU M2512A 1304Çà:\
# :ty=removable_rw_optical:nc#80:nt#2:ns#1394:ss#1024:rm#3600:\
# :fp#160:bp#0:ng#0:gs#0:ga#0:ao#0:\
# :os=sdmach:z0#32:z1#96:ro=a:rw=b:\
# :pa#0:sa#223002:ba#8192:fa#1024:ca#2:da#4096:ra#0:oa=time:\
# :ia:aa:ta=4.3BSD:
#omd-1|OMD-1|Canon OMD-1:\
# :ty=removable_rw_optical:nc#1029:nt#15:ns#16:ss#1024:rm#3000:\
# :fp#256:bp#256:ng#154:gs#1600:ga#16:ao#784:\
# :os=odmach:z0#80:z1#168:ro=a:\
# :pa#0:sa#243936:ba#8192:fa#1024:ca#3:da#4096:ra#5:oa=time:\
# :ia:ta=4.3BSD:aa:
##########################################################################
##########################################################################
# OPTICAL OPTICAL OPTICAL OPTICAL OPTICAL OPTICAL OPTICAL OPTICAL drives
##########################################################################
##########################################################################
##########################################################################
#ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME
#RICOH RO-5030E2 E|RICOH RO-5030E2 µ|RICOH RO-5030E2 Rev E|RICOH #RO-5030E2:\
# :ty=removable_rw_scsi:nc#80:nt#2:ns#1783:ss#1024:rm#1800:\
# :fp#160:bp#0:ng#0:gs#0:ga#0:ao#0:\
# :os=mach_kernel:z0#32:z1#96:ro=a:\
# :pa#0:sa#285152:ba#8192:fa#1024:ca#8:da#4096:ra#0:oa=time:\
# :ia:ta=4.3BSD:aa:
#
# ra#0 <-Min % Free
#Ricoh OD's
#/etc/mkfs /dev/rsd1a 285152 1783 2 8192 1024 16 1 30 4096 t
#Verbatum OD's
#/etc/mkfs /dev/rsd1a 288339 1803 2 8192 1024 12 1 30 4096 t
##########################################################################
##########################################################################
##########################################################################
# SCSI SCSI SCSI SCSI SCSI SCSI SCSI SCSI SCSI SCSI SCSI SCSI SCSI drives
##########################################################################
##########################################################################
##########################################################################
# Mike's Mike's Mike's Mike's Mike's Mike's Mike's Mike's Mike's Mike's
# SEAGATE ST41650
#ST41650|SEAGATE ST41650|SEAGATE ST41650 w/1024 byte sectors as 1 partition:\
# :ty=fixed_rw_scsi:nc#2107:nt#15:ns#47:ss#1024:rm#3600:\
# :fp#160:bp#0:ng#0:gs#0:ga#0:ao#0:\
# :os=sdmach:z0#32:z1#96:r0=a:\
# :pa#0:sa#1455875:ba#8192:fa#1024:ca#32:da#4096:ra#10:oa=time:\
# :ia:ta=4.3BSD:
# SEAGATE ST1480
#ST1480|SEAGATE ST1480|SEAGATE ST1480 w/1024 byte sectors as 1 partition:\
# :ty=fixed_rw_scsi:nc#1476:nt#9:ns#34:ss#1024:rm#3600:\
# :fp#160:bp#0:ng#0:gs#0:ga#0:ao#0:\
# :os=sdmach:z0#32:z1#96:r0=a:\
# :pa#0:sa#429815:ba#8192:fa#1024:ca#32:da#4096:ra#10:oa=time:\
# :ia:ta=4.3BSD:
# SEAGATE ST1480
#ST1480|SEAGATE ST1480|SEAGATE ST1480 w/512 byte sectors as 1 partition:\
# :ty=fixed_rw_scsi:nc#1476:nt#9:ns#64:ss#1024:rm#3600:\
# :fp#160:bp#0:ng#0:gs#0:ga#0:ao#0:\
# :os=sdmach:z0#32:z1#96:r0=a:\
# :pa#0:sa#416103:ba#8192:fa#1024:ca#32:da#4096:ra#10:oa=time:\
# :ia:ta=4.3BSD:
##########################################################################
##########################################################################
# ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME ME
# SEAGATE ST41650
#ST41650|SEAGATE ST41650|SEAGATE ST41650 w/1024 byte sectors as 1 partition:\
# :ty=fixed_rw_scsi:nc#2107:nt#15:ns#47:ss#1024:rm#3600:\
# :fp#160:bp#0:ng#0:gs#0:ga#0:ao#0:\
# :os=sdmach:z0#32:z1#96:r0=a:\
# :pa#0:sa#1453925:ba#8192:fa#1024:ca#32:da#4096:ra#10:oa=time:\
# :ia:ta=4.3BSD:
#
# SEAGATE ST41650--Mine--SEAGATE ST41650 w/512 byte sectors as 1 partition
#ST41650|SEAGATE ST41650|SEAGATE ST41650 6414005:\
# :ty=fixed_rw_scsi:nc#2107:nt#15:ns#89:ss#1024:rm#3600:\
# :fp#160:bp#0:ng#0:gs#0:ga#0:ao#0:\
# :os=sdmach:z0#32:z1#96:r0=a:\
# :pa#0:sa#1382990:ba#8192:fa#1024:ca#32:da#4096:ra#10:oa=time:\
# :ia:ta=4.3BSD:
##########################################################################
#512b/s wrong!
#ST15150N|SEAGATE ST15150N|SEAGATE ST15150N 001700:\
# :ty=fixed_rw_scsi:nc#3712:nt#21:ns#108:ss#512:rm#7200:\
# :fp#320:bp#0:ng#0:gs#0:ga#0:ao#0:\
# :os=sdmach:z0#64:z1#192:hn=localhost:ro=a:\
# :pa#0:sa#4194304:ba#8192:fa#1024:ca#32:da#4096:ra#10:oa=time:\
# :ia:ta=4.3BSD:\
# :pb#4194304:sb#4194304:bb#8192:fb#1024:cb#32:db#4096:rb#10:ob=time:\
# :ib:tb=4.3BSD:
# :pc#4194304:sc#194560:bc#8192:fc#1024:cc#32:dc#4096:rc#10:oc=time:\
# :ic:tc=4.3BSD:
#1024b/s
#SEAGATE|SEAGATE ST15150N|SEAGATE ST15150N 001700:\
# :ty=fixed_rw_scsi:nc#3712:nt#21:ns#56:ss#1024:rm#7200:\
# :fp#160:bp#0:ng#0:gs#0:ga#0:ao#0:\
# :os=sdmach:z0#32:z1#96:hn=localhost:ro=a:\
# :pa#0:sa#2097152:ba#8192:fa#1024:ca#8:da#4096:ra#10:oa=time:\
# :ia:ta=4.3BSD:\
# :pb#2097152:sb#2097152:bb#8192:fb#1024:cb#8:db#4096:rb#10:ob=time:\
# :ib:tb=4.3BSD:\
# :pc#4194304:sc#194295:bc#8192:fc#1024:cc#8:dc#4096:rc#10:oc=time:\
# :ic:tc=4.3BSD:
#4Gig barracuda, Two, 2Gb partitions
#SEAGATE ST15150N|ST15150N|ST15150N 001700|SEAGATE ST15150N 001700:\
# :ty=fixed_rw_scsi:nc#3712:nt#21:ns#108:ss#512:rm#7200:\
# :fp#320:bp#0:ng#0:gs#0:ga#0:ao#0:\
# :os=sdmach:z0#64:z1#192:hn=localhost:ro=a:\
# :pa#0:sa#4194304:ba#8192:fa#1024:ca#32:da#4096:ra#10:oa=time:\
# :ia:ta=4.3BSD:\
# :pb#4194304:sb#4193690:bb#8192:fb#1024:cb#32:db#4096:rb#10:ob=time:\
# :ib:tb=4.3BSD:
#DEC DSP5400S 427L043174:\
# :ty=fixed_rw_scsi:nc#3055:nt#26:ns#98:rm#5400:\
# :fp#320:bp#0:ng#0:gs#0:ga#0:ao#0:\
# :os=sdmach:z0#64:z1#192:hn=localhost:ro=a:\
# :pa#0:sa#2779999:ba#8192:fa#1024:ca#32:da#4096:ra#10:oa=time:\
# :ia:ta=4.3BSD:\
# :pb#2779999:sb#838246:bb#8192:fb#1024:cb#32:db#4096:rb#10:ob=time:\
# :ib:tb=4.3BSD:\
# :pc#3618245:sc#4194304:bc#8192:fc#1024:cc#32:dc#4096:rc#10:oc=time:\
# :ic:tc=4.3BSD:
#4Gig barracuda, Two, 3Gb partitions--1.6Gb, 0.4Gb, 2Gb
SEAGATE ST15150N|ST15150N|ST15150N 001700|SEAGATE ST15150N 001700:\
:ty=fixed_rw_scsi:nc#3712:nt#21:ns#108:ss#512:rm#7200:\
:fp#320:bp#0:ng#0:gs#0:ga#0:ao#0:\
:os=sdmach:z0#64:z1#192:hn=localhost:ro=a:\
:pa#0:sa#3609498:ba#8192:fa#1024:ca#32:da#4096:ra#10:oa=time:\
:ia:ta=4.3BSD:\
:pb#3609498:sb#583680:bb#8192:fb#1024:cb#32:db#4096:rb#10:ob=time:\
:ib:tb=4.3BSD:\
:pc#4193178:sc#4194304:bc#8192:fc#1024:cc#32:dc#4096:rc#10:oc=time:\
:ic:tc=4.3BSD:
#4Gig barracuda Wide, Two, 3Gb partitions--1.6Gb, 0.4Gb, 2Gb
SEAGATE ST34371W 0484JD|ST34371W|SEAGATE ST34371W|ST34371W 0484JD:\
:ty=fixed_rw_scsi:nc#5172:nt#10:ns#165:ss#512:rm#7200:\
:fp#320:bp#0:ng#0:gs#0:ga#0:ao#0:\
:os=sdmach:z0#64:z1#192:hn=localhost:ro=a:\
:pa#0:sa#3718067:ba#8192:fa#1024:ca#32:da#4096:ra#10:oa=time:\
:ia:ta=4.3BSD:\
:pb#3718067:sb#583680:bb#8192:fb#1024:cb#32:db#4096:rb#10:ob=time:\
:ib:tb=4.3BSD:\
:pc#4301747:sc#4194304:bc#8192:fc#1024:cc#32:dc#4096:rc#10:oc=time:\
:ic:tc=4.3BSD:
# NOTE: The Builddisk application and /usr/etc/disk now are able to
# automatically determine SCSI disk geometry and capacity for SCSI disks
# that support the MODE SENSE command -- no disktab entry is required.
#
# Currently, these programs will build single and daual partition disks, so
# disks requiring 3 or more partitions must still be specified in /etc/disktab.
#
# If an entry is specified in /etc/disktab it will be used in
# preference to the default parameters chosen by /usr/etc/builddisk and
# /usr/etc/disk.
So I havent had time to try this and I'm not even sure how it would work in Previous. It's been a LONG while since I messed around with this stuff, but hopefully this may have enough info in it to get us going in the right direction.