Re: qtparted and kernel disagree about partitions
On Thursday 04 March 2010, Stephen Powell wrote:
> On Thu, 4 Mar 2010 15:58:02 -0500 (EST), David Goodenough wrote:
> > I found Host Protected Area on Google, and it said I could turn it off
> > using hdparm, but when I try it says:-
> >
> > hdparm -N /dev/hda
> >
> > /dev/hda:
> > The running kernel lacks CONFIG_IDE_TASK_IOCTL support for this
device.
> > READ_NATIVE_MAX_ADDRESS_EXT failed: Invalid argument
> >
> > Do we need another option turned on in the kernel?
>
> Make sure you really know what you're doing if you disable detection
> of a system-protected area. If it really is a system-protected area,
> it's protected for a reason, and you ought not to let Linux use it.
> I'm thinking way back to the IBM PS/2 model 9577 that I used to have.
> This machine has a microchannel bus. It had a "system partition"
> on the (SCSI) hard disk that contained what used to be on the
"reference
> diskette" and "advanced diagnostic diskette" on older PS/2 models. It
> contained things such as the advanced BIOS routines (BIOS routines
designed
> to be called from protected mode -- intended for use by OS/2),
> the BIOS setup program, microchannel configuration utilities,
> diagnostic and testing routines, etc.
>
> If you wipe that out, the
> machine cannot boot *anything* EXCEPT a valid reference
> diskette -- a diskette containing what the system partition should
> contain. I had to backup the system partition to diskettes
> (using IBM's internal backup utility) prior to upgrading to a bigger
> hard disk, then boot the reference diskette just created and
> re-create the system partition on the new hard disk after installing it.
> If I didn't follow that special procedure, my machine was a brick.
>
> Things are done differently now, of course, but the point is "don't
> mess with a system protected area unless you really know what you are
> doing". Maybe this is something else, but be sure first.
>
yes I remember the PS/2 which loaded its microcode from there. But
this disk has been run with kernel 2.6.26 which seemed to ignore the
HPA, so whatever was there has already been overwritten so I have
no problem turning it off. And this is not the disk that came with this
machine, its a replacement.
David
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