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Date:      Thu, 23 May 2019 06:34:23 +0000
From:      bugzilla-noreply@freebsd.org
To:        scsi@FreeBSD.org
Subject:   [Bug 202712] [cam] [ata] System doesn't recognize older hdd after boot
Message-ID:  <bug-202712-5313-N2QMhI5OLe@https.bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/>
In-Reply-To: <bug-202712-5313@https.bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/>
References:  <bug-202712-5313@https.bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/>

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https://bugs.freebsd.org/bugzilla/show_bug.cgi?id=3D202712

Scott Long <scottl@FreeBSD.org> changed:

           What    |Removed                     |Added
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                 CC|                            |scottl@FreeBSD.org

--- Comment #39 from Scott Long <scottl@FreeBSD.org> ---
The code in sys/cam/ata is generic protocol and transport support for all
devices.  The code in sys/dev/ata is controller-specific drivers.  In simple
terms, adding CHS support would happen in sys/cam/ata.

I have mixed feelings on adding CHS support.  As others have mentioned, it's
ancient, and it's nearly impossible for people to test.  It would exist as a
poorly tested codepath that would be prone to accidental breakage.  The cos=
t of
keeping it working, in terms of equipment procurement and operation, would
likely outweigh the benefit.

It looks like Amazon has a PCIe add-in card for ATA/IDE, but I haven't owne=
d a
working ATA drive in almost 10 years, and I probably haven't owned a functi=
onal
CHS-only drive in at least 20 years.   I have no idea where I'd get one, ot=
her
than to buy batches of them off of Ebay and hope to find some that work.  2=
0+
years is a long time for a hard drive, even in the best of circumstances.=20
Moisture will invade the platter cavity through the breather hole.  Lubrica=
tion
will slowly evaporate off of spindle and armature joints and redeposit itse=
lf
onto the platters and heads.  Capacitors on the circuit board will slowly l=
eak,
and copper and aluminum connectors and traces will corrode.  I'm impressed =
that
you have a working 400MiB drive, that's a 25 year old drive at this point. =
 I'd
worry that it would stop working in the near future.

If I were to build a rig to operate a CHS-era IDE drive (or any ATA/IDE dri=
ve
for that matter), it would be solely to recover and archive the drive data =
to
modern storage.  For that, I'd use software that supported the use-case.  If
that means using an older version of FreeBSD, or using Linux, I'd do that.=
=20
It's such a niche use case that I'd spend considerably more time resurrecti=
ng
and testing CHS code than I'd spend actually recovering the data, and that's
just not an interesting use of my time.

If there's community interest in supporting CHS long-term in FreeBSD, my
recommendation is to create a IDE-CHS specific transport in CAM that lives
alongside the ATA/SATA support, but does not rely on it.  This probably mea=
ns
copying sys/cam/ata/ata_xpt.c to sys/cam/ata/ide_xpt.c, removing the
SATA-specific logic in it, and adding in the IDE and CHS specific logic.  N=
ice,
clean, and isolated so that it's less likely to be accidentally broken, and
people working on SATA aren't likely to trip on it.  This would probably be=
 a
week of work at most, assuming that test hardware is available.

--=20
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