diff --git a/bochs/patches/patch.blkdevsize b/bochs/patches/patch.blkdevsize
index 5a17e1a3d..6700c4722 100644
--- a/bochs/patches/patch.blkdevsize
+++ b/bochs/patches/patch.blkdevsize
@@ -1,11 +1,30 @@
 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
 Patch name: patch.blkdevsize
 Author: Ph. Marek, updated by cbothamy
-Date: July 29th 2002
+Date: 16 Oct 2002
 
 Detailed description:
-I added a configure check so the code will be included only
-on system that supports it.
+This is an update to the previous patch. 
+
+There was a potential risk for your harddisks with the previous
+patch because it updated the concat_image_t object (BX_SPLIT_HD is on
+by default). The behaviour of BX_SPLIT_HD is to open all filenames
+incrementing the last letter. Guess what follows /dev/hda ?
+
+You may now access block devices from within bochs, only 
+if --disable-split-hd is configured. 
+
+It has only been tested on linux and a WinNT guest. 
+There are issues with the current bios CHS translating scheme and 
+the guest OS translating scheme. For example my compaq system translates
+a physical     38792/16/63 20GiB harddrive to
+a logical      2586/240/63, which does not follow the bitshift algorithm.
+I had to find a different PCHS that would translate in a compatible LCHS
+I still have to investigate further, but I'm afraid everything I can do 
+will break some systems or the others.
+
+Those issues should be explained in the documentation.
+
 
 Original Detailed description:
 I'm currently working to get bochs to support block devices (eg. /dev/hda) as 
@@ -18,39 +37,22 @@ Here's a patch to get the detection working.
 Patch was created with:
   cvs diff -u
 Apply patch to what version:
-  cvs checked out on July 29th 2002
+  cvs checked out on 16 Oct 2002
 Instructions:
   To patch, go to main bochs directory.
   Type "patch -p0 < THIS_PATCH_FILE".
 ----------------------------------------------------------------------
-Index: bochs.h
-===================================================================
-RCS file: /cvsroot/bochs/bochs/bochs.h,v
-retrieving revision 1.73
-diff -u -r1.73 bochs.h
---- bochs.h	29 Jul 2002 09:52:03 -0000	1.73
-+++ bochs.h	29 Jul 2002 09:58:34 -0000
-@@ -62,6 +62,9 @@
- #  include <sys/types.h>
- #  include <sys/stat.h>
- #endif
-+#if BX_HAVE_BLKGETSIZE
-+#  include <sys/mount.h>
-+#endif
- #include <ctype.h>
- #include <string.h>
- #include <fcntl.h>
 Index: config.h.in
 ===================================================================
 RCS file: /cvsroot/bochs/bochs/config.h.in,v
-retrieving revision 1.50
-diff -u -r1.50 config.h.in
---- config.h.in	5 Jun 2002 03:59:30 -0000	1.50
-+++ config.h.in	29 Jul 2002 09:58:34 -0000
-@@ -207,6 +207,7 @@
- #define BX_HAVE_NANOSLEEP 0
- #define BX_HAVE_ABORT 0
+retrieving revision 1.87
+diff -u -r1.87 config.h.in
+--- config.h.in	13 Oct 2002 22:38:16 -0000	1.87
++++ config.h.in	16 Oct 2002 14:07:28 -0000
+@@ -196,6 +196,7 @@
  #define BX_HAVE_SOCKLEN_T 0
+ #define BX_HAVE_GETTIMEOFDAY 0
+ #define BX_HAVE_REALTIME_USEC BX_HAVE_GETTIMEOFDAY
 +#define BX_HAVE_BLKGETSIZE 0
  
  // This turns on Roland Mainz's idle hack.  Presently it is specific to the X11
@@ -58,23 +60,23 @@ diff -u -r1.50 config.h.in
 Index: configure
 ===================================================================
 RCS file: /cvsroot/bochs/bochs/configure,v
-retrieving revision 1.82
-diff -u -r1.82 configure
---- configure	16 Jul 2002 12:10:05 -0000	1.82
-+++ configure	29 Jul 2002 09:58:36 -0000
-@@ -844,7 +844,7 @@
-   --enable-new-pit                  use Greg Alexander's new PIT model
-   --enable-slowdown                 use Greg Alexander's slowdown timer
-   --enable-idle-hack                use Roland Mainz's idle hack
--  --enable-processors               select number of processors (1,2,4)
-+  --enable-processors               select number of processors (1,2,4,8)
-   --enable-cpu-level                select cpu level (3,4,5,6)
-   --enable-dynamic                  enable dynamic translation support
-   --enable-fetchdecode-cache        enable fetchdecode-cache support
-@@ -7559,6 +7559,62 @@
+retrieving revision 1.150
+diff -u -r1.150 configure
+--- configure	11 Oct 2002 13:21:15 -0000	1.150
++++ configure	16 Oct 2002 14:07:33 -0000
+@@ -1,5 +1,5 @@
+ #! /bin/sh
+-# From configure.in Id: configure.in,v 1.149 2002/10/11 01:11:10 kevinlawton Exp .
++# From configure.in Id: configure.in,v 1.150 2002/10/11 13:21:13 bdenney Exp .
+ # Guess values for system-dependent variables and create Makefiles.
+ # Generated by GNU Autoconf 2.53.
+ #
+@@ -7675,6 +7675,64 @@
+ _ACEOF
  
  fi
- 
++
++
 +echo "$as_me:$LINENO: checking whether BLKGETSIZE is declared" >&5
 +echo $ECHO_N "checking whether BLKGETSIZE is declared... $ECHO_C" >&6
 +if test "${ac_cv_have_decl_BLKGETSIZE+set}" = set; then
@@ -132,78 +134,109 @@ diff -u -r1.82 configure
 +fi
 +
  
- echo "$as_me:$LINENO: checking for struct timeval" >&5
- echo $ECHO_N "checking for struct timeval... $ECHO_C" >&6
-@@ -7989,7 +8045,7 @@
-        ;;
-      *)
-        echo " "
--       echo "WARNING: processors != 1,2,4 can work, but you need to modify rombios.c manually"
-+       echo "WARNING: processors != 1,2,4,8 can work, but you need to modify rombios.c manually"
-        echo "$as_me:$LINENO: result: $enable_val" >&5
- echo "${ECHO_T}$enable_val" >&6
-        cat >>confdefs.h <<\_ACEOF
+ 
+ # Check whether --enable-largefile or --disable-largefile was given.
 Index: configure.in
 ===================================================================
 RCS file: /cvsroot/bochs/bochs/configure.in,v
-retrieving revision 1.83
-diff -u -r1.83 configure.in
---- configure.in	16 Jul 2002 12:08:38 -0000	1.83
-+++ configure.in	29 Jul 2002 09:58:36 -0000
-@@ -104,6 +104,7 @@
- AC_CHECK_FUNCS(nanosleep, AC_DEFINE(BX_HAVE_NANOSLEEP))
- AC_CHECK_FUNCS(abort, AC_DEFINE(BX_HAVE_ABORT))
- AC_CHECK_TYPE(socklen_t, AC_DEFINE(BX_HAVE_SOCKLEN_T), , [#include <sys/socket.h>])
+retrieving revision 1.150
+diff -u -r1.150 configure.in
+--- configure.in	11 Oct 2002 13:21:13 -0000	1.150
++++ configure.in	16 Oct 2002 14:07:33 -0000
+@@ -126,6 +126,9 @@
+ AC_CHECK_TYPE(socklen_t, AC_DEFINE(BX_HAVE_SOCKLEN_T), , [#include <sys/types.h>
+ #include <sys/socket.h>])
+ 
 +AC_CHECK_DECL(BLKGETSIZE, AC_DEFINE(BX_HAVE_BLKGETSIZE), , [#include <sys/mount.h>])
- 
- AC_MSG_CHECKING(for struct timeval)
- AC_TRY_COMPILE([#include <sys/time.h>],
-@@ -216,7 +217,7 @@
- 
- AC_MSG_CHECKING(for number of processors)
- AC_ARG_ENABLE(processors,
--  [  --enable-processors               select number of processors (1,2,4)],
-+  [  --enable-processors               select number of processors (1,2,4,8)],
-   [case "$enableval" in
-      1)
-        AC_MSG_RESULT(1)
-@@ -247,7 +248,7 @@
-        ;;
-      *)
-        echo " "
--       echo "WARNING: processors != [1,2,4] can work, but you need to modify rombios.c manually"
-+       echo "WARNING: processors != [1,2,4,8] can work, but you need to modify rombios.c manually"
-        AC_MSG_RESULT($enable_val)
-        AC_DEFINE(BX_SMP_PROCESSORS, $enable_val)
-        AC_DEFINE(BX_BOOTSTRAP_PROCESSOR, 0)
++
++
+ dnl As of autoconf 2.53, the standard largefile test fails for Linux/gcc.
+ dnl It does not put the largefiles arguments into CFLAGS, even though Linux/gcc
+ dnl does need them.  Since wxWindows had already solved this exact problem,
+Index: bochs.h
+===================================================================
+RCS file: /cvsroot/bochs/bochs/bochs.h,v
+retrieving revision 1.100
+diff -u -r1.100 bochs.h
+--- bochs.h	6 Oct 2002 14:16:13 -0000	1.100
++++ bochs.h	16 Oct 2002 14:07:33 -0000
+@@ -70,6 +70,9 @@
+ #  include <sys/types.h>
+ #  include <sys/stat.h>
+ #endif
++#if BX_HAVE_BLKGETSIZE
++#  include <sys/mount.h>
++#endif
+ #include <ctype.h>
+ #include <string.h>
+ #include <fcntl.h>
 Index: iodev/harddrv.cc
 ===================================================================
 RCS file: /cvsroot/bochs/bochs/iodev/harddrv.cc,v
-retrieving revision 1.63
-diff -u -r1.63 harddrv.cc
---- iodev/harddrv.cc	27 Jul 2002 18:42:31 -0000	1.63
-+++ iodev/harddrv.cc	29 Jul 2002 09:58:37 -0000
-@@ -2839,6 +2839,23 @@
+retrieving revision 1.80
+diff -u -r1.80 harddrv.cc
+--- iodev/harddrv.cc	6 Oct 2002 20:19:03 -0000	1.80
++++ iodev/harddrv.cc	16 Oct 2002 14:07:35 -0000
+@@ -3032,7 +3032,47 @@
+ 	    BX_PANIC(("fstat() returns error!"));
+       }
+ 
+-      return fd;
++#if BX_HAVE_BLKGETSIZE
++    // On linux we can use block devices as harddrives. Get the size
++    if (S_ISBLK(stat_buf.st_mode)) {
++      // it's a block device. st_size will be 0, so set it to the correct size.
++
++      Bit64u size;
++      Bit32u size_in512k;
++
++      if (ioctl(fd,BLKGETSIZE,&(size_in512k))==-1) {
++        BX_PANIC(("size of block device %s can't be read",pathname));
++	size = 0;
++        }
++      else {
++        size = (Bit64u)(size_in512k) * 512;
++        }
++
++     if (sizeof(off_t) == 4) {
++       if (size > (0x7fffffff)) {
++         stat_buf.st_size = 0x7ffffe00; /* maximum size without overflow */
++         BX_ERROR(("size of disk image is too big, rounded to %d bytes", stat_buf.st_size));
++         }
++       else {
++         stat_buf.st_size = (Bit32u)size;
++         }
++       }
++     else if(sizeof(off_t) == 8) {
++       stat_buf.st_size = size;
++       }
++     else {
++       BX_PANIC(("size of off_t is unknown"));
++       stat_buf.st_size = 0;
++       }
++     }
++
++#endif // #if BX_HAVE_BLKGETSIZE
++
++    if ((stat_buf.st_size) == 0) {
++      BX_PANIC(("size of disk image '%s' is null",pathname));
++    }
++
++    return fd;
+ }
+ 
+ void default_image_t::close ()
+@@ -3103,8 +3143,12 @@
      if (ret) {
  	  BX_PANIC(("fstat() returns error!"));
      }
-+#if BX_HAVE_BLKGETSIZE
-+    // On some systems we can use block devices as harddrives. Get the size
-+    if (S_ISBLK(stat_buf.st_mode))
-+    {
-+      // it's a block device. st_size will be 0, so set it to the correct size. 
-+      if (ioctl(fd_table[i],BLKGETSIZE,&(stat_buf.st_size))==-1)
-+        BX_PANIC(("size of block device %s can't be read",pathname));
-+      if (stat_buf.st_size > (0x7ffffff/512))
-+      {
-+       BX_ERROR(("size of disk image is too big, rounded down"));
-+        stat_buf.st_size=0x7ffffe00; // maximum size without overflow
-+      }
-+      else
-+        stat_buf.st_size*=512; // returned value is sectors
-+      // what about an overflow here? should possibly use fstat64 
++
++    if ((stat_buf.st_size) == 0) {
++      BX_PANIC(("size of disk image '%s' is null",pathname));
 +    }
-+#endif
      if ((stat_buf.st_size % 512) != 0) {
-       BX_PANIC(("size of disk image must be multiple of 512 bytes"));
+-      BX_PANIC(("size of disk image must be multiple of 512 bytes"));
++      BX_PANIC(("size of disk image '%s' must be multiple of 512 bytes",pathname));
      }
+     length_table[i] = stat_buf.st_size;
+     start_offset_table[i] = start_offset;