From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S262308AbVAOTJW (ORCPT ); Sat, 15 Jan 2005 14:09:22 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S262311AbVAOTJW (ORCPT ); Sat, 15 Jan 2005 14:09:22 -0500 Received: from hera.cwi.nl ([192.16.191.8]:53923 "EHLO hera.cwi.nl") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S262308AbVAOTJP (ORCPT ); Sat, 15 Jan 2005 14:09:15 -0500 Date: Sat, 15 Jan 2005 20:01:30 +0100 From: Andries Brouwer To: Andrew Morton Cc: Andries Brouwer , bunk@stusta.de, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: Do PS/2 ESDI users exist? Message-ID: <20050115190130.GA8744@apps.cwi.nl> References: <20050108214036.GW14108@stusta.de> <20050108234337.GE6052@pclin040.win.tue.nl> <20050111043220.GB2760@pclin040.win.tue.nl> <20050110204909.2703d7af.akpm@osdl.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20050110204909.2703d7af.akpm@osdl.org> User-Agent: Mutt/1.4i Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Mon, Jan 10, 2005 at 08:49:09PM -0800, Andrew Morton wrote: > Andries Brouwer wrote: > > > > I wonder whether ps2esdi should be removed. > > Does the present driver work for someone? > > Have there been users in this millennium? With 2.3 or later? > > We could mark it CONFIG_BROKEN, leave it six months or so, see if anyone > complains. OK. diff -uprN -X /linux/dontdiff a/drivers/block/Kconfig b/drivers/block/Kconfig --- a/drivers/block/Kconfig 2004-12-29 03:39:44.000000000 +0100 +++ b/drivers/block/Kconfig 2005-01-11 12:35:25.000000000 +0100 @@ -42,7 +42,7 @@ config MAC_FLOPPY config BLK_DEV_PS2 tristate "PS/2 ESDI hard disk support" - depends on MCA && MCA_LEGACY + depends on MCA && MCA_LEGACY && BROKEN help Say Y here if you have a PS/2 machine with a MCA bus and an ESDI hard disk. I hesitated a bit: Just removing something means: we do no longer want to support it. That might happen even when a feature still works. For example, xiafs was removed, but it worked fine. On the other hand, saying that something is broken invites the question "what precisely is broken?", and is an invitation to fix rather than an announcement of an intention to obsolete. Maybe I would prefer just to throw ps2esdi out, and say that 2.2 is the preferred distribution for people who need ps2esdi. As observed earlier, ps2esdi was broken as a module, and the passing of geometry boot parameters is broken. But does it still work with kernels 2.3 or later? I think it does, but failed to verify that. I found an IBM PS/2 model 70-A21 with 8 MB and 120 MB ESDI disk. Tried a few distribution boot floppies to see whether they would boot. Slackware has special ibmmca bootdisks. SW 3.3 - Linux 2.1.43 - boots fine SW 4.0 - Linux 2.2.6 - hangs SW 7.0 - Linux 2.2.13 - boots fine SW 8.1 - Linux 2.4.18 - boots, but every single command is killed by OOM SW 10.0 - Linux 2.4.26 - kernel panic: no 386 supported Then Debian: Woody - Linux 2.2.10 - boots fine, but the rootdisk hangs Sarge - Linux 2.4.27 - does not recognize the ESDI disk, and the rootdisk crashes by OOM. So, good luck with 2.1 and 2.2 kernels, only failures with later kernels. What about other people? The two major Linux/MCA sites were http://glycerine.itsmm.uni.edu/mca (also referenced in Documentation/mca.txt) but it doesnt exist any longer, and http://www.dgmicro.com/mca/, which still exists ("last update: Jan 28 1999"), but the binaries it refers to live on ftp.dgmicro.com, which isn't there anymore. Concerning the speed: I measured this ESDI disk under Linux as transferring 50 kB/s, that is 4% of the speed the IBM specs claim. Also other Linux users complained that the disk is much faster under DOS. Andries