From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1751461AbWFIRG2 (ORCPT ); Fri, 9 Jun 2006 13:06:28 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1751460AbWFIRG2 (ORCPT ); Fri, 9 Jun 2006 13:06:28 -0400 Received: from outpipe-village-512-1.bc.nu ([81.2.110.250]:21128 "EHLO lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751453AbWFIRG1 (ORCPT ); Fri, 9 Jun 2006 13:06:27 -0400 Subject: Re: [RFC] ATA host-protected area (HPA) device mapper? From: Alan Cox To: Etienne Lorrain Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, linux-ide@vger.kernel.org, jeff@garzik.org In-Reply-To: <20060609104759.26001.qmail@web26913.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> References: <20060609104759.26001.qmail@web26913.mail.ukl.yahoo.com> Content-Type: text/plain Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Date: Fri, 09 Jun 2006 18:22:14 +0100 Message-Id: <1149873734.22124.40.camel@localhost.localdomain> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Evolution 2.6.1 (2.6.1-1.fc5.2) Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org > Gujin is assuming that your hard disk are accessible by the documented ATA ide > system, and some (or all?) IDE SATA interface have (volumtary?) broken > implementation: they are not IDE register compatible. SFF was never a formal standard, and ST-506 was a random vendor interface copying exercise that caught on. ACPI permits the firmware to provide ATA taskfiles but afaik not the boot loader unfortunately. A lot of newer SATA hardware uses a common standard defined interface called AHCI, and it appears most vendors are migrating in the direction of using AHCI. If so then we are in the same kind of flux as the VLB world before SFF and PCI settled the standard interfaces down for a while. Don't see how your HPA code protects versus password locking however. If I hack the OS I write a new boot block which locks the disk then reboot into it. By the time you go for your floppy its too late. If thats not the case I'm most interested how you set it up to avoid this. Alan