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Date:      Sat, 4 Oct 2003 10:35:55 +0200
From:      Bernd Walter <ticso@cicely12.cicely.de>
To:        "Christoph P. Kukulies" <kuku@physik.rwth-aachen.de>
Cc:        ticso@cicely.de
Subject:   Re: total hang when cu -l /dev/cuaa0
Message-ID:  <20031004083554.GP886@cicely12.cicely.de>
In-Reply-To: <20031004082548.GA9168@gilberto.physik.rwth-aachen.de>
References:  <200310031821.h93ILSVI001295@www.kukulies.org> <20031003201507.GK886@cicely12.cicely.de> <20031003212334.GA2076@gilberto.physik.rwth-aachen.de> <20031003213628.GN886@cicely12.cicely.de> <20031004082548.GA9168@gilberto.physik.rwth-aachen.de>

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On Sat, Oct 04, 2003 at 10:25:48AM +0200, Christoph P. Kukulies wrote:
> On Fri, Oct 03, 2003 at 11:36:29PM +0200, Bernd Walter wrote:
> > You can't expect anything reliable from a device which is broken.
> > The kernel already warned you that something seems to be questionable.
> > In the same way you can't expect getting an IO error if someone cuts
> > into your computer with a chainsaw - you may get one, but nobody can
> > predict.
> 
> A device disabled by the BIOS should not be accessible in any way
> by the kernel. It's not broken nor has anyone cut the devices with a chainsaw.
> I don't read dmesg before I try to open /dev/cuaa0.
> 
> So an open on /dev/cuaa0 when sio is disabled in the BIOS should not result
> in a bad hangup. That's my point.

If it really is disabled then you would not have a /dev/cuaa0 to open
and you would see a correct error when trying to do.
The point is that the kernel sees partially disabled hardware.
A device that is something between enabled and disabled cause
unpredicable behavour - it's a completely undefined situation.
The easiest way is to disable the device in the kernel too.

-- 
B.Walter                   BWCT                http://www.bwct.de
ticso@bwct.de                                  info@bwct.de



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