Subject: Re: Disklabel(5)/(8) ??
To: Hauke Fath <saw@sun0.urz.uni-heidelberg.de>
From: Bill Studenmund <wrstuden@loki.stanford.edu>
List: port-mac68k
Date: 10/08/1996 13:17:48
> > I have a zip, and the problem with it is that it doesn't
> > support the command typically used to get the size and layout of
> > the disk (mode sense, I believe). Normally disklabel just asks an
> > SCSI drive how many tracks, sectors, heads, etc it has. Zips don't
> > answer nice. :-( 
> 
> Actually, the kernel handles it like this: It asks the drive for
> geometry data to fill in a 'draft' in-core disklabel. Either the disk
> sends faked geometry data (remember, they're all zone recorded
> nowadays), or the kernel starts making a fuzz about it and finally fakes
> the geometry data itself, based on the number of total sectors. 

As a side issue, "disklabel /dev/sd2c" gives strange answers on my
zip. When the zip is probed, it's reported as having 96 cylinders
(each with 2048 blocks = 1 MB). But the printed disklabel only
has 64. Partition c is 64 meg, and partition d (MacOS) is the full
96 MB.

> No big deal, huh!? And again: You get no replacement, but another option
> (if Scott gets around to look at my diffs and commits them :).

Ok. :-)

Take care,

Bill