From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Etienne Lorrain Subject: RE : Re: [RFC] ATA host-protected area (HPA) device mapper? Date: Fri, 9 Jun 2006 22:10:54 +0200 (CEST) Message-ID: <20060609201054.13944.qmail@web26904.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> References: <1149873734.22124.40.camel@localhost.localdomain> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=iso-8859-1 Content-Transfer-Encoding: QUOTED-PRINTABLE Return-path: Received: from web26904.mail.ukl.yahoo.com ([217.146.176.93]:15989 "HELO web26904.mail.ukl.yahoo.com") by vger.kernel.org with SMTP id S1030478AbWFIUKz (ORCPT ); Fri, 9 Jun 2006 16:10:55 -0400 In-Reply-To: <1149873734.22124.40.camel@localhost.localdomain> Sender: linux-ide-owner@vger.kernel.org List-Id: linux-ide@vger.kernel.org To: Alan Cox Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, linux-ide@vger.kernel.org, jeff@garzik.org --- Alan Cox wrote: > > Gujin is assuming that your hard disk are accessible by the docume= nted ATA ide > > system, and some (or all?) IDE SATA interface have (volumtary?) br= oken > > implementation: they are not IDE register compatible. >=20 > SFF was never a formal standard, and ST-506 was a random vendor > interface copying exercise that caught on. ACPI permits the firmware = to > provide ATA taskfiles but afaik not the boot loader unfortunately. I can understand that 10+ years old interface can be updated, or even= redesigned, but when you buy the hardware you should be aware that it is not at al= l compatible (maybe some chipset only), so you can decide what to buy. If the spec = of your hardware say that it is 100% compatible and the chipset do not impleme= nt its spec, you have a problem. It is mainly to increase the bandwidth of the pipe linking the hard d= isk to the memory, but anyway the hard disk cannot reach this bandwidth for ATA a= nyway (unless reading it own memory cache). And there is still the current hardware ATA + ATA disk to manage. > A lot of newer SATA hardware uses a common standard defined interface > called AHCI, and it appears most vendors are migrating in the directi= on > of using AHCI. If so then we are in the same kind of flux as the VLB > world before SFF and PCI settled the standard interfaces down for a > while. > Don't see how your HPA code protects versus password locking however.= If > I hack the OS I write a new boot block which locks the disk then rebo= ot > into it. By the time you go for your floppy its too late. If someone has write access to the MBR and the power supply, well he c= an destroy the system in so many ways. Note that if the hard disk has an IDE pass= word that you know and that the disk is frozzen, your new boot block has to= enter the known-by-you password first... Gujin cannot set an IDE password (use other utilities for that), but w= ill ask you the password of locked hard disks (after keyboard mapping/language= recognition) before probing them for partiton. > If thats not the case I'm most interested how you set it up to avoid > this. >=20 > Alan >=20 Etienne. __________________________________________________ Do You Yahoo!? En finir avec le spam? Yahoo! Mail vous offre la meilleure protection p= ossible contre les messages non sollicit=E9s=20 http://mail.yahoo.fr Yahoo! Mail=20