bcwipe won't wipe a block device...

[Bernd Walter]

On Thu, Feb 19, 2004 at 03:28:23PM -0500, Aaron Peterson wrote:
> > On Thu, Feb 19, 2004 at 12:57:52PM -0500, Aaron Peterson wrote:
> >> I don't know if this is a problem specific to CURRENT or not, but bcwipe
> >> seems to do the right thing when wiping files.  however, when using the
> >> -b
> >> option to wipe an entire block device, there is an "Invalid Argument"
> >> error, and I don't understand exactly why...
> >>
> >> fbsd52# bcwipe -bvmd /dev/da0
> >> Wipe /dev/da0 (y/[n]/a)?a
> >> Wiping device      /dev/da0
> >> Writing to /dev/da0: Invalid argument
> >> fbsd52# bcwipe -bvm3 /dev/fd0
> >> Wipe /dev/fd0 (y/[n]/a)?a
> >> Wiping device      /dev/fd0
> >> Writing to /dev/fd0: Invalid argument
> >> fbsd52#
> 
> > Why - if the device is there you have a node in /dev.
> > If you don't have the device then there is no node.
> > See devfs(8)
> 
> I understand how devfs works, and i don't think that is the problem,
> although perhaps I'm misunderstanding what you mean.
> 
> dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/da0
> dd if=/dev/urandom of=/dev/fd0
> 
> these devices and nodes all exist, and these dd commands do as expected
> and take off writing random data to the raw device.  However i get the
> errors mentioned previously when i try to use bcwipe on the same drives. 
> I would like to find a way to make bcwipe work.  any suggestions about
> what is causing this problem?

Ah - I missunderstood you.
The point is to find out what bcwipe does - e.g. by using ktrace.

-- 
B.Walter                   BWCT                http://www.bwct.de
ticso at bwct.de                                  info at bwct.de