Phillip, do you recall when dmraid support was added to libparted?

Phillip Susi wrote in comment #17:
> It sounds like dmraid.cc can be removed then.  Libparted now directly 
> supports dmraid devices and handles the dev node creation.  Actually now 
> we are using devfs for /dev, so the kernel creates the dev nodes, rather 
> than either udev or libdevmapper.

Unfortunately I do not think that dmraid can simply be removed at this
point in time.  Following are the reasons that I believe DMRaid.cc is
needed for at least a while longer (perhaps a year or more):


1)  To maintain backward compatibility with current GNU/Linux distributions.
     Parted 1.9.0 was released on July 23, 2009.  Newer versions like 2.2 were 
only released in February of 2010.  This means that these versions have been 
available for less than a year, and are not likely included with Long Term 
Support Gnu/Linux distributions.


2)  To avoid some problems with libparted device detection.

     Currently GParted contains it's own code to detect disk devices.
     Search for method "set_devices" in GParted_Core.cc:
     http://git.gnome.org/browse/gparted/tree/src/GParted_Core.cc

     Following are two reasons why GParted performs it's own device
detection:

     A)  If libparted device detection is used, it takes an inordinate amount 
of time to scan devices on computer systems that do not have a physical floppy 
drive installed, but do have the BIOS set to indicate a floppy drive is present.
          This problem was tracked in GParted bug #351753.
          Missing floppy causes loop on scanning devices.
          https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=351753

          This problem was also reported in Parted ticket #194.
          ped_device_probe_all() returns /dev/fd0 when no physical floppy 
device present.
          http://parted.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/trac.cgi/ticket/194

     B)  If libparted device detection is used, some versions of libparted 
might not detect dmraid devices, or will list all partitions as dmraid devices 
as well.
          I remember this problem from past testing because I do not recall 
documenting this problem elsewhere.


Do the above explanations help describe why it might not be prudent to remove 
DMRaid.cc at this time?


** Bug watch added: GNOME Bug Tracker #351753
   https://bugzilla.gnome.org/show_bug.cgi?id=351753

** Bug watch added: Parted tracker #194
   http://parted.alioth.debian.org/cgi-bin/trac.cgi/ticket/194

-- 
Gparted does not list dmraid devices
https://bugs.launchpad.net/bugs/554582
You received this bug notification because you are a member of Ubuntu
Bugs, which is subscribed to Ubuntu.

-- 
ubuntu-bugs mailing list
ubuntu-bugs@lists.ubuntu.com
https://lists.ubuntu.com/mailman/listinfo/ubuntu-bugs

Reply via email to