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The Simple Disk Partition Layer is a
free software
package.
It intend to be a highly configurable and tunable partition layer.
It can be adapted to a wide range of uses, from embedded devices to
64-bit servers.
It can be used with any type of block device,
and as a subdivision of the "old" MS-DOS partition layer to stay compatible
with existent systems.
Its goal is too make it easy to resize partitions with a very small memory
footprint and no loss of performance.
It is avaible only for Linux for now, but ports to other systems
will be welcome.
The latest Beta version of SDPL is 0.8.
This version now compiles against all 2.4 kernels.
It makes a safe use of locks to improve safety
and allow read-only protection for partitions and blocs.
There were lots of cleanups, especialy in the kernel module code.
See Changelog for more details
You can also consult TODO file
to know what's still missing and how you could help me
The main distribution point for SDPL is the Savannah software archive.
The master directory is
http://freesoftware.fsf.org/download/sdpl/.
Refer to README for explanations about the files you'll find here.
A few set of documentations is avaible inside the latest sdpl package.
One point I have to talk about:
this layer ISN'T compatible with 2.2 kernels.
I made the current CVS version backward compatible
down to 2.4.0 kernel.
I took a look, and I noticed it would be really hard to put it back
in 2.2 kernels.
But, remember that this kernel branch has been stopped since 9 monthes,
so we can now consider that 2.4 is the standard kernel.
In fact, this last point isn't true anymore,
as Alan Cox anounced a new 2.2 release in the next days...
But, I think SDPL WILL NEVER BE linux 2.2 compatible.
This is the main SDPL discussion list.
Currently the SDPL bug reporting address, mailto:[email protected], simply forwards to this list.
There are archives of the main SDPL list at:
For now, no one (as far as I know), except me, is booting Linux with SDPL
Here are some projects which could use SDPL
or can be usefull for SDPL testing
Here you'll find the open-source BIOS'es I know:
LinuxBIOS
FreeBIOS
OpenBIOS
Talkware TIARA
Return to GNU's home page.
Please send FSF & GNU inquiries & questions to [email protected]. There are also other ways to contact the FSF.
Please send comments on these web pages to the maintainer, send other questions to SDPL mailing list.
Copyright (C) 2002 J. Mayer
Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium, provided this notice is preserved.
Updated: Last modified: Tue Jan 22 01:03:19 CET 2002