linux-kernel - Re: floppy driver assumes INITIAL

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Message-ID: <alpine.LFD.2.00.1006031455280.8175@i5.linux-foundation.org>
Date:	Thu, 3 Jun 2010 14:58:17 -0700 (PDT)
From:	Linus Torvalds <torvalds@...ux-foundation.org>
To:	Stephen Hemminger <shemminger@...tta.com>
cc:	Andrew Morton <akpm@...ux-foundation.org>,
	Alan Cox <alan@...rguk.ukuu.org.uk>,
	linux-kernel@...r.kernel.org
Subject: Re: floppy driver assumes INITIAL_JIFFIES == 0

On Thu, 3 Jun 2010, Stephen Hemminger wrote:
>
> It seems it isn't related to initial jiffies. 
> Initializing the values (though a good idea), doesn't solve the
> problem. Still failed.  So dazed and confused, went back and reran
> kernel with jiffies=0 showed same problem, just took multiple boots
> to reproduce.

Ahh, ok. That really ends up limiting us. At least having a "it's related 
to jiffy wraparound" was a big clue. 

> So still a race that shows up with KVM (fast floppy?) and manifests
> as floppy_ready or reset_interrupt OOPS.

Yes, it's quite possible that the Linux floppy driver is simply broken by 
any floppy device that basically responds immediately to a command with an 
interrupt. And considering how few people use floppies, I do expect that 
driver to get _worse_ rather than better in the future.

Don't get me wrong - I'm sure it could be fixed. I'm just not sure that 
anybody is going to spend the effort.

I'd love to be proven wrong. Anybody?

		Linus
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