Re: doc/USER bug

[Andrew Clausen]

On Fri, Sep 14, 2001 at 10:10:09AM +0200, David Balazic wrote:
> From the doc/USER file :
> 
> ---start quote----
> 3.1.1   Using Parted with CHS mode
> ----------------------------------
> Linux usually detects the BIOS geometry automatically.  However, sometimes
> it gets it wrong.  In this case, you should tell it yourself, by passing
> a parameter to Linux.  For example, if Linux thinks your hard drive /dev/hda
> has geometry 256/64/63, but the BIOS setup program says the geometry is
> 512/32/63, then you would pass this parameter to Linux:
> 
>         hda=512,32,63
> 
> Parameters are passed in different ways, depending what boot-loader you're
> using.  You are probably using LILO.  In this case, you add this line to
> /etc/lilo.conf:  (You then need to run /sbin/lilo, for the change to take
> effect)
> 
>         append="hda=512,32,63"
> ---end quote----
> 
> You forgot to mention that a reboot is also needed !

Aha, good point... this might not be obvious to some people...

> ( is there a way to change the geometry on a runing system ? )

There is no interface for it.

Since everyone has probably got a new lilo or grub, that warning is
now only relevant to DOS partition tables running Windows, without
the LBA flag set on FAT partitions.  I don't know about NTFS... NT4
is 100% broken in this respect, but I haven't looked at the newer
service packs, or win2000.

But, I can certainly reduce the warning to:

        if (label == msdos
            && (has_non_lba_fat_partition || has_ntfs_partition)) {
            printf ("long rant")
        }

(FWICT, there is no LBA ntfs partition type)  I did this (will upload
tommorrow...been feeling a bit unwell... sleep... :/)

[thinking out aloud... maybe useful for prior art, if we ever need it]

I don't like all these side effects in print_using_dev()... and it's a bit
silly opening and closing the PedDisk all the time.  The Right Thing is
some kind of "open" stack.  I guess I should hold off on that until we
can nest anyway.  (if evms keeps cleaning up, then there's no point
reinventing it, so I'm happy to wait and see...)

So, The Right Thing TM is you have a stack.  The top of the stack is
what you are operating on, which might be a device, a partition table,
a partition, etc.  (This works nicely for nested partition tables, too)
You should warn when you push onto the stack.

Anyway, it still needs to be documented...

Thanks,
Andrew