[coLinux-devel] Odd /dev/cobd* semantics for raw partitions

[Seth L. <se...@of...>]

I had similar problems to others here with getting raw partitions to
work, but for a somewhat different reason: raw partition access seems
to be rather incomplete.  In particular, a raw partition mounted as a
/dev/cobd* device, when read using ordinary tools, always seems to
show up as a zero-length file.  If /dev/cobd2 is a raw partition, 
"cat /dev/cobd2" will return immediately and "file -s /dev/cobd2" prints
"empty".  This is probably also the cause of mount not autodetecting
filesystem type.  From these signs I had decided that my raw
partitions weren't working, when in fact they were working fine and a
'mount -t ext3 /dev/cobd2 /mnt/whatever' worked.

However, if /dev/cobd0, say, is pointed at a file (rather than
partition), it acts like a normal block device: you can cat it, 'file
-s' it, strings it, etc.

So, it looks to me like there's something incomplete about the raw
partition access.  Perhaps colinux isn't getting the correct partition
size from Windows somehow?

Seth