[dm-devel] Re: [PATCHSET] block,scsi,libata: implement alt_size

[Dan Williams <dan j williams gmail com>]

On Thu, Apr 30, 2009 at 1:00 PM, Jeff Garzik <jeff garzik org> wrote:
> Tejun Heo wrote:
>>
>> Hello,
>>
>> Jeff Garzik wrote:
>>>
>>> <shrug>  I suppose...
>>>
>>> It just seems like a nasty hack, but unfortunately I don't see
>>> anyone stepping up to do it properly -- with a DM device
>>> automatically layered on top that splits the device into separate
>>> regions: one block device for the 'regular' area, and one for the
>>> HPA.
>>
>> Isn't that more hacky?  I don't know.  All that dm needs to know is
>> the location of the metadata which is located w.r.t. the end of the
>> device which might be at a different location if BIOS tried to pull
>> silly stunts.  So, exporting the size BIOS might have used seems like
>> a straight forward solution to me.
>
> "<shrug> I suppose" is basically a reluctant ack, in the absence of other
> solutions :)
>

Couldn't the "fix" also just be a note to users to disable ignore_hpa
if they notice that there raid arrays are not assembling correctly?

--
Dan