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From: Terry Lambert <terry@lambert.org>
Newsgroups: comp.unix.bsd.freebsd.misc
Subject: Re: Does 2.1R support 4x ATAPIs?
Date: Wed, 07 Aug 1996 15:54:01 -0700
Organization: Me
Lines: 60
Message-ID: <32091E89.1F073E3E@lambert.org>
References: <4tp20n$ao9@maui.cc.odu.edu> <SCOTT.96Aug2131630@crux.dcs.qmw.ac.uk> <avg.839238744@news.cwi.nl> <SCOTT.96Aug6125416@crux.dcs.qmw.ac.uk> <avg.839413150@news.cwi.nl>
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Annius Groenink wrote:
] scott@dcs.qmw.ac.uk (Scott Mitchell) writes:
] >Slagging off the whole OS on the basis of one flaky driver is
] >a little extreme don't you think? FreeBSD is produced by
] >volunteers who don't have time to support every piece of
] >brain-damaged hardware that exists out there.
]
] Maybe I was exaggerating; but I don't think that a standard IDE
] CDROM is `a piece of brain-damaged hardware'. The CDROM I was
] talking about simply _doesn't contain any_ driver for an IDE
] CDROM as master on the second channel (or whatever).
You apparently don't know much about IDE CDROM's... did you know
(for instance) that an IDE CDROM works by pushing SCSI command
frames over an IDE interface?
A "standard IDE CDROM" does not exist. There is too much leeway
in the ATAPI specification for vendors to implement "standard"
hardware which doest happen to work with other vendors drivers.
This is why IDE CDROM drives come with drivers.
Unfortunately, vendor-supplied drivers can't be used in free OS
systems, since vendors don't write drivers for them.
The "master" IDE CDROM support is not compiled in by default
because the probe for the IDE CDROM can cause some IDE hard
drives to malfunction. You can compile it in if you want after
you have installed.
Per the installation notes, you should:
1) mount the CD under DOS
2) Copy sufficient files to the DOS partition to install
BSD to the point you can rebuild a kernel
3) Install BSD to the point you can rebuild a kernel, by
using "install from local disk" and mounting the DOS
partition *read only* (how to do this is in the notes)
4) reboot with the new kernel. Mount the IDE CDROM
on the second master normally
5) Finish the install
-OR-
1) Rejumper your IDE CDROM drive for the install
2) (optional) perform step #3 above, rejumper the drive
back to master, and perform step #4 above
For what it's worth: the IDE CDROM probe screws up some IDE
drives because the IDE interface is pretty badly defined as
well, and leaves plenty of leeway for broken implementations.
For instance IDE "master" disk drives from one manufacturer
can cause IDE "slave" drives from another, on the same controller,
to fail to operate (yes, even Wester Digital drives have this
problem).
Terry Lambert
terry@lambert.org
---
Any opinions in this posting are my own and not those of my present
or previous employers.