Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1750921AbVIBTP6 (ORCPT ); Fri, 2 Sep 2005 15:15:58 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1750925AbVIBTP6 (ORCPT ); Fri, 2 Sep 2005 15:15:58 -0400 Received: from mx1.redhat.com ([66.187.233.31]:8426 "EHLO mx1.redhat.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1750921AbVIBTP5 (ORCPT ); Fri, 2 Sep 2005 15:15:57 -0400 Subject: Re: IDE HPA From: Peter Jones Reply-To: pjones@redhat.com To: Alan Cox Cc: "ATARAID (eg, Promise Fasttrak, Highpoint 370) related discussions" , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org In-Reply-To: <1125687557.30867.26.camel@localhost.localdomain> References: <87941b4c05082913101e15ddda@mail.gmail.com> <87941b4c05083008523cddbb2a@mail.gmail.com> <1125419927.8276.32.camel@localhost.localdomain> <87941b4c050830095111bf484e@mail.gmail.com> <62b0912f0509020027212e6c42@mail.gmail.com> <1125666332.30867.10.camel@localhost.localdomain> <62b0912f05090206331d04afd3@mail.gmail.com> <62b0912f05090209242ad72321@mail.gmail.com> <1125680712.30867.20.camel@localhost.localdomain> <62b0912f05090210441d3fa248@mail.gmail.com> <1125684567.31292.2.camel@localhost.localdomain> <1125687557.30867.26.camel@localhost.localdomain> Content-Type: text/plain Organization: Red Hat, Inc. Date: Fri, 02 Sep 2005 15:14:43 -0400 Message-Id: <1125688483.31292.20.camel@localhost.localdomain> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Evolution 2.3.8 (2.3.8-3) Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 2016 Lines: 49 On Fri, 2005-09-02 at 19:59 +0100, Alan Cox wrote: > On Gwe, 2005-09-02 at 14:09 -0400, Peter Jones wrote: > > (if there's already a straightforward way, feel free to clue me in -- > > but the default should almost certainly be to assume the HPA is set up > > correctly, shouldn't it?) > > The normal use of HPA is to clip drives to get them past BIOS boot > checks. Ugh. So some BIOSes use it for legitimate reasons (like thinkpads), and some use it to work around BIOS bugs. Great. > The thinkpads come with a pre-installed partition table which > will protect the HPA unless the user goes to town removing it. Mine didn't, but it does have an HPA. Thankfully we weren't disabling it yet when I installed my laptop -- I know others who weren't so lucky. So this partitioning scheme hasn't always been the case... And it seems broken anyway. The point of the HPA is to make the OS see a smaller/different disk layout, unless it's actually trying to update things that are "protected", right? If so, the partition table pointing outside of the the disk when the HPA configuration hasn't been changed from the bootup default totally broken :/ It really sounds better (to my naive mind, at least) to whitelist the known-broken BIOSes. > The ideal case would be that the partition table is considered at boot > to see if the HPA matches the partitiont table or not. You'd also then > need dynamic HPA enable/disable for installers and other tools to go > with that. Well, installers probably should be aware, yes -- that's why I mentioned userland interfaces to enabling/disabling. But to me it still seems like we want to disable the HPA during installation and bootup, but only if your BIOS is doing things wrong. > Send patches. Point taken. -- Peter - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/