I hit the ceiling :(

[Cristian Ionescu-Idbohrn]

Hello list,

Consider this a wishbug report.

I tried a server installation today (using fai). 1 box, 2
scsi-controllers, 10 scsi disks (5 disks per controller).

1. So I need /dev/sd[a-j], but only the first 8 block devices are
   available /dev/sd[a-h]. Now, I suppose make-fai-nfsroot should
   probably help me with that (somewhere around subroutines
   'create_base' or 'create_nfsroot'). Is there some sort of hook for
   that? Or maybe it's as easy as running './MAKEDEV sd[i-p]' in /dev
   on the fai server and regenerating the nfsroot?

   Nevertheless, those devices must created in /tmp/target/dev too.
   True?

2. /sbin/setup_harddisks, 'sub GetAllDisks' uses 'sfdisk -g -q' to
   pick up the disk names and their geometry. This detects only the 5
   disks on the first scsi controller:

   ,----
   | # sfdisk -g -q
   | /dev/sda: 2231 cylinders, 255 heads, 63 sectors/track
   | /dev/sdb: 2231 cylinders, 255 heads, 63 sectors/track
   | /dev/sdc: 2231 cylinders, 255 heads, 63 sectors/track
   | /dev/sdd: 2231 cylinders, 255 heads, 63 sectors/track
   | /dev/sde: 2231 cylinders, 255 heads, 63 sectors/track
   `----

   Probably some limitation on sfdisk (or my knowledge).
   Nevertheless,

   ,----
   | # cat /proc/partitions
   | major minor  #blocks  name
   |
   |    8     0   17921835 sda
   |    8    16   17921835 sdb
   |    8    32   17921835 sdc
   |    8    48   17921835 sdd
   |    8    64   17921835 sde
   |    8    80   17921835 sdf
   |    8    96   17921835 sdg
   |    8   112   17921835 sdh
   |    8   128   17921835 sdi
   |    8   144   17921835 sdj
   `----

   shows the whole thing. And if all the scsi block devices are present
   under /dev, both sfdisk and fdisk will output useful info:

   ,----
   | # sfdisk -l /dev/sdj
   |
   | Disk /dev/sdj: 2231 cylinders, 255 heads, 63 sectors/track
   |
   | sfdisk: ERROR: sector 0 does not have an msdos signature
   |  /dev/sdj: unrecognized partition
   | No partitions found
   |
   | # echo $?
   | 0
   |
   | # fdisk -l /dev/sdj
   |
   | Disk /dev/sdj: 255 heads, 63 sectors, 2231 cylinders
   | Units = cylinders of 16065 * 512 bytes
   |
   | Disk /dev/sdj doesn't contain a valid partition table
   |
   | # echo $?
   | 0
   `----

What would be the best approach to sort out these problems?


Cheers,
Cristian