[PATCH] Support HDIO_GETGEO on device-mapper volumes



Hi again,

I'm trying to install grub on a device-mapper RAID1 array that I set up via dmraid (in other words, a bootable software fakeraid). Since dm doesn't implement the HDIO_GETGEO ioctl, grub assumes that the CHS geometry is 620/128/63, which makes it impossible to configure it to boot a filesystem that lives beyond the 2GB mark, even if the system BIOS supports that.

The attached patch implements a simple ioctl handler that supplies a compatible geometry when HDIO_GETGEO is called against a device-mapper device. Its behavior is somewhat similar to what sd_mod does if the scsi controller doesn't provide its own geometry. Granted, the notion of cylinders, heads and sectors is silly on a RAID array, but with this patch, interested programs can obtain CHS data that's somewhat close to correct; this seems to be a better option than having each program make up its own potentially different geometry, or making an arbitrary guess. Assuming that all of the programs that need to know CHS geometry will query the kernel via HDIO_GETGEO, this patch makes it so that all of those programs end up using the same geometry.

The patch applies cleanly against 2.6.15.3; if there aren't any objections then I'm submitting this for upstream. However, I'm all ears for suggestions.

Signed-off-by: Darrick J. Wong <djwong@xxxxxxxxxx>

--Darrick diff -Naurp a/drivers/md/dm.c b/drivers/md/dm.c
--- a/drivers/md/dm.c 2006-01-14 22:16:02.000000000 -0800
+++ b/drivers/md/dm.c 2006-02-09 14:05:18.000000000 -0800
@@ -17,6 +17,7 @@
#include <linux/mempool.h>
#include <linux/slab.h>
#include <linux/idr.h>
+#include <linux/hdreg.h>

static const char *_name = DM_NAME;

@@ -223,6 +224,47 @@ static int dm_blk_close(struct inode *in
return 0;
}

+static int dm_blk_ioctl(struct inode * inode, struct file * filp,
+ unsigned int cmd, unsigned long arg)
+{
+ struct block_device *bdev = inode->i_bdev;
+ struct hd_geometry __user *loc = (void __user *)arg;
+ struct mapped_device *md;
+ int diskinfo[4];
+
+ if (cmd == HDIO_GETGEO) {
+ if (!arg)
+ return -EINVAL;
+
+ /* Make up some fake geometry. */
+ md = bdev->bd_disk->private_data;
+ diskinfo[0] = 0x40; /* 1 << 6 */
+ diskinfo[1] = 0x20; /* 1 << 5 */
+ diskinfo[2] = md->disk->capacity >> 11;
+ diskinfo[3] = 0;
+
+ /* cylinder count too big? */
+ if (diskinfo[2] > 65536) {
+ diskinfo[0] = 255;
+ diskinfo[1] = 63;
+ diskinfo[2] = md->disk->capacity / 16065; /* 255*63 */
+ }
+
+ if (put_user(diskinfo[0], &loc->heads))
+ return -EFAULT;
+ if (put_user(diskinfo[1], &loc->sectors))
+ return -EFAULT;
+ if (put_user(diskinfo[2], &loc->cylinders))
+ return -EFAULT;
+ if (put_user(diskinfo[3], &loc->start))
+ return -EFAULT;
+
+ return 0;
+ }
+
+ return -ENOTTY;
+}
+
static inline struct dm_io *alloc_io(struct mapped_device *md)
{
return mempool_alloc(md->io_pool, GFP_NOIO);
@@ -1179,6 +1221,7 @@ int dm_suspended(struct mapped_device *m
static struct block_device_operations dm_blk_dops = {
.open = dm_blk_open,
.release = dm_blk_close,
+ .ioctl = dm_blk_ioctl,
.owner = THIS_MODULE
};



Relevant Pages

  • Re: [PATCH] User-configurable HDIO_GETGEO for dm volumes
    ... Here's a rework of last week's HDIO_GETGEO patch. ... Provide a dm getgeo method that returns that geometry (or ... what that should be) is totally deferred to userspace. ... the dm_target_msg struct to pass the user's hd_geometry into the kernel. ...
    (Linux-Kernel)
  • [PATCH] User-configurable HDIO_GETGEO for dm volumes
    ... Provide a dm getgeo method that returns that geometry (or ... dm-getgeo_1.patch is a patch to 2.6.16-rc3 that modifies the dm driver to store and retrieve geometries. ... The only part of this patch that I think to be particularly dodgy is the dev_setgeo function, because I'm using the dm_target_msg struct to pass the user's hd_geometry into the kernel. ...
    (Linux-Kernel)
  • Re: [PATCH] User-configurable HDIO_GETGEO for dm volumes
    ... place to attach config data. ... Userspace device-mapper applications are free to reload tables ... for reloads and reset your preferred geometry each time... ... every time a new ioctl is added upstream you need to increment ...
    (Linux-Kernel)
  • Re: [PATCH] Support HDIO_GETGEO on device-mapper volumes
    ... when I setup my system on a dmraid controlled hardware fakeraid raid-0, I just gave grub a suitable geometry command since it couldn't auto detect it. ... grub shouldn't care about the geometry since that information has been obsolete for years. ... The attached patch implements a simple ioctl handler that supplies a compatible geometry when HDIO_GETGEO is called against a device-mapper device. ...
    (Linux-Kernel)