Retrieving disk geometry

[Marcin Dalecki]

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.)