Re: Sending ATA commands?

[Mouse <mouse%Rodents-Montreal.ORG@localhost>]

>>>> [...], I wonder if you could attach the HPA area as an additional
>>>> partition [...]
>>> I don't see any reason why not.  I'm not sure whether you're
>>> proposing that the HPA not be accessible any other way or whether
>>> this is just a default.
>> or make it a ld device attached to the wd device.
> That is a solution that gets around the entire problem of magic
> partitions and the like.

Yes.  Like a lot of good ideas, it's really obvious once it's pointed
out.  I suspect it's more or less where I would have ended up if I'd
followed through on the vague thoughts I had about making it a separate
thing of its own.  (I probably would have used a new pseudo-disk device
rather than piggybacking on ld(4), if only because I care more about
pre-ld(4) NetBSD than you do.  Though admittedly naming might be a
slight issue; there's a sense in which I'd rather see "hpa0 at wd0"
instead of "ld0 at wd0\nld0: Host Protected Area"...and this thing,
whether an ld instance or something else, is not a normal disk drive;
for example, it usually will not be partitioned further.)

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