From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S1760594AbYDNNwb (ORCPT ); Mon, 14 Apr 2008 09:52:31 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S1759970AbYDNNwQ (ORCPT ); Mon, 14 Apr 2008 09:52:16 -0400 Received: from caffeine.csclub.uwaterloo.ca ([129.97.134.17]:49802 "EHLO caffeine.csclub.uwaterloo.ca" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1759923AbYDNNwP (ORCPT ); Mon, 14 Apr 2008 09:52:15 -0400 Date: Mon, 14 Apr 2008 09:52:14 -0400 To: Frans Pop Cc: Tejun Heo , linux-ide@vger.kernel.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org, Bartlomiej Zolnierkiewicz Subject: Re: No IDE drivers loaded for Toshiba Satellite 320 CDS Message-ID: <20080414135214.GC7385@csclub.uwaterloo.ca> References: <200804021524.27222.elendil@planet.nl> <200804031947.07674.elendil@planet.nl> <48017248.4030600@gmail.com> <200804131559.21664.elendil@planet.nl> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <200804131559.21664.elendil@planet.nl> User-Agent: Mutt/1.5.13 (2006-08-11) From: lsorense@csclub.uwaterloo.ca (Lennart Sorensen) Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org On Sun, Apr 13, 2008 at 03:59:20PM +0200, Frans Pop wrote: > I totally agree. The problem being discussed here is exactly how to know it > is needed. If you have better suggestions for that, I'd appreciate it. > > As you specifically say "modern controllers", I suspect that the problem is > limited as I guess those are fairly unlikely to be found in machines that > have an ISA bus. > > I also think the way I've implemented in the Debian installer should be > relatively safe: > 1) ide-generic is only loaded _after_ any otherwise detected modules > 2) it is only loaded if an ISA bus is present > 3) it is only included in the initrd for the installed system if loading it > in the installer resulted in additional block devices appearing OK, great for x86 perhaps, what about other systems? > I would unload ide-generic in the installer if no additional block devices > appear, but unfortunately that's not possible as it is marked "permanent". > > By loading it after any other drivers I expect there will be no issues > during the installation (as the other driver will already have claimed the > device). Making sure it is only loaded for the installed system if actually > needed should avoid problems there. > > ATM I can only see this causing problems in systems that need both > ide-generic and some other driver as adding ide-generic in the initrd is > likely to result in it being loaded before that other driver. In the past debian would load ide-generic last. It worked great. Keep doing that. I am not aware of loading ide-generic after all the other drivers ever causing any harm in the older debian installers. > Again, if anyone has a better suggestion how to implement this (preferably > without asking the user whether he has a device that needs ide-generic, > which most users are unlikely to know anyway), I'd appreciate it. I would say just load the generic driver and let it grab whatever other drivers haven't already. If this causes a problem, then there is a kernel bug to be fixed. It shouldn't be the installers problem. After all what happens if ide-generic and all the other drivers are built in rather than modules? If that broke then the kernel already has issues, and as far as I can tell that isn't a problem. So just load it. If it didn't cause any additional ide ports to appear, then you can unload it again. -- Len Sorensen