[Triumf-linux-managers] WD20EARS Advanced Format Drive

[Konstantin Olchanski]

On Thu, Jun 17, 2010 at 01:49:06PM -0700, Kelvin Raywood wrote:
> Konstantin Olchanski wrote:
> >There appears to be a problem with the latest "Advanced format drives" and
> >SL-5.4 Linux. These disks use 4kbyte blocks internally and most
> >web sites mumble about minor performance loss because standard Linux
> >does not align the filesystems on these 4k boundaries, etc.
> >
> >This was not my experience. After installing SL-5.4 on 2 mirrored (RAID1)
> >2TB WD20EARS disks, I had an unusable computer.
> >
> >This issue will have to be raised with Red Hat and SL,
> 
> Did you find a RedHat bugzilla entry indicating that it will fixed be in 
> a future installer?  Or perhaps it's already fixed in Fedora 13.


There is a bug for Fedora 13, where "mkfs" complains about the unaligned
partitions and crashes the installer. The best I can tell, this bug
started the ball rolling on getting this mess fixed.

There is a bug for SL6 (still in beta) regarding 4k sector disks,
but no activity on it.


> >(Use by expert users should be okey - they can pre-partition the disks
> >using knoppix & co before running the SL installer;
> 
> Actually, you can do it all with the SL installer.  At the partitioning 
> stage, use <ctl><alt><f2> to get to a shell prompt.  Then, manually 
> partition using the fdisk command recommended by Konstantin.  Return to 
> the graphical installer with <ctl><alt><f6>


Yes, use by expert.


-- 
Konstantin Olchanski
Data Acquisition Systems: The Bytes Must Flow!
Email: olchansk-at-triumf-dot-ca
Snail mail: 4004 Wesbrook Mall, TRIUMF, Vancouver, B.C., V6T 2A3, Canada