Opinions about MAXIMUM_PARTS crippling in util-linux-2.11r-miscfixes.patch

[Leonard den Ottolander]

Hello Wojtek,

> My understanding is that this has been done to mask a bug in Microsoft
> Windows 2000 which goes into infinite loop going back and forth through the
> disk when it sees 16 or more partitions.

 The limit is up to and including 16 partitions (if you count the extended 
partition as one as well).

 My understanding is this has to do with the fact that SCSI can't handle 
more than 15 (16 if you count the extended partition as well) partitions. 
See the original comment in util-linux-2.11r-miscfixes.patch.

 I would also be happy if we got rid of this limitation, but since SCSI 
disks seem to require it logic needs to be added to distinguish between 
SCSI and IDE disks. Afaict this logic is currently not there, and I guess 
that is why Red Hat chose to take the safe maximum of 16 partitions. So I 
guess for now you just have to patch the patches and rebuild util-linux 
yourself.

Bye,
Leonard.

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