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Date:      Sun, 12 Jan 2003 11:19:31 -0800 (PST)
From:      "James J. Ramsey" <jjramsey_6x9eq42@yahoo.com>
To:        freebsd-bugs@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: Semirandom bug in FreeBSD's ATA querying
Message-ID:  <20030112191931.26473.qmail@web10703.mail.yahoo.com>
In-Reply-To: <20030112183638.I5726-100000@gamplex.bde.org>

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--- Bruce Evans <bde@zeta.org.au> wrote:
> 
> Actually, it is indicative of a timing bug, which
> may be
> in either the hardware or the driver but is most
> likely
> in the hardware. Linux and the old FreeBSD driver
> (wd)
> have more compatibility cruft including delays to
> support broken drives. 

You are probably right about it being a timing bug,
although I'm not sure how that explains why FreeBSD
gets correct, or at least consistent, results for the
sector and head counts. (Only the cylinder count, disk
capacity, and name are garbage under FreeBSD.)

As far as the bug being in the hardware, I call
bullsh*t. The drive I have has worked fine under
several version of Linux, Win98, and WinXP. It is a
very ordinary drive from a non-obscure, major
manufacturer. This is not the picture of a "broken
drive." The only ATA driver that chokes on the drive
is FreeBSD's. That suggests that what is broken is the
driver, not the drive. Saying that the Linux driver
works because it has "more compatibility cruft" is no
excuse. The ATA standard is crufty by nature. If an
ATA driver can't properly drive an ATA device because
it doesn't have the requisite cruft, that suggests
that the driver is incomplete.

> Try adding some delays near
> the broken command.
> 
> From ata-all.c:

I can't do that. Classic Catch-22: I can only make and
compile in those changes if I had a working FreeBSD
system, but with this ATA driver problem, I can't have
a working FreeBSD system.


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