Re: ata mode at startup

From: Søren Schmidt <sos_at_freebsd.org>
Date: Fri, 23 May 2008 17:44:16 +0200
On 23May, 2008, at 16:43 , Julian Stacey wrote:

> phoemix_at_harmless.hu wrote:
>> Hello,
>> As known, FreeBSD sets the highest supported ATA mode, but  
>> sometimes it's
>> inproper, since the disk fails to work in this mode. This will be  
>> obsolate =
>> by
>> recent SATA drives, but PATA is still in use :)
>> I've though of the possibility of adding an "atamodetab" rc script,  
>> with wh=
>> ich
>> the administrator could specify the disk modes to set on startup.
> ......^^^^^^^^^^^^^ ....
>
> No good waiting for an admin to manually edit a table:
> An admin cant edit till FreeBSD boots.
> FreeBSD fails to boot on some older laptops eg
> 	http://www.berklix.com/~jhs/hardware/digital/
> 	http://www.berklix.com/~jhs/hardware/laptops/ 
> dell_latitude_xpi_p133st/
> unless one pre-knows FreeBSD magic like 	
> 	loader.conf hw.ata.ata_dma=0
> 	http://www.berklix.com/~jhs/hardware/laptops/#loader.conf
>
> A table in src/ that would automatically recognise flakey ATA hardware
> & reduce ambitious FreeBSD so it could boot, would be nice.

It would also be impossible to maintain, thats why the current knobs  
are there, if DMA fails you boot in "safe" mode ie PIO and then you  
can experiment to your hearts content what your flakey HW can take.

-Søren
Received on Fri May 23 2008 - 13:57:08 UTC

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