From owner-freebsd-stable Thu Feb 4 16:35:42 1999 Return-Path: Received: (from majordom@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) id QAA21544 for freebsd-stable-outgoing; Thu, 4 Feb 1999 16:35:42 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG) Received: from dingo.cdrom.com (castles146.castles.com [208.214.165.146]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.8/8.8.8) with ESMTP id QAA21529 for ; Thu, 4 Feb 1999 16:35:38 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from mike@dingo.cdrom.com) Received: from dingo.cdrom.com (LOCALHOST [127.0.0.1]) by dingo.cdrom.com (8.9.1/8.8.8) with ESMTP id QAA17707; Thu, 4 Feb 1999 16:31:24 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from mike@dingo.cdrom.com) Message-Id: <199902050031.QAA17707@dingo.cdrom.com> X-Mailer: exmh version 2.0.2 2/24/98 To: Joao Carlos Mendes Luis cc: freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Fully Dedicated HD may clobber some BIOS' In-reply-to: Your message of "Thu, 04 Feb 1999 20:22:49 -0200." <199902042222.UAA22119@roma.coe.ufrj.br> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Date: Thu, 04 Feb 1999 16:31:23 -0800 From: Mike Smith Sender: owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG > #define quoting(Mike Smith) > // > I may have spoken slightly incorrectly. Perhaps to be more accurate, > // > it's the bios not allowing the drive to recognize due to the lack or valid > // > fdisk partitions .... My apologies for wasting everyone else's time. I > // > have personally experienced this with my HP vectra's at work. > // > // Again, it's not the "lack or valid fdisk partitions", it's the bogus > // information inserted by "dangerously dedicated". > // > // The solution is simple; DO NOT use "dangerously dedicated" mode. At > // all. Ever. > > Why not wipe it out, then ? Is there any advantage ? Lots of people have asked this; there are a couple of reasons. - The last time I proposed this, I received responses from a number of people indicating that the option was popular. It sounds as though at least some of its supporters like it for the "no microsoft" overtones, others just like the percieved convenience. - It was introduced to solve a problem (difficulty in extracting BIOS geometry information). When the disk layout doesn't confuse the BIOS, it does actually do this. We have a better dedicated mode ('truly dedicated', or 'disklabel auto' mode), but it doesn't fit well with libdisk. Working on libdisk is difficult. So the first reason is somewhat political. I'm not sure whether the tradeoff would be good or not. The second is merely a matter of solving the technical issues, which just takes (free) time. -- \\ Sometimes you're ahead, \\ Mike Smith \\ sometimes you're behind. \\ mike@smith.net.au \\ The race is long, and in the \\ msmith@freebsd.org \\ end it's only with yourself. \\ msmith@cdrom.com To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-stable" in the body of the message