Path: utzoo!attcan!sobmips!roe
From: roe@sobmips.UUCP (r.peterson)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ncr
Subject: Re: Tower 32/600 Harddisk formatting
Message-ID: <1990Feb2.170156.14018@sobmips.UUCP>
Date: 2 Feb 90 17:01:56 GMT
References: <1926@sauron.Columbia.NCR.COM>
Organization: Sobeco Group - Montreal, Canada
Lines: 56

From article <1926@sauron.Columbia.NCR.COM>, by wescott@Columbia.NCR.COM (Mike Wescott):
> In article <3199@aimt.UU.NET> tinle@aimt.UU.NET (Tin Le) writes:
>> I need help on formatting a system disk (HD) for a 32/600.
> [...]
>> format: can't determine number of tracks per cylinder
> 
> A tough one.  The software on the install tape needs to know
> about that particular type of hard disk, but since that part
> of the formatter never becomes disk resident (it's trying to
> format what might be the only disk on the system) you can't
> patch anything.
> 
> Get somebody else to format it for you, or upgrade to a newer
> release that supports that particular disk.  Or use a supportted
> disk as the root and install to that, use the new disk as a second
> disk.
> 

(All of the following is correct for versions of NCR unix up to
1.03.02 - I haven't looked at this for newer releases.)

Even using the new disk as a second one may not help if the format
program can't figure out the disk.  I'm not really sure why NCR decided
to do this, but:

/etc/format gets its' disk type information from /usr/lib/diin,
which is a file encrypted by the absolute simplest method
known to programmers.  If you wish to add an unknown disk
to this file, you will need to decrypt the file (which
produces something amazingly like a termcap file, but for
hard disks), modify it, and recrypt it.

This program will both decrypt and encrypt:

#include <stdio.h>

main()
{
	register int c;

	while((c=getchar()) != EOF) putchar(c ^ 0xff);
}

compile it, call it something (bdcrypt, for example), then run:
	bdcrypt < /usr/lib/diin > /usr/lib/diin.asc

edit diin.asc, and to recrypt it back into place:
	bdcrypt < /usr/lib/diin.asc > /usr/lib/diin

Hope this helps.

	file (to
-- 
One makes strong assumptions delving	       Roe Peterson
into the beginning of the universe...	       {uunet,mcgill-vision}!sobeco!roe
	- Stephen Hawking, Cambridge