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Date:      Tue, 19 Jan 1999 10:31:22 -0500 (EST)
From:      "Bruce M. Walter" <walter@fortean.com>
To:        Doug Rabson <dfr@nlsystems.com>
Cc:        "Justin T. Gibbs" <gibbs@narnia.plutotech.com>, alpha@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: AHC/WD driver status...
Message-ID:  <Pine.BSF.3.95q.990119095402.20711A-100000@callisto.fortean.com>
In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.4.01.9901190954340.40696-100000@herring.nlsystems.com>

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First off, while I'm getting these messages directly in email and am
a member of -alpha I *DON'T* get them via the list, although all other
-lists are fine for me.  Odd...

JG> Getting the 2940 to work shouldn't be too hard.  I'll take a crack at
JG> it later this week.  It should be just a matter of finishing off some
JG> of the bus dma stuff in the driver and I've been meaning to do that
JG> for some time.

DR> I don't know if the firmware can support it though which would make it
DR> useless as a boot device (it would work after boot though).  What does
DR> the firmware say when you type 'show config'?

I know this sucker won't EVER boot from the ahc.  I am however lucky
enough to have it recognize the IDE drive from the SRM so I could install
NetBSD-current.  As far as it goes, I was considering working on a couple
of the areas where I'm having probslems:  Primarily, using Linux's
PALcode/ahc enabled boot loader from ARC to start FreeBSD.  It was
mentioned as being a possibility, and since I have the need...

The key of course would be having a recognized drive someplace where 
FreeBSD could live.  I guess things will be easier when my QLogic card
arrives.

DR> It would be possible to hammer a pio-only port of wdc into the alpha
DR> but I don't know when that can happen.  It has to be moved to the
DR> new-bus framework soon anyway for Garret's i386 isa renovation
DR> project.  We'll see.

I had surmised as much.  While I'm glad to see that's the thrust, I'd hate
to see it be the only stone rolling.  If you take a step back and look at
what the CAM stuff did for 3.0, it's great.  The problem for me (and alot
of others) is that some fairly popular devices haven't been CAMified yet. 
(aic and amd, but I'm not pointing fingers ;)

What I'm specifically getting at is my feeling that IDE support would let
people take better advantage of their alpha machines to further the port
and that even if it is analagous to the old SCSI layer vs. CAM it should
be out there if it's not *too* much work.  It would definitely help me
contribute to the port if there was a way to hang cheap IDE drives on my
alpha for development purposes.  This is, of course, only a valid posit if
Garrett's atapi work is fairly far from culmination. 

Not wanting to dish up work for others ;)  I'm going to try to take a look
at what would be involved in hammering some sort of IDE support in, even
if it's destined to go away soon.  I've got Linux and NetBSD on the box
now and to be honest, between those two I'm ready to pull my hair out ;)

Any pointers?

- B

______________________
Bruce M. Walter, Principal 
NIXdesign Group Inc.

426 S. Dawson Street 
Raleigh NC 27601 USA 
919.829.4901 Tel 
919.829.4993 Fax 
http://www.nixdesign.com

Visual communications | concept + code 



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