Using hdparm on a linode

Good question – although you've already guessed what the answer is likely to be. :)

Not much of a point to running hdparm because Linode is (currently) a UML environment -- which makes device access virtual.

The "disk device" is, in reality, just a file on the host system, rather than an actual physical device with knobs you can tweak (DMA and stuff).

So… no, no benefit to hdparm on a Linode. I also run Gentoo, and it's not a problem to remove it, even if it screams bloody murder about it. ;)

It's there because the systemwide profile mandates its presence. (Gentoo normally runs on non-UML hosts, so this is a reasonable choice. Just doesn't make sense with Linodes.)

That's what I thought … and I believe I can modify the profile to not require hdparm.

Hmmm … that might be a good idea; create a Linode specific profile.

You can. Or do what I did – I unmerged hdparm even though it complained. :)

It let me do that. Haven't seen problems since then.

but I'm a neat freak … plus, it'd probably try to re-emerge it when I did a deep newuse update, or a revdep-rebuild. Both of which I do on a regular basis.