From owner-freebsd-questions Mon Apr 22 02:21:00 1996 Return-Path: owner-questions Received: (from root@localhost) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) id CAA24392 for questions-outgoing; Mon, 22 Apr 1996 02:21:00 -0700 (PDT) Received: from nixpbe.pdb.sni.de (mail.sni.de [192.109.2.33]) by freefall.freebsd.org (8.7.3/8.7.3) with ESMTP id CAA24376 for ; Mon, 22 Apr 1996 02:20:46 -0700 (PDT) Received: (from nerv@localhost) by nixpbe.pdb.sni.de (8.6.12/8.6.12) id LAA06729 for questions@FreeBSD.ORG; Mon, 22 Apr 1996 11:20:20 +0200 Message-Id: <199604220920.LAA06729@nixpbe.pdb.sni.de> Subject: Re: Atapi IDE cdrom support To: msmith@atrad.adelaide.edu.au (Michael Smith) Date: Mon, 22 Apr 96 11:19:18 MDT From: Greg Lehey Cc: wbart3@ktb.net, questions@FreeBSD.ORG In-Reply-To: <199604220817.RAA01739@genesis.atrad.adelaide.edu.au>; from "Michael Smith" at Apr 22, 96 5:47 pm X-Mailer: xmail 2.4 (based on ELM 2.2 PL16) Sender: owner-questions@FreeBSD.ORG X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk Mike Smith claims: > > Bill Bartley stands accused of saying: >> >> I've been running Linux for sometime, and would like to give FreeBSD >> a try. But-I have an Atapi IDE cdrom. Linux has supported this >> type of cdrom drive for over a year, yet your latest version, 2.1, >> describes its support of this type of drive as being of "alph" >> quality. > > Many people are using the FreeBSD ATAPI driver with no > problems at all, however because it doesn't work with the vast majority > of drives, and hasn't been heavily tested, it's generally considered > wise to mention this up front. Is this correct? I thought that most did work, and that it was an exception--unfortunately, a too common one--to find a drive that didn't work. Isn't it about time to get a list of drives which are known to work? Lots of people find themselves in the situation of wanting to buy a CD-ROM drive, and for one reason or another they can't buy SCSI. It would be nice to be able to say which do (and which do not) work. Who is using ATAPI? I'm not, but I have a colleague here who installed 2.1-release with a drive whose name he has forgotten, but which he will report to me tomorrow. >> I was wondering when this situation will be corrected. Atapi IDE >> cdrom drives are not exactly new technology. > > Calling ATAPI drives "technology" of any sort is a bit of a joke. OK, so ATAPI is currently buggy, but in fact they're quite high-tech devices. It's just a reflection of the market that they're so unreliable. Greg