On Thu, Dec 19, 2002 at 03:27:09PM -0800, Jonathan Stone wrote:
> Frank, the part which says ``run a special userspace utility?''
> is a big step *backwards*.
> 
> Try inserting an MBR-labelled CF into a USB CF reader.  Or inserting
> the same CF into an IDE laptop slot, via a CF-to-PCMCIA mechanical adaptor.

That's a different class of problems, one of kernel event notification.
What is needed in that case is a mechanism to let userspace know about
kernel events. You need this when a network device is added, and you
want to automatically configure it. Or when a CD-ROM is inserted and
perhaps you want to automatically mount it. Or when a device driver
is loaded. Etc.

In this case, you'd catch the event 'a storage device was added',
so "keventd" (or whatever is waiting for the event) runs the userspace
utility to grab the partition info, if any, off the device.

- Frank

-- 
Frank van der Linden                                    fvdl@wasabisystems.com
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