Problems booting second hard drive with kernel > 1.3.20

Jim Lynch (root@gco.apana.org.au)
Sat, 17 Feb 1996 01:55:09 +1100 (EST)

I have had trouble getting my second hard drive to boot under kernels
after <about> 1.3.20. I get a message like:-
'short read on /dev/hdb1' 'unable to mount'.
I have reformatted this drive,marking out any possible bad sectors but
still with no luck. The first drive mounts /dev/hda5. Unfortunately,
nothing after /dev/hdb1 will mount i.e. the three CD-ROM drives.
All drive<s> mount correctly using kernel version 1.2.13 without
problems and using earlier versions of 1.3.x kernel.

Here is part of the boot.log for a 1.2.9 kernel <similar up to 1.3.20>

<6>Linux version 1.2.9 (root@gco) (gcc version 2.5.8) #4 Fri Sep 1 04:33:48 EST 1995
<6>Partition check:
<6> hda: non-IDE device, 519MB, CHS=1056/16/63
<6> hda: hda1 hda2 < hda5 hda6 >
<6> hdb: non-IDE device, 519MB, CHS=1056/16/63
<6> hdb: hdb1 < >
<6>VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem).
<6>Max size:290506 Log zone size:2048
<6>First datazone:132 Root inode number 270336
<6>ISO9660 Extensions: RRIP_1991A
<6>Max size:292044 Log zone size:2048
<6>First datazone:36 Root inode number 73728
<6>ISO9660 Extensions: RRIP_1991A
<6>sbpcd-2 [18]: sbp_data: CDi_status loop expired.
<6>sbpcd-2 [19]: sbp_data: CDi_status timeout (timed_out_data) (FF).
<6>sbpcd-2 [20]: sbp_data: read aborted by drive.
<6>Max size:220000 Log zone size:2048
<6>First datazone:22 Root inode number 45056
<6>sbpcd-0 [21]: st_check detected - retrying.
<6>Adding Swap: 20628k swap-space

<Both hda5 & hdb1 mount without difficulty>
These are the mounted devices after the 'df' command:-

Filesystem 1024-blocks Used Available Capacity Mounted on
/dev/hda5 429352 252614 154564 62% /
/dev/hdb1 515433 404494 84316 83% /home
/dev/matsushita_cd0 581012 581012 0 100% /home/ftp/pub/CDROM-A
/dev/matsushita_cd1 584088 584088 0 100% /home/ftp/pub/CDROM-B
/dev/matsushita_cd2 440000 440000 0 100% /home/ftp/pub/CDROM-C

Here is the equivalent for the latest version 1.3.64 <same from beyond
1.3.20 or thereabouts>

<5>Partition check:
<5> hda: hda: non-IDE device, 519MB, CHS=1056/16/63
<5> hda1 hda2 < hda5 hda6 >
<5> hdb: hdb: non-IDE device, 519MB, CHS=1056/16/63
<5> hdb1 < >
<5>VFS: Mounted root (ext2 filesystem) readonly.
<5>attempt to access beyond end of device <-------- Error mounting /dev/hdb1
<5>EXT2-fs: unable to read superblock
<5>Adding Swap: 20628k swap-space

<In this case only hda5 mounts>

If you need the full error message <which doesn't go to the log> , I will
forward it to you.

Many thanks,

Jim Lynch
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