From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S264750AbUGBRET (ORCPT ); Fri, 2 Jul 2004 13:04:19 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S264775AbUGBRET (ORCPT ); Fri, 2 Jul 2004 13:04:19 -0400 Received: from hera.cwi.nl ([192.16.191.8]:64670 "EHLO hera.cwi.nl") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S264750AbUGBRER (ORCPT ); Fri, 2 Jul 2004 13:04:17 -0400 Date: Fri, 2 Jul 2004 19:04:10 +0200 From: Andries Brouwer To: Szakacsits Szabolcs Cc: "Patrick J. LoPresti" , bug-parted@gnu.org, "K.G." , Steffen Winterfeldt , Thomas Fehr , Andries Brouwer , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: [RFC] Restoring HDIO_GETGEO semantics (was: Re: workaround for BIOS / CHS stuff) Message-ID: <20040702170410.GC25914@apps.cwi.nl> References: Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: User-Agent: Mutt/1.4i Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Fri, Jul 02, 2004 at 06:17:53PM +0200, Szakacsits Szabolcs wrote: > Does anybody find the new HDIO_GETGEO semantic useful? Did it help > _anything_? Yes. I do. There was a steady stream of people reporting on geometry problems. All these problems were caused by kernel guessing stuff. If the kernel no longer volunteers a guess, then we no longer have the situation that the guess can be wrong. We lived in a world where things got more and more complicated with programs guessing what values other programs might want to satisfy a third program. The new world is getting much simpler. Only the programs that need a value have to invent it. Many of these can in fact do without. LILO survives well without geometry information. The only case I see where absolutely something is needed is the case of partitioning an empty disk. Telling the user at that point: "if you have no idea I'll use H=255 S=63, that is very often correct, but note that if you also want to use Windows on this disk it might be better to let Windows partition first; also, enabling CONFIG_EDD might allow me to guess what the BIOS uses" may be enough. Andries