Re: IDE HPA

Bill Davidsen
2005-09-07T14:48:23Z

Jeff Garzik wrote:

> It seems to me that one should write an ATA-specific Device Mapper
> driver, which layers on top of an ATA disk. The driver obtains the
> starting location of HPA, then exports two block devices: one for the
> primary data area, and one for the HPA.

I've stayed out of this, but that sounds like a perfect solution to move
the choice back to the user. However, installers still need to be aware
of it at initial Linux install, and give the user some rational options:
- ignore it
- leave alone but visible
- blow it away and use the whole drive

It feels as if that's where the future disposition needs to be made. I
do like treating the HPA as a separate drive though.
>
> For situations where we want the start Linux philosophy -- Linux exports
> 100% of the hardware capability -- no DM layer needs to be used. For
> situations where its better to treat the HPA as a separate and distinct
> area, the DM driver would come in handy.
>
> This follows the same philosophy as fakeraid (BIOS RAID): we simply
> export the entire disk, and Device Mapper (google for 'dmraid') handles
> the vendor-proprietary RAID metadata.

--
-bill davidsen (davidsen@tmr.com)
"The secret to procrastination is to put things off until the
last possible moment - but no longer" -me