Dear util-linux developers:
I'v been using cfdisk and fdisk for a long time.
Currently I have util-linux 2.31.1 in openSUSE Leap 42.3.
Recently I've run into this issue:
I use USB hard drive docker and the system gets
false optimal_io_size values for hard drives.
For a detailed description of the problem, see:
Linux SSD partition alignment – problems with external USB-to-SATA
controllers – I
https://linux-blog.anracom.com/2018/12/03/linux-ssd-partition-alignment-problems-with-external-usb-to-sata-controllers-i/
I wanted to use fdisk for partitioning a 1 TB disk.
fdisk wanted to start the first partition at sector
65535 (based on the wrong optimal_io_size value, I
guess). I tried to overwrite the suggested value with
2048 but got "value out of range" error.
My point is that fdisk insist to use its suggested
value and don't let the user set other value.
In my opinion it is a bad policy, the program
should allow to overwrite the suggested value
and use it. If it is dangerous, then there should
be a specific option to enable the behavior or
double check if the user really wants to use the
value entered. But it should be possible to use
other values than the offered ones, especially if the
offered value is wrong.
Best regards,
Istvan
