From owner-freebsd-firewire@FreeBSD.ORG Tue Feb 3 05:53:07 2009 Return-Path: Delivered-To: freebsd-firewire@freebsd.org Received: from mx1.freebsd.org (mx1.freebsd.org [IPv6:2001:4f8:fff6::34]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id D7B53106564A for ; Tue, 3 Feb 2009 05:53:07 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from sean.bruno@dsl-only.net) Received: from iron2.pdx.net (iron2.pdx.net [69.64.224.71]) by mx1.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9B3D78FC08 for ; Tue, 3 Feb 2009 05:53:07 +0000 (UTC) (envelope-from sean.bruno@dsl-only.net) Received: (qmail 14875 invoked from network); 2 Feb 2009 21:53:06 -0800 Received: from 069-064-235-060.pdx.net (HELO ?192.168.1.51?) (69.64.235.60) by iron2.pdx.net with SMTP; 2 Feb 2009 21:53:05 -0800 From: Sean Bruno To: freebsd@sopwith.solgatos.com In-Reply-To: <200902030351.DAA09252@sopwith.solgatos.com> References: <200902030351.DAA09252@sopwith.solgatos.com> Content-Type: text/plain Date: Mon, 02 Feb 2009 21:53:06 -0800 Message-Id: <1233640386.8067.18.camel@localhost.localdomain> Mime-Version: 1.0 X-Mailer: Evolution 2.24.3 (2.24.3-1.fc10) Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Cc: freebsd-firewire@freebsd.org Subject: Re: firewire disk support? X-BeenThere: freebsd-firewire@freebsd.org X-Mailman-Version: 2.1.5 Precedence: list List-Id: Firewire support in FreeBSD List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , X-List-Received-Date: Tue, 03 Feb 2009 05:53:08 -0000 On Mon, 2009-02-02 at 19:51 +0000, Dieter wrote: > How well does FreeBSD support firewire disks? > Does hotplugging work properly? > Does a bus reset endanger data? > Can I turn the disk write cache on and off? > Can I access SMART info? > How fast are they? > Specific firewire-to-sata bridges that are recommended? > Specific bridges to avoid? > Any known problems? > > I have a couple of USB-to-*ATA bridges and they are slow, > and they don't allow turning the disk's write cache off, > or access to SMART info. I know that firewire will be > slower than esata, but the USB ones are really slow > (10-15 MB/s) and not being able to turn the write cache > on and off is a serious problem. Excellent questions all. Here is what I know: FreeBSD firewire drives 400/800 do work just fine. hotplug works much better now after a comitt to HEAD.(187993) -- Some of which will be MFC'd to 7 soon BUS_RESET's should behave fine, more data validation testing should be done. Caching and SMART do not work. SBP doesn't pass through these commands yet. TODO Disk speed on my Seagates in an FW800 enclosure do nicely ~40MB/s My Firewire-SATA bridge: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.aspx?Item=N82E16817716028 Bridges/enclosures to avoid? Unknown. Known problems? If a enclosure is 400/800, your BSD box is 400/800 capable and you connect the 400 ports together, negotiation will fail and attempt to use 800 speed on a 400 link. I don't know if BSD is bootable from firewire either. Hope this helps. Sean