Re: Disk geometry from /sys

[Alan Cox <alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk>]

> Why do you want to know what cylinder size the hard disk pretents to
> have?  What use could it be?  Harddisks have varying numbers of sectors

It matters on a CHS addressed device - vaguely.

> drive.  All that matters on a modern drive is the total number of
> sectors since all access is done by requesting a specific sector number
> starting from the begining of the drive.  Where it is physically located
> is none of software's business, and it may not even be adjacent to the
> sector with a number right next to the requested one due to defect
> management and various optimizations.

And some other OS's make certain assumptions about layout that must agree
with that OS view of the disk. A good general rule is to believe the
partition table information if present and if not use SG_IO to issue an
IDENTIFY to any ATA or CFA drive to see how it has mapped the device.

Even better make use fo the existing tools whenever possible - disk
partitioning is more like magic than science

Alan