Date: Wed, 30 Sep 1998 13:04:59 -0500 From: Karl Denninger <karl@Denninger.Net> To: Tom <tom@uniserve.com> Cc: Dan Nelson <dnelson@emsphone.com>, Alfred Perlstein <bright@hotjobs.com>, current@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Long IDE probes? Message-ID: <19980930130459.A4393@Denninger.Net> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.4.02A.9809301055290.7309-100000@shell.uniserve.ca>; from Tom on Wed, Sep 30, 1998 at 11:00:45AM -0700 References: <19980930125458.A4304@Denninger.Net> <Pine.BSF.4.02A.9809301055290.7309-100000@shell.uniserve.ca>
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On Wed, Sep 30, 1998 at 11:00:45AM -0700, Tom wrote: > > On Wed, 30 Sep 1998, Karl Denninger wrote: > Yes, newer machines. The BIOS doesn't need to do that. I have a CDROM > in an older machine here, and the BIOS doesn't grok it at all. Basically, > the BIOS display is informational only (except for the boot disk). Yes, and so waiting 30 seconds for an IDE probe does exactly what? Do you know of any IDE device which requires 30 seconds to come ready and be able to be probed? > > The point is that once the BIOS has taken the delay for spin-up, sent START > > commands to SCSI disks, etc., waiting AGAIN is a waste of time. > > Hehe... that is pretty funny. I have a system here that will refuse to > start after a power-start because the BIOS can't find the boot disk > because it hasn't come ready yet. It is a SCSI disk, and the SCSI adaptor > has probed it. I need to warm-boot the system at the "Please insert boot > disk" message, and then it will boot from the hd. The point is that once the BIOS has found the disk and *booted from it*, you then *KNOW* that it is available and online (duh!). Second, the delay on the SCSI side is only for the disk to respond to an inquiry - as long as that happens the rest will be ok. > > Are the delay lengths reasonable? I don't know. Aren't there specs on > > this stuff from the IDE and SCSI camps? > > The IDE delays just don't exist if you don't bother probing for devices > that aren't there. The IDE delays are far, far too long, unless someone can convince me that *after booting* a device would require *another* 30 seconds to come ready (remember, we're talking after power-on, not from the time the kernel is done loading). > The SCSI delay is 10 seconds. It used to be 5. -- -- Karl Denninger (karl@denninger.net) http://www.mcs.net/~karl I ain't even *authorized* to speak for anyone other than myself, so give up now on trying to associate my words with any particular organization. To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message
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