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List:       linux-smp
Subject:    Re: IDE tape and SMP(UP, too) and a CD-RW for fun
From:       "Robert G. Brown" <rgb () phy ! duke ! edu>
Date:       1998-10-28 14:42:29
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On Wed, 28 Oct 1998, Andre M. Hedrick wrote:

> They are already in the 2.1.127-pre-2..........
> 
> This was just a semi-informal introduction..........Since Robert asked
> about about CD-RW's and there are two new guys to help, I let them know
> that they would get an introduction in this fashion.

I should post a very brief summary of the very useful suggestions I
received.  Thanks to all who responded.

The best suggestion was to turn off udma on the hard drive (i.e. that
the CD-RW was not at fault) -- the person who suggested it had
experienced the same symptoms -- drive corruption, failed stat's, and
spontaneous reboots (not more typical hangs).  I'm in the process of
trying it now, but of course it will take time to collect the negative
evidence of no more crashes:-).

I received word that IDE-ATAPI CD-RW's work just fine (in at least a few
cases:-) if ATAPI SCSI emulation is turned on the kernel (with nothing
else specific required).  One respondant said that he had burned lots of
CD's on an IDE-ATAPI CDR without making a single frisbee.

In a week or two I'll report one last time if the UDMA thing works.  If
it does, the specific crash symptoms (spontaneous reboot, corruption,
etc.) should probably make their way into e.g. the smp-faq.  I know that
it isn't strictly an SMP problem, but it is especially important to
identify and differentiate non-SMP problems to SMP users so a "deadlock"
(that is really just a hang due to other causes) doesn't waste the time
of developers.  Not to mention frustrate an SMP user...

    rgb

Robert G. Brown	                       http://www.phy.duke.edu/~rgb/
Duke University Dept. of Physics, Box 90305
Durham, N.C. 27708-0305
Phone: 1-919-660-2567  Fax: 919-660-2525     email:rgb@phy.duke.edu

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