linux-kernel - Re: ATA device reset, shoud I be concerned?

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Message-ID: <20080121172715.0e3e5e4d@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk>
Date:	Mon, 21 Jan 2008 17:27:15 +0000
From:	Alan Cox <alan@...rguk.ukuu.org.uk>
To:	Tejun Heo <htejun@...il.com>
Cc:	Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
	Georgi Chulkov <g.chulkov@...obs-university.de>,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org, linux-ide@...r.kernel.org,
	Mark Lord <liml@....ca>
Subject: Re: ATA device reset, shoud I be concerned?

> I still don't think it's worth the trouble.  There's currently only one
> reported device which forgets to raise IRQ on media error.  The behavior

Most people wouldn't realise what is going on.

> > Old IDE says it works for PATA. For SATA I can see it might need more
> > care and you might simply not be able to get the info.
> 
> Old IDE often locks up the machine hard after timeouts.  I'm all for

The code paths are racy - it didn't use to in 2.4 (except for the promise
drain bug)

> gathering more info but benefit vs. risk equation just doesn't look good
> here.  Why take risk for a rare device which forgets to raise IRQ on
> media error?  If such behavior is wide spread among PATA drives && we
> can verify that TF register access after timeout is safe for PATA
> controllers, sure, but currently we aren't sure about either.

We lose IRQs in lots of other cases. Promise PATA is particularly bad at
forgetting to give us the completion interrupt.

Alan
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