From owner-freebsd-hackers Fri Sep 12 16:50:48 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) id QAA19163 for hackers-outgoing; Fri, 12 Sep 1997 16:50:48 -0700 (PDT) Received: from usr04.primenet.com (tlambert@usr04.primenet.com [206.165.6.204]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.7/8.8.7) with ESMTP id QAA19136; Fri, 12 Sep 1997 16:50:34 -0700 (PDT) Received: (from tlambert@localhost) by usr04.primenet.com (8.8.5/8.8.5) id QAA20102; Fri, 12 Sep 1997 16:50:29 -0700 (MST) From: Terry Lambert Message-Id: <199709122350.QAA20102@usr04.primenet.com> Subject: Re: Do *you* have problems with floppies? To: kjk1@ukc.ac.uk Date: Fri, 12 Sep 1997 23:50:29 +0000 (GMT) Cc: hackers@FreeBSD.ORG, questions@FreeBSD.ORG In-Reply-To: from "K.J.Koster" at Sep 12, 97 10:33:27 pm X-Mailer: ELM [version 2.4 PL23] Content-Type: text Sender: owner-freebsd-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk > > The correct way for a multitasking OS to deal with this is *NOT* to > > drop into a buzz loop and to cease being a multitasking OS for the > > duration of the loop, as you are suggesting. > > I agree with you that busy-looping on a device is not the correct way to > go about I/O, and I understand why FreeBSD does not busy-loop. However, we > are not talking about SCSI or IDE drivers, we are talking about a lowly > floppy driver. Busy looping is wrong. It doesn't matter if it's self-defense, it's still wrong. It's maybe justifiable, but justifiability and wrongness are completely orthogonal attributes. > This discussion is about people finding their floppies > trashed by their OS. Hardly `the correct way'. You may have a valid complaint, that FreeBSD did not do the wrong thing, and then rationalize it after the fact to justify doing the wrong thing; OR you may have a vlid complaint that FreeBSD allows you to access the drive when you are loading your system above the timing constraints. > If I look at how I use my floppy drive, I'm usually sitting and waiting > for it to finish anyway, so if my CPU is clocking idle time or system time > makes no difference for me, personally. Then run whatever process at a much higher priority. Problem solved. > FreeBSD has special options for people with broken keyboard resets, > broken APM and broken PCMCIA cards. Why not add another one for unfifo'd > floppy controllers? We have one. It's called "-s". Use this option at the boot prompt. The floppy will function as it did during the problem-free install you reported. Terry Lambert terry@lambert.org --- Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present or previous employers.