From owner-freebsd-stable Sat Nov 20 17: 9:33 1999 Delivered-To: freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Received: from smtp2.vnet.net (smtp2.vnet.net [166.82.1.32]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5B9FE159A4 for ; Sat, 20 Nov 1999 17:09:20 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from rivers@dignus.com) Received: from dignus.com (ponds.vnet.net [166.82.177.48]) by smtp2.vnet.net (8.9.1a/8.9.1) with ESMTP id UAA11051; Sat, 20 Nov 1999 20:09:15 -0500 (EST) Received: from lakes.dignus.com (lakes.dignus.com [10.0.0.3]) by dignus.com (8.9.2/8.8.5) with ESMTP id UAA06538; Sat, 20 Nov 1999 20:09:14 -0500 (EST) Received: (from rivers@localhost) by lakes.dignus.com (8.9.3/8.6.9) id UAA14901; Sat, 20 Nov 1999 20:09:13 -0500 (EST) Date: Sat, 20 Nov 1999 20:09:13 -0500 (EST) From: Thomas David Rivers Message-Id: <199911210109.UAA14901@lakes.dignus.com> To: chad@DCFinc.com, freebsd-stable@freebsd.org Subject: Re: Toshiba laptop lawsuit In-Reply-To: <199911210034.RAA23624@freeway.dcfinc.com> Sender: owner-freebsd-stable@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG > > Does anyone on this list have more information? Is the fault on the > laptop real? Who developed the FreeBSD patch, and what does it do? > Is it open source? > > -crl The "problem" is real; and exists on just about all Toshiba laptops. In a nutshell: o) According to an article in Var Business magazine, Toshiba purchased a FDC design from Nec many years ago - incorporating the controller into other components. o) Shortly after the incorporation of the FDC, Nec discovered that the floppy drive can have a one-byte failure under certain rare circumstances. o) The Nec controller was corrected and Toshiba was notified. o) However, in Toshiba's testing, the error never occurred. Toshiba did not alter their controller. o) The lawsuit was settled out of court. o) Toshiba notes that an error has never been reported, and it would be quite unlikely; but wanted to settle to avoid the potential of a large payment should the suit go to a jury trial. As I understand it, notebooks made after mid-november now have the correction. - Dave Rivers - To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-stable" in the body of the message