Re: mounting unpartitioned drives

Grant R. Guenther (grant@torque.net)
Wed, 18 Feb 1998 07:32:03 -0500 (EST)


> # mount -t vfat /dev/hdc /mnt/mo
> hdc:hdc: read_intr: status=0x59 { DriveReady SeekComplete DataRequest Error }
> hdc: read_intr: error=0x20 { }
> hdc1 hdc2 hdc3 hdc4
> hdc: hdc1 hdc2 hdc3 hdc4

It looks like your drive is using ATA-2 media change notification and your
kernel doesn't include support for it. I believe that was fixed in 2.0.32.

FYI: error 0x20 is "Media changed" in ATA-2, but the entire mechanism has
changed in ATA-4 (the current IDE spec).

> By errors I mean those kernel messages "hdc: read_intr: status=0x59 ...".
> But also attempts to determine the partitions when I'm _explicitly_
> mounting /dev/hdc are looking strange. This is probably a bug of
> "mount".

No, the partition analysis will _always_ happen - it is done in the driver
when it detects changed media. You'll have to live with that bit of ugliness
if you want to use the media in that way.

It might be worthwhile opening a debate about some method for telling a
driver not to both with a partition scan. A boot option or /proc interface
might do the trick:

hdc=nopartscan

(If this has already been done, ignore me ...)

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Grant R. Guenther grant@torque.net
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