[parted-devel] SINIX/SNI RM Disk label

[Florian Lohoff]

Hi,
i am trying to get Siemens Nixdorf (SNI) RM series disk label
support into parted. The RM series have a prom very similar
to the SGI Prom and use the same disk label as those (dvh). Additionally
the PROM needs another disk label at the end of the disk whose format
i have created a tool 1) to read the SGI disk label and write it onto the disk
as a SNI Disk label. The problem now is that the PROM reads the disks 
geometry via the SCSI Mode Pages and the read-capacity call and uses
the reported geometry and writes the label to the beginning of the last
track. I have now had a look at the parted geometry
informations - either dev->bios_geom or dev->hw_geom. Of those two
neither has the real geometry.

Is there a way in parted to access the real geometry and not some pc
stylish translated ones?

Parted:
	hw geom:
		Geom: cyl 8637 heads 64 sectors 32
	bios geom:
		Geom: cyl 1101 heads 255 sectors 63

Real geometry from the scsi mode pages from snitrail 1)
	Cyl: 4926 Heads: 27 Sectors: 133 


rm200c40:~/snitrail# sginfo -g /dev/sdb
Rigid Disk Geometry mode page (0x4)
-----------------------------------
Number of cylinders                4926
Number of heads                    27
Starting cyl. write precomp        0
Starting cyl. reduced current      0
Device step rate                   0
Landing Zone Cylinder              0
RPL                                0
Rotational Offset                  0
Rotational Rate                    7200

rm200c40:~/snitrail# sginfo -f /dev/sdb
Format Device mode page (0x3)
-----------------------------
Tracks per Zone                    27
Alternate sectors per zone         20
Alternate tracks per zone          0
Alternate tracks per lu            27
Sectors per track                  133
Data bytes per physical sector     512
Interleave                         1
Track skew factor                  45
Cylinder skew factor               36
Supports Soft Sectoring            0
Supports Hard Sectoring            1
Removable Medium                   0
Surface                            0

Flo
1) It will eat your disk: git clone git://hydra.gt.owl.de/snitrail.git
-- 
Florian Lohoff                  flo at rfc822.org             +49-171-2280134
	Those who would give up a little freedom to get a little 
          security shall soon have neither - Benjamin Franklin
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