[Qemu-devel] A disk read error occurred

[Qemu-devel] A disk read error occurred

[Alexander (Sasha) Sirotkin]

For some reason when I try to boot qemu with -hda /dev/sda (or -hda
/dev/hda), i.e. to use raw disk, it fails with the above error message
- "A disk read error occurred". This happens only on IBM/Lenovo
laptops (tried a few models), while it works just fine on any other
desktop or laptop I can get my hands on. Probably has something to do
with bios...

Any suggestions ?

Thanks

Re: [Qemu-devel] A disk read error occurred

[Samuel Thibault]

Alexander (Sasha) Sirotkin, le Mon 30 Jun 2008 23:23:18 +0300, a écrit :
> For some reason when I try to boot qemu with -hda /dev/sda (or -hda
> /dev/hda), i.e. to use raw disk, it fails with the above error message
> - "A disk read error occurred". This happens only on IBM/Lenovo
> laptops (tried a few models), while it works just fine on any other
> desktop or laptop I can get my hands on. Probably has something to do
> with bios...
> 
> Any suggestions ?

How big is the disk?

Samuel

Re: [Qemu-devel] A disk read error occurred

[Alexander (Sasha) Sirotkin]

On Tue, Jul 1, 2008 at 12:41 AM, Samuel Thibault
<samuel.thibault@eu.citrix.com> wrote:
> Alexander (Sasha) Sirotkin, le Mon 30 Jun 2008 23:23:18 +0300, a écrit :
>> For some reason when I try to boot qemu with -hda /dev/sda (or -hda
>> /dev/hda), i.e. to use raw disk, it fails with the above error message
>> - "A disk read error occurred". This happens only on IBM/Lenovo
>> laptops (tried a few models), while it works just fine on any other
>> desktop or laptop I can get my hands on. Probably has something to do
>> with bios...
>>
>> Any suggestions ?
>
> How big is the disk?

Not big, 40G.
My current guess is that the problem is not in qemu itself, but in the
bios. If there are no other suggestions, do you think it would be
possible to use IBM bios with qemu ?

BTW, I did not manage to find this error message ("A disk read error
occurred" in the sources - neither qemu, nor bochs bios.
>
> Samuel
>
>
>

Re: [Qemu-devel] A disk read error occurred

[Samuel Thibault]

Alexander (Sasha) Sirotkin, le Tue 01 Jul 2008 13:24:53 +0300, a écrit :
> On Tue, Jul 1, 2008 at 12:41 AM, Samuel Thibault
> <samuel.thibault@eu.citrix.com> wrote:
> > Alexander (Sasha) Sirotkin, le Mon 30 Jun 2008 23:23:18 +0300, a écrit :
> >> For some reason when I try to boot qemu with -hda /dev/sda (or -hda
> >> /dev/hda), i.e. to use raw disk, it fails with the above error message
> >> - "A disk read error occurred". This happens only on IBM/Lenovo
> >> laptops (tried a few models), while it works just fine on any other
> >> desktop or laptop I can get my hands on. Probably has something to do
> >> with bios...
> >>
> >> Any suggestions ?
> >
> > How big is the disk?
> 
> Not big, 40G.

Ok so that's not an LBA28 issue.

Samuel

Re: [Qemu-devel] A disk read error occurred

[Alexander (Sasha) Sirotkin]

On Tue, Jul 1, 2008 at 1:56 PM, Samuel Thibault
<samuel.thibault@eu.citrix.com> wrote:
> Alexander (Sasha) Sirotkin, le Tue 01 Jul 2008 13:24:53 +0300, a écrit :
>> On Tue, Jul 1, 2008 at 12:41 AM, Samuel Thibault
>> <samuel.thibault@eu.citrix.com> wrote:
>> > Alexander (Sasha) Sirotkin, le Mon 30 Jun 2008 23:23:18 +0300, a écrit :
>> >> For some reason when I try to boot qemu with -hda /dev/sda (or -hda
>> >> /dev/hda), i.e. to use raw disk, it fails with the above error message
>> >> - "A disk read error occurred". This happens only on IBM/Lenovo
>> >> laptops (tried a few models), while it works just fine on any other
>> >> desktop or laptop I can get my hands on. Probably has something to do
>> >> with bios...
>> >>
>> >> Any suggestions ?
>> >
>> > How big is the disk?
>>
>> Not big, 40G.
>
> Ok so that's not an LBA28 issue.
>
Actually it appears that it is 80G after all. What's an LBA28 issue ?
> Samuel
>
>
>

Re: [Qemu-devel] A disk read error occurred

[Samuel Thibault]

Alexander (Sasha) Sirotkin, le Wed 02 Jul 2008 00:13:30 +0300, a écrit :
> On Tue, Jul 1, 2008 at 1:56 PM, Samuel Thibault
> <samuel.thibault@eu.citrix.com> wrote:
> > Alexander (Sasha) Sirotkin, le Tue 01 Jul 2008 13:24:53 +0300, a écrit :
> >> On Tue, Jul 1, 2008 at 12:41 AM, Samuel Thibault
> >> <samuel.thibault@eu.citrix.com> wrote:
> >> > Alexander (Sasha) Sirotkin, le Mon 30 Jun 2008 23:23:18 +0300, a écrit :
> >> >> For some reason when I try to boot qemu with -hda /dev/sda (or -hda
> >> >> /dev/hda), i.e. to use raw disk, it fails with the above error message
> >> >> - "A disk read error occurred". This happens only on IBM/Lenovo
> >> >> laptops (tried a few models), while it works just fine on any other
> >> >> desktop or laptop I can get my hands on. Probably has something to do
> >> >> with bios...
> >> >>
> >> >> Any suggestions ?
> >> >
> >> > How big is the disk?
> >>
> >> Not big, 40G.
> >
> > Ok so that's not an LBA28 issue.
> >
> Actually it appears that it is 80G after all. What's an LBA28 issue ?

2^28 sectors = 128GB, beyond that bochs bioses before around beginning
of 2008 can't access data.

Samuel

Re: [Qemu-devel] A disk read error occurred

[Andreas Färber]

Hi,

Am 30.06.2008 um 22:23 schrieb Alexander (Sasha) Sirotkin:

> For some reason when I try to boot qemu with -hda /dev/sda (or -hda
> /dev/hda), i.e. to use raw disk, it fails with the above error message
> - "A disk read error occurred". This happens only on IBM/Lenovo
> laptops (tried a few models), while it works just fine on any other
> desktop or laptop I can get my hands on. Probably has something to do
> with bios...
>
> Any suggestions ?

I heard IBM/Lenovo use an HPA for some kind of system restore  
functionality. The Host Protected Area makes an IDE disk look smaller  
than it is to the system, maybe that can cause such errors?

Andreas

Re: [Qemu-devel] A disk read error occurred

[Alexander (Sasha) Sirotkin]

On Fri, Jul 4, 2008 at 10:50 PM, Andreas Färber <andreas.faerber@web.de> wrote:
> Hi,
>
> Am 30.06.2008 um 22:23 schrieb Alexander (Sasha) Sirotkin:
>
>> For some reason when I try to boot qemu with -hda /dev/sda (or -hda
>> /dev/hda), i.e. to use raw disk, it fails with the above error message
>> - "A disk read error occurred". This happens only on IBM/Lenovo
>> laptops (tried a few models), while it works just fine on any other
>> desktop or laptop I can get my hands on. Probably has something to do
>> with bios...
>>
>> Any suggestions ?
>
> I heard IBM/Lenovo use an HPA for some kind of system restore functionality.
> The Host Protected Area makes an IDE disk look smaller than it is to the
> system, maybe that can cause such errors?
>
I don't fully understand the nature of this problem, but I can say
that the problem does not occur on LG laptops, which also have an HPA,
so it's probably not the case.
> Andreas
>