Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1754032AbYG3Sas (ORCPT ); Wed, 30 Jul 2008 14:30:48 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1752060AbYG3Saf (ORCPT ); Wed, 30 Jul 2008 14:30:35 -0400 Received: from mx1.redhat.com ([66.187.233.31]:48612 "EHLO mx1.redhat.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751537AbYG3Sae (ORCPT ); Wed, 30 Jul 2008 14:30:34 -0400 Message-ID: <4890B2BC.10808@redhat.com> Date: Wed, 30 Jul 2008 14:28:12 -0400 From: Ric Wheeler Reply-To: rwheeler@redhat.com Organization: Red Hat User-Agent: Thunderbird 2.0.0.14 (X11/20080501) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Theodore Tso , Matt Domsch , Jim Meyering , "Martin K. Petersen" , James Bottomley , Matthew Wilcox , Ric Wheeler , linux-scsi@vger.kernel.org, linux-ide@vger.kernel.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, Jeff Garzik Subject: Re: tools support for non-512 byte sector sizes References: <488F524F.6020905@redhat.com> <20080729182611.GB24924@parisc-linux.org> <1217356645.6103.48.camel@localhost.localdomain> <20080730135147.GA4513@auslistsprd01.us.dell.com> <87zlnzb8ce.fsf@rho.meyering.net> <20080730172922.GA20191@auslistsprd01.us.dell.com> <20080730181351.GA5347@mit.edu> In-Reply-To: <20080730181351.GA5347@mit.edu> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1884 Lines: 45 Theodore Tso wrote: > On Wed, Jul 30, 2008 at 12:29:22PM -0500, Matt Domsch wrote: > >> 2) those that report a 512-byte sector size, but are really a >> 4096-byte size, and the drive does the conversions and >> read/modify/write. T10 and T13 are looking to add commands to >> expose this different underlying physical sector size so the OS >> could be aware of it. This is primarily being driven to mitigate >> any problems that may happen with "legacy" OSs that are not aware >> of the difference. >> > > As usual, the biggest problem will be "legacy" userspace. For > example, most partition tools are still generating legacy partition > tables that look like this: > > Disk /dev/sda: 255 heads, 63 sectors, 38913 cylinders > > Nr AF Hd Sec Cyl Hd Sec Cyl Start Size ID > 1 80 1 1 0 254 63 121 63 1959867 83 > 2 00 0 1 122 254 63 619 1959930 8000370 82 > 3 00 0 1 620 254 63 1023 9960300 615177045 05 > 4 00 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 00 > 5 00 1 1 620 254 63 1023 63 615176982 8e > > Note the starting sector# for the first partition..... > > - Ted > If I remember correctly, the MS Vista new alignment for data partitions is on a 0 offset, 1MB aligned boundary. The support for 4096 byte sectors is only for data partitions (not boot). Array vendors, who consume a fair amount of drives, are most likely more friendly to native 4k drives. The big fear from disk vendors is getting a wave of returns from Best Buy, etc when people go and plug in a new, native 4k drive into an old box.... ric -- 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/