Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!bnrgate!bcars223!fortinp
From: fortinp@bcars223.bnr.ca (Pierre Fortin)
Newsgroups: comp.os.minix
Subject: MINIX ST 1.1 mkfs bug
Keywords: ST 1.1 mkfs
Message-ID: <1073@bnrgate.bnr.ca>
Date: 14 Mar 90 07:54:58 GMT
Sender: news@bnrgate.bnr.ca
Lines: 41

Does anyone have a quick fix for the following problem?

After familiarizing myself with MINIX-ST 1.1 on a 10Meg HD, I found that
I needed more space; so I set up a 35Meg partition on /dev/hd4.

My first attempt at running mkfs:

    mkfs /dev/hd4 69999

That was 70000 sectors - 1.  I failed to verify the result of this command,
which actually produced 4463 blocks (69999-65536=4463).  I quickly ran out
of space, which is how I came back to verify the disk.
 
OK, I goofed, but no error messages...
 
Trying to correct the problem, I issued the command:

    mkfs /dev/hd4 34999          (35000 blocks - 1)
 
which produced the following messages:

    Error: Can't open prototype file
    Line 1 being processed when error detected.

I then tried 32766 since there already appeared to be a problem with 64K.
This one worked.  I then tried a few other values and concluded that:

    values <= 32767 work OK
    values >  32767, but <= 65536 produce the error messages
    values >  65536 do not generate errors (as long as there are sufficient
                    blocks after subtracting 65536), and produce a MUCH
                    smaller than expected disk.
 
While I could live with 32Megs, I would really like to fix this situation
PRIOR to upgrading MINIX-ST 1.1, so that I won't have to redo this partition
at a later date to regain the lost 3Megs.

Can anyone help me?

Pierre Fortin
fortinp@bnr.ca