On Thursday 04 March 2010, Stephen Powell wrote: > On Thu, 4 Mar 2010 15:58:02 -0500 (EST), David Goodenough wrote: > > I found Host Protected Area on Google, and it said I could turn it off > > using hdparm, but when I try it says:- > > > > hdparm -N /dev/hda > > > > /dev/hda: > > The running kernel lacks CONFIG_IDE_TASK_IOCTL support for this device. > > READ_NATIVE_MAX_ADDRESS_EXT failed: Invalid argument > > > > Do we need another option turned on in the kernel? > > Make sure you really know what you're doing if you disable detection > of a system-protected area. If it really is a system-protected area, > it's protected for a reason, and you ought not to let Linux use it. > I'm thinking way back to the IBM PS/2 model 9577 that I used to have. > This machine has a microchannel bus. It had a "system partition" > on the (SCSI) hard disk that contained what used to be on the "reference > diskette" and "advanced diagnostic diskette" on older PS/2 models. It > contained things such as the advanced BIOS routines (BIOS routines designed > to be called from protected mode -- intended for use by OS/2), > the BIOS setup program, microchannel configuration utilities, > diagnostic and testing routines, etc. > > If you wipe that out, the > machine cannot boot *anything* EXCEPT a valid reference > diskette -- a diskette containing what the system partition should > contain. I had to backup the system partition to diskettes > (using IBM's internal backup utility) prior to upgrading to a bigger > hard disk, then boot the reference diskette just created and > re-create the system partition on the new hard disk after installing it. > If I didn't follow that special procedure, my machine was a brick. > > Things are done differently now, of course, but the point is "don't > mess with a system protected area unless you really know what you are > doing". Maybe this is something else, but be sure first. > yes I remember the PS/2 which loaded its microcode from there. But this disk has been run with kernel 2.6.26 which seemed to ignore the HPA, so whatever was there has already been overwritten so I have no problem turning it off. And this is not the disk that came with this machine, its a replacement.
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