From owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG  Mon Jun  2 08:38:37 2003
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Date: Mon, 02 Jun 2003 17:39:35 +0200
From: Marcin Dalecki <mdcki@gmx.net>
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To: Andrew <andrew@ugh.net.au>
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cc: freebsd-hackers@freebsd.org
Subject: Re: Retrieving disk geometry
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Andrew wrote:
> Hi,
> 
> Under FreeBSD 4.x the ioctl DIOCGDINFO could be used to retrieve the
> number of cylinders, heads and sectors of a drive. This could be called on
> /dev/ad0 for example. Under FreeBSD 5 it seems to produce "Inappropriate
> ioctl for device" unless you call it on an individual partition
> (/dev/ad0s1a for example).
> 
> Is there a way around this?

No. Becouse there is in fact no such thing like a "geometry" on modern
ATA drives. There is just a quigmare of values which serve only one single
purpose - satisfying rotten code in stinking BIOS. Not more not less.
(Modern is here on the scale of about 8 or even more years.)