[dm-devel] kernel 2.6 biosraid via device mapper - partition support

[Wilfried Weissmann]

 > Sounds like you should look at the EVMS activate command.  EVMS can 
already
 > recognize and activate/reactivate: os/2, dos, bsd (compatible and
 > dedicated), solarisx86(embedded), unixware(embedded), 390 (cdl,ldl,cms),
 > mac, cluster and bbr partitions throught its device mapper interface.

... you mean by attaching the dos-plugin segment manager? at first i was 
not sure if it actually parses the partition table or just writes its so 
that other OSes can also access the disk. but according to the user 
guide it would work just fine for this application.
there is one thing that worries me. in capter "6.3. Adding a segment 
manager to an existing disk" there is the following sentence:

<quote>
... Metadata sectors are written to disk to save information needed by 
the segment manager; previous information found on the disk is lost. ...
</quote>

what is meant by metadata? evms private data or the dos partition table? 
where on the disk (segment?) is this information stored? for example i 
cannot use this if sector 9 is overwritten with metadata because of this 
would destroy the raid signature.

it would really safe me a lot of labour if i can make this work.

thanks,
wilfried