device atapicam not enabled in GENERIC kernel for FreeBSD 6.0-RELEASE

[Duane Whitty]

On Sunday 05 March 2006 17:31, Kris 
Kennaway wrote:
> On Sun, Mar 05, 2006 at 05:12:36PM 
-0400, Duane Whitty wrote:
> > On Saturday 04 March 2006 17:30,
> > Kris
> >
> > Kennaway wrote:
> > > On Sat, Mar 04, 2006 at
> > > 05:26:37PM
> >
> > -0400, Duane Whitty wrote:
> > > > Hi,
> > > >
> > > > Just wondering if anyone has
> > > > any information/opinion as to
> > > > why device atapicam is not
> > > > enabled by default in the
> > > > GENERIC kernel.
> > >
> > > It's not an appropriate default,
> > > since it modifies the way the ata
> > > subsystem works in ways the
> > > maintainer does not wish to
> > > support,
> >
> > Sorry, but do you mean the ata
> > subsystem maintainer or the
> > atapicam maintainer?
>
> The former.
>
> > Is atapicam part of the base?
>
> Yes.
>
> >  I was
> > under the impression it implements
> > an abstracted SCSI interface over
> > the ata device subsystem but maybe
> > I'm not adequately understanding
> > what's really happening.
>
> As the name suggests, it provides a
> CAM front-end to the devices, which
> is the same front-end used by the
> SCSI devices, so tools that expect to
> use CAM can work on the ATA devices
> too.
>
Ah, ok -- CAM -- common access method.  
I'm getting this

> > Just an observation but it seems as
> > though there is a great deal of use
> > being made of the atapicam
> > subsystem. I noticed for instance
> > that in addition to /dev/cd0 that
> > /dev/pass0 and /dev/da0 also did
> > not show up until I rebuilt with
> > atapicam or did I just miss them?
>
> The equivalent devices have different
> names under atapicam than ata, but
> why do you think they are necessary?
>
because I misunderstood what umass 
needed and I inappropriately 
generalized on the basis of one port 
(k3b)

> > Unless I'm wrong doesn't this mean
> > that usb drives and those types of
> > devices need the atapicam
> > subsystem?
>
> I suspect you're wrong.
>
> Kris
>
Hi,

Thanks Kris.  Your suspicions were 
correct.  I was wrong.  I re-read the 
man pages for da, pass, and umass, and 
nowhere did it say I needed atapicam.  
So thanks for pointing me in the right 
direction.

I rebooted with the GENERIC kernel, 
plugged in my usb memory device, and 
everything worked great.

The k3b port required this and I suppose 
I generalized when I should not have.

Again, much thanks.

--Duane