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1993-09-17
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NOVELL TECHNICAL INFORMATION DOCUMENT
TITLE: Cold Boot Loader Patch
DOCUMENT ID: TID000164
DOCUMENT REVISION: A
DATE: 01JUL93
ALERT STATUS: Yellow
INFORMATION TYPE: Symptom Solution
README FOR: LOAD.EXE
NOVELL PRODUCT and VERSION:
NetWare Pre 3.11 and 2.2
ABSTRACT:
This version of LOADER.DAT corrects a problem appearing on hard disks
larger than 1024 cylinders, which resulted in a "Hole in file" failure.
The file also allows nondedicated NetWare to function properly with a DCB.
_________________________________________________________________
DISCLAIMER
THE ORIGIN OF THIS INFORMATION MAY BE INTERNAL OR EXTERNAL TO NOVELL.
NOVELL MAKES EVERY EFFORT WITHIN ITS MEANS TO VERIFY THIS INFORMATION.
HOWEVER, THE INFORMATION PROVIDED IN THIS DOCUMENT IS FOR YOUR INFORMATION
ONLY. NOVELL MAKES NO EXPLICIT OR IMPLIED CLAIMS TO THE VALIDITY OF THIS
INFORMATION.
_________________________________________________________________
Self-Extracting File Name: LOAD.EXE
Files Included Size Date Time
LOAD.TXT (This File)
INSTOVL.TXT 1138 10-18-90 4:24p
LOADER.DAT 6656 2-14-90 9:30a
INSTOVL.OBJ 158520 12-07-89 10:39a
The combination of LOADER.DAT and INSTOVL.OBJ resolves 2 problems
associated with running Advanced and SFT NetWare 286 v2.15 on drives with
more than 1024 cylinders.
1. A common symptom is the message "Warning! Bad Block Table Not
Accessed."
2. "Hole in file" failure.
When NetWare 286 2.15 rev C first shipped, most hard drives were designed
with fewer than 1024 cylinders. Manufacturers at that time were simply
complying with the ROM BIOS INT 13h call which allows 10 bits for cylinder
specification, hence the 1024 cylinder limitation. Some manufacturers -
supposedly designing with adapter "translation mode" in mind - began to
sell drives with more than 1024 cylinders.
PROBLEM
Novell's cold boot loader uses INT 13H to read the disk information. That
means that it can only access cylinders 0 - 1023. Therefore, when
LOADER.DAT (shipped with NetWare 286 2.15c) reads sector 14 and picks up
the pointer to the Relocation Table (located at the beginning of the HOT
FIX area on the last 2% of the disk) it truncates the most significant
bit(s) greater than 10. The obvious result is that it goes to some sector
other than the one where the Relocation Table actually resides, and begins
to read the table into memory.
At this point, two things can happen: 1) It does not find a null flag
indicating the end of the table and it hangs, or 2) by some twist of fate,
it finds a null flag, where it expects one, and believes that it has
successfully loaded the Relocation Table. In this case all of the bad
block information will be erroneous. The loader will jump all over the
drive trying to load unrelated blocks as if they were parts of the
operating system. This may account for those cases where files scroll
across the file server screen during boot up.
LOADER ENHANCEMENT
Once engineering identified this cold boot loader problem, they rewrote
LOADER.DAT to recognize when the pointer information located in sector 14
was pointing to a Relocation Table beyond 1024 cylinders. The new loader
simply acknowledges that the pointer was outside its capacity with the
message "Warning! Bad Block Table Not Accessed." Having given the warning,
the loader then proceeds to load the operating system in the event that the
NET$OS.EXE has no re-directed blocks. If the operating system loads
correctly, the presumption that it was not re-directed proves true. If the
operating system does not successfully load, then the customer can presume
that the OS was re-directed and another work-around must be employed.
NETGEN ENHANCEMENT
INSTOVL.OBJ dated 12/07/89 resolves this problem by avoiding re-direction
during the NETGEN installation. With this enhancement, the bad blocks, if
encountered, are skipped.
WHAT ABOUT THE MESSAGE?
Unless you want to boot from floppy diskette, you cannot avoid the
"Warning! Bad Block Table Not Accessed" message. Remember, it only
indicates that the pointer to the Relocation Table has a bit set greater
than 10th bit.
Q. How does NETGEN INSTALL and the NetWare OS access the full capacity
of my drive if the cold boot loader can only access cylinders 0 - 1023?
A. The disk driver, which is linked with the OS, or the hard drive
controller may work in a "translation mode" to reach beyond the 1024
cylinder barrier. The cold boot loader does not have the same intelligence
as the driver or controller. Consequently, until the OS is loaded the
limitation exists.
Q. When my OS fails to load from the hard drive (in this case it has
worked in the past but now fails) what are my options?
A.
1. You can boot from floppy.
2. You can install the LOADER.DAT (6656 bytes 2/14/90). If this new
loader will not successfully boot NET$OS, boot from floppy and rename
NET$OS.EXE to some other name so that the physical disk location is
reserved. Then copy NET$OS from floppy diskette(s) to SYS:SYSTEM. This
step may copy to a location which does not have bad blocks. This procedure
can be repeated until it produces successful results or you run out of disk
space.
3. When all of the above prove unsuccessful, you will want to try the
INSTOVL.OBJ (158520 bytes 12/07/89). You will need to relink the file
server utilities with this new OBJ file and then re-install the operating
system. This should solve the problem.