Re: Increasing IDE Channels

[Bartlomiej Zolnierkiewicz <B.Zolnierkiewicz@elka.pw.edu.pl>]

[ next time please use/cc linux-ide ML ]

On Thursday 08 of July 2004 00:20, John W. Ross wrote:
> Greetings,

Hi,

> Changed ide.h:
>
> IDE_NR_PORTS  (10)
> to
> IDE_NR_PORTS  (12)

You've changed the wrong define.  Bump MAX_HWIFS in <asm/ide.h> instead.

> 1.) Could someone please explain why there is a limit of 10 interfaces (is
> this something that I shouldn't even try)?

- there are no more major numbers assigned for IDE
- for majority people of people it is enough
- IDE driver uses static data structures so higher number of interfaces
  means more memory wasted (if you don't use all of them of course)
- nobody cared

> 2.)What did I miss on moving to 12?

It should work with MAX_HWIFS corrected.

> 3.) I could understand a limit of 12, as hda, hdb, hdc... hdw, hdx, would
> only allow a possible 13th interface, but at 14 you would totally exhaust
> the alphabet, but is that still relevant with the newer method of
> enumerating partitions?

What newer method are you talking about?

Regards,
Bartlomiej