I was wondering a bit about how the kernel checks the drive, and the
hardcoded HD_TYPE option seems interesting, at least for IDE drives
(maybe SCSI as well).
we upgraded drives by installing linux on a temporary machine, (to
leave the original system intact), then swapped the drive out. we lost
the CMOS along the way, and we needed to find the drive type. Luck had
it that someone has written a (DOS) program to sniff your IDE drive
for it's proper drive type. I wonder if this could be added to the
kernel. trhe program reports what the BIOS thinks the drive setting
are, and it reports what the drive says it is. Sometimes you set your
CMOS settings to something odd deliberately, because the drive remaps
itself (but IDE drives dont always do it well), but this is usually to
overcome some bogus limitation of DOS or the BIOS, which wouldnt be
needed with Linux. (I'm reasonably sure that this feature isnt already
in the kernel. if it is, then I'm quite impressed)
here is the DOS source (it's mostly output formating..this code would
take 10 lines or so of assembly)
dug_ide.c
-------snip------
/*
** DUG_IDE : Provides IDE disk info on both drives in the system
** Version 1.0
**
** Copyright (c) 12 Jan 1993 by Doug Merrett - All rights reserved
**
** Postal Address: PO Box 432
** Stones Corner Q 4120
** Australia
**
**
** You may distribute freely, but no modifications without mailing me a copy.
** No profit can be made for distribution. Blah Blah Blah etc.
*/
/* Used by JPI for clrscr */
#define _JPI_WIN_
#include <stdlib.h>
#include <dos.h>
#include <stdio.h>
#include <conio.h>
#include <bios.h>
char *getascii (unsigned int in_data [], int off_start, int off_end);
void main (void)
{
unsigned int dd [256]; /* DiskData */
unsigned int dd_off; /* DiskData offset */
unsigned int loop; /* Loop variable */
int num_drv; /* Number of Hard disks */
union REGS registers; /* Used for Interrupt for BIOS data */
unsigned int bios_cyl [2], bios_head [2], bios_sec [2]; /* Cylinders, Heads, Sectors */
clrscr ();
fprintf (stderr, "** DUG_IDE : Provides IDE disk info on both drives in the system\n");
fprintf (stderr, "** Version 1.0\n");
fprintf (stderr, "**\n");
fprintf (stderr, "** Copyright (c) 12 Jan 1993 by Doug Merrett - All rights reserved\n");
fprintf (stderr, "**\n");
fprintf (stderr, "** Postal Address: PO Box 432\n");
fprintf (stderr, "** Stones Corner Q 4120\n");
fprintf (stderr, "** Australia\n");
fprintf (stderr, "**\n");
fprintf (stderr, "**\n");
fprintf (stderr, "** You may distribute freely, but no modifications without mailing me a copy.\n");
fprintf (stderr, "** No profit can be made for distribution. Blah Blah Blah etc.\n\n");
fprintf (stderr, "Press any key to accept above limitations");
getch ();
/* How many disk drives & parameters */
num_drv = peekb (0x40, 0x75); /* BIOS Data area, Number of Hard disks */
/* Byte at Segment 40H Offset 75H */
for (loop = 0; loop < num_drv; loop++) /* Loop through drives */
{
/* Get IDE Drive info */
while (inp (0x1F7) != 0x50) /* Wait for controller not busy */
;
outp (0x1F6, (loop == 0 ? 0xA0 : 0xB0)); /* Get first/second drive */
outp (0x1F7, 0xEC); /* Get drive info data */
while (inp (0x1F7) != 0x58) /* Wait for data ready */
;
for (dd_off = 0; dd_off != 256; dd_off++) /* Read "sector" */
dd [dd_off] = inpw (0x1F0);
/* Get BIOS drive info */
registers.h.ah = 0x8; /* Get drive info */
registers.h.dl = 0x80 + loop; /* Drive is 80H for Disk 0, 81H for Disk 1 */
int86 (0x13, ®isters, ®isters);
if (! registers.x.cflag) /* All OK if carry not set */
{
bios_head [loop] = registers.h.dh + 1; /* Heads are from 0 */
bios_sec [loop] = registers.h.cl & 0x3F; /* sec is bits 5 - 0 */
bios_cyl [loop] = ((registers.h.cl & 0xC0) << 2) + registers.h.ch + 2; /* +1 because starts from 0 and +1 for FDISK leaving one out */
}
clrscr ();
fprintf (stdout, "DRIVE %d:\n", loop);
fprintf (stdout, "Model Number______________________: %s\n", getascii (dd, 27, 46));
fprintf (stdout, "Serial Number_____________________: %s\n", getascii (dd, 10, 19));
fprintf (stdout, "Controller Revision Number________: %s\n\n", getascii (dd, 23, 26));
fprintf (stdout, "Able to do Double Word Transfer___: %6s\n", (dd [48] == 0 ? "No" : "Yes"));
fprintf (stdout, "Controller type___________________: %04X\n", dd [20]);
fprintf (stdout, "Controller buffer size (bytes)____: %6u\n", dd [21] * 512);
fprintf (stdout, "Number of ECC bytes transferred___: %6u\n", dd [22]);
fprintf (stdout, "Number of sectors per interrupt___: %6u\n\n", dd [47]);
fprintf (stdout, "Hard Disk Reports\n");
fprintf (stdout, "Number of Cylinders (Fixed)_______: %6u\n", dd [1]);
fprintf (stdout, "Number of Heads___________________: %6u\n", dd [3]);
fprintf (stdout, "Number of Sectors per Track_______: %6u\n\n", dd [6]);
fprintf (stdout, "BIOS Reports\n");
fprintf (stdout, "Number of Cylinders_______________: %6u\n", bios_cyl [loop]);
fprintf (stdout, "Number of Heads___________________: %6u\n", bios_head [loop]);
fprintf (stdout, "Number of Sectors per Track_______: %6u\n\n", bios_sec [loop]);
if (! loop)
{
fprintf (stdout, "Press a key");
getch ();
}
}
Quote:}
char *getascii (unsigned int in_data [], int off_start, int off_end)
{
static char ret_val [255];
int loop, loop1;
for (loop = off_start, loop1 = 0; loop <= off_end; loop++)
{
ret_val [loop1++] = (char) (in_data [loop] / 256); /* Get High byte */
ret_val [loop1++] = (char) (in_data [loop] % 256); /* Get Low byte */
}
ret_val [loop1] = '\0'; /* Make sure it ends in a NULL character */
return (ret_val);
Quote:}
-------------snip------------
--
______________________________________________________________________________
John Paul Morrison |
University of British Columbia, Canada | Hey hey!! Ho ho!!
Electrical Engineering | Tax & spend liberals
________________________________________|____________________________________
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