Re: [RFC] Restoring HDIO_GETGEO semantics (was: Re: workaround for BIOS / CHS stuff)

Andries Brouwer
2004-07-02T17:04:19Z

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