hdparm -B for netbooks

[Chuck Anderson]

On Tue, Feb 23, 2010 at 09:34:54PM +0100, Richard Zidlicky wrote:
> On Tue, Feb 23, 2010 at 08:18:21PM +0000, Matthew Garrett wrote:
> > On Tue, Feb 23, 2010 at 09:10:03PM +0100, Richard Zidlicky wrote:
> > > Hi,
> 
> > > What is the state of this - is some package responsible for this or is it up to 
> > > the user to do it manualy?
> > 
> > We have no understanding of the problem, its cause or the possible 
> > harmful effects of changing the BIOS's settings automatically. These 
> > make it rather trickier to do much about the issue.
> 
> it was my understanding that "hdparm -B" has nothing to do with the BIOS but changes 
> the power management feature specific to the drive?

Yes.  Some BIOS'es can override drive settings, but in many cases they 
don't touch the drive's default values.  Neither does Linux.  So any 
problems with the default values are the drive's own issues...or so 
the argument goes.