Date: Sun, 23 Jul 2000 00:18:33 -0700 (PDT) From: Matthew Jacob <mjacob@feral.com> To: Mike Smith <msmith@FreeBSD.ORG> Cc: "R. D. Davis" <rdd@smart.net>, freebsd-questions@FreeBSD.ORG, freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: Legacy Device Support (Was RE: No help...) Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.4.10.10007230012180.53144-100000@beppo.feral.com> In-Reply-To: <200007230713.AAA12925@mass.osd.bsdi.com>
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There's an open PR about SCSI-1 support that may somewhat pertinent to this and Exabyte 8200s (Greg Lehey had this issue and I asked him to file a PR)- older 8200 f/w pumps out pre-CCS mode pages that we don't grok at all- I didn't catch the front end of this mail thread. It's possible that with a 1542B (which is *really* buggy) and a very old 8200 this person is in bad shape. If there's a problem with the tape can rdd contact me directly with the precise details? sorry if I missed it earlier, and no, I'm too busy to scan the archives, but based upon their input, and the PR I asked Grog to file, I can decide whether to move that fix up the request stack or not. Also- if it was a SCSI tape issue, it's been being discussed on the wrong mail list. On Sun, 23 Jul 2000, Mike Smith wrote: > > > > Firstly, I'm using relatively new hardware, less than two years old; > > the motherboard, which I paid a lot more for than the typical generic > > clone board, is manufactured by Mainboard, which was one of the few > > boards at the time whose manufacturer guaranteed it to work with > > FreeBSD. > > Which model, just out of curiosity? > > > The SCSI controller, an Adaptec 1542B, and one of the tape > > The 1542B is certainly more than two years old; you haven't been able to > buy anything older than the C for more like three or four years now. > > > drives, an Exabyte 8200, are relatively standard - not new, but not > > The 8200 was discontinued around 1993, IIRC. (Someone will probably > correct me here.) > > > I can see support being dropped for things like video and sound cards, > > and even ethernet boards, however, dropping support for _tapes_ that > > were written using older version of the OS seems more than peculiar. > > What makes you think that support for any tapes has been dropped? Please > supply your source of evidence suggesting that, in particular the 8200 > (of which FTL has at least one still functional example) has been somehow > desupported. > > Note that as with any Exabyte product, you *MUST* be running mainline > firmware. There are several *hundred* different firmware combinations > (initiator, servo, you name it) for the 8200, and some of these are > *intentionally* broken for specific vendors. > > > Making stored data itself obsolete is not a good thing for the > > reputation of any operating system, and dropping support for relatively > > standard tape drives, even if they're not the latest and greatest, > > doesn't make much sense to me. > > Of course it doesn't. Claiming that such a thing has been done in public > in front of people that know better doesn't make much sense to me either. > > -- > ... every activity meets with opposition, everyone who acts has his > rivals and unfortunately opponents also. But not because people want > to be opponents, rather because the tasks and relationships force > people to take different points of view. [Dr. Fritz Todt] > > > > > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org > with "unsubscribe freebsd-hardware" in the body of the message > To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hardware" in the body of the message
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