Hi!
> > (I wonder whether this is a bug. The way I read the ATA-5 spec
> > it should be possible to do SET_MAX_ADDRESS to the address
> > gotten back from READ_NATIVE_MAX_ADDRESS.)
> > A side effect of SET_MAX_ADDRESS is that the current geometry
> > is reset to 16383/16/63.
> I gather that it is an LBA exclusive, but I will have to ask.
> Remember that these calls are primarily workarounds for MS....
> MS requires LBA..........
It would be absolutely magic if all the cylinder, head and sector geometry
stuff could be ultimately removed all together. I see problems in hdparm
reporting ridiculous disk geometry on my 20GB disk.
I think this is a legacy which unfortunately still lives on. As far as the
kernel goes, it could simply export only the size of disks in terms of the
number of sectors on the disk (and the sector size), ie LBA information
(breaking some user-land tools).
Would the only reason to have CHS information exported to user-land be for
tools such as [c]fdisk doing cylinder-alignment on partitions for
compatibility purposes? (even if the BIOS and/or drives do not support LBA
addressing, the kernel could just report LBA information)
Is this the current situation, or am I missing something?
- Dan
__________________________
Daniel J Blueman
Undergraduate - BSc Computing Science
UMIST university - Manchester
Direct line: 0161 933 3569
Mobile: 07775 583766
Email: daniel.j.blueman@stud.umist.ac.uk
SMS: daniel.j.blueman@sms.genie.co.uk
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