Re: 2.4.x kernels, big ide disks and old bios

From: Andries.Brouwer@cwi.nl
Date: Sat Dec 29 2001 - 21:47:30 EST


> # cat /proc/ide/hdc/settings
> name value min max mode
> ---- ----- --- --- ----
> bios_cyl 119150 0 65535 rw
> bios_head 16 0 255 rw
> bios_sect 63 0 63 rw

> What's the meaning of the 65535 max limit in bios_cyl?

It is meaningless.

(Maybe there was some meaning long ago, for example because
HDIO_GETGEO only uses a 16-bit field for #cyls.
These days bios_cyl is not used anywhere. Not in the kernel,
not in user space. It is just some random number, computed
by taking disk-size / (heads*secs).)
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