Re: linux-2.4.0 breaks grub install into partition

From: H. Peter Anvin (hpa@transmeta.com)
Date: Sun Jul 09 2000 - 18:42:23 EST


OKUJI Yoshinori wrote:
>
> From: "H. Peter Anvin" <hpa@transmeta.com>
> Subject: Re: linux-2.4.0 breaks grub install into partition
> Date: Sun, 09 Jul 2000 12:12:48 -0700
>
> > As I said, the only operation that I think can be justified is accessing
> > the boot block (and that's only because noone has added an API to do it
> > cleanly.) Accessing any other part of the filesystem is death.
>
> Ok, then can I assume that this is a Linux's fault and should be
> fixed in Linux? As Khimenko said, it is somewhat difficult to deal
> with the problem in GRUB, because GRUB uses its own mechanism to
> interpret filesystems and partitions, and GRUB users can use
> block-lists as a file transparently. I don't say it is impossible,
> though.
>

Messing with a mounted filesystem is a no-no, though. Touching the boot
block was acceptable in the old code, though, mostly by accident.

> BTW, is it acceptable to add such an API into Linux in this stage?
> If there is no problem with that, I'll investigate that myself, even
> though I haven't read the source code of 2.4.x very much
> yet. Otherwise, I'll try to find how to overglaze the Linux's fault...
>
> > Not really. They won't have any effect, neither positive or negative,
> > except perhaps make you feel better.
>
> I guess you are talking about 2.4.x. With 2.2.x or earlier, you
> have positive effects. So I must admit that this is a change for the
> worse, as for our project.

Note, I presume you're not actually talking about using raw devices
(/dev/raw* etc). You shouldn't do that.

        -hpa

-- 
<hpa@transmeta.com> at work, <hpa@zytor.com> in private!
"Unix gives you enough rope to shoot yourself in the foot."
http://www.zytor.com/~hpa/puzzle.txt

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