Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1751730AbWBQUY0 (ORCPT ); Fri, 17 Feb 2006 15:24:26 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1751720AbWBQUYZ (ORCPT ); Fri, 17 Feb 2006 15:24:25 -0500 Received: from wproxy.gmail.com ([64.233.184.195]:7038 "EHLO wproxy.gmail.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751715AbWBQUYY convert rfc822-to-8bit (ORCPT ); Fri, 17 Feb 2006 15:24:24 -0500 DomainKey-Signature: a=rsa-sha1; q=dns; c=nofws; s=beta; d=gmail.com; h=received:message-id:date:from:reply-to:sender:to:subject:cc:in-reply-to:mime-version:content-type:content-transfer-encoding:content-disposition:references; b=YagHZiQ0/lcjbffwRVuIk+eagBUm9QHMKHP26IdtqDzw8tQBXGl7Vvg0M9D+GZvO92OK2svvpr589PyXCYNKjFrPHfig0/AsVkuE5Mwao6i0kpNI/kcn/86GbKCNx/Jw3l2bdsMw0JtDpb2Q1g9IVXThRnTgAS7yERwTeg6AHps= Message-ID: <7c3341450602171224y5eba2095o@mail.gmail.com> Date: Fri, 17 Feb 2006 20:24:23 +0000 From: Nick Warne Reply-To: Nick Warne To: "linux-os (Dick Johnson)" Subject: Re: C/H/S from user space Cc: "Jeff V. Merkey" , Linux kernel In-Reply-To: MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7BIT Content-Disposition: inline References: <43F617FA.2030609@wolfmountaingroup.com> Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1998 Lines: 44 > So, since Linux doesn't destroy that information remaining in > the BIOS tables, I show how to make it available to a 'root' user. > Observation over several machines will show that the BIOS always > uses the same stuff for large media and, in fact, it has no choice. > Basically, this means that the first part of the boot-code, the > stuff that needs to be translated to fit into the int 0x13 registers, > needs to be below 1024 cylinders, 63 sectors-track, and 256 heads. > Trivial... even LILO was able to do that! Once the machine boots > past the requirement to use the BIOS services, it's a CHS=NOP. If I am off the mark here, forgive me. Since I moved exclusively to GNU/Linux 2 years ago, I notice when I update kernel I get this: nick@linuxamd:nick$ sudo /sbin/lilo -v LILO version 22.5.9, Copyright (C) 1992-1998 Werner Almesberger Development beyond version 21 Copyright (C) 1999-2004 John Coffman Released 08-Apr-2004 and compiled at 00:18:50 on May 21 2004. Warning: LBA32 addressing assumed Reading boot sector from /dev/hda2 Warning: Kernel & BIOS return differing head/sector geometries for device 0x80 Kernel: 65535 cylinders, 16 heads, 63 sectors BIOS: 1024 cylinders, 255 heads, 63 sectors Warning: Kernel & BIOS return differing head/sector geometries for device 0x81 Kernel: 29777 cylinders, 16 heads, 63 sectors BIOS: 1024 cylinders, 255 heads, 63 sectors Now, from day one I never used the -v option with lilo, but as I get more experienced (!) I do now and see the above... I have never investigated due to worrying if I start messing with it I will trash my disks - as I see all anyway on this disks (and no errors), all works great/fast etc. Is this what is going on here (re this thread?). Nick - 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/