usb/umass, devfs: this sucks

[Warren Block]

On Wed, 26 Dec 2007, Paul Schmehl wrote:

> --On December 25, 2007 10:25:08 PM -0800 David Benfell 
> <benfell at parts-unknown.org> wrote:
>
>> On Wed, 26 Dec 2007 00:38:11 -0500, Mikhail Teterin wrote:
>>> 
>>> If we want people to give FreeBSD a try in good faith, it is both
>>> profoundly  stupid and dishonest on our part to claim, we have a
>>> working USB-system... It  does not matter, how great our buffer-sharing
>>> VM is, if a home user can't  process their photos with a
>>> FreeBSD-powered computer.
>
> To the OP of this thread - generalized statements like this aren't very 
> helpful.  I have a USB  mouse and a USB keyboard, both of which work fine and 
> always have.

Well, me too, and a USB scanner which works well.  But I understand the 
frustration.

Lately, I was trying to use a card reader with a too-long USB cable. 
Not only did that not work, but it could slow the system down to nothing 
or panic it.  Fixed with a powered hub...

It seems like we need another kind of storage, something that is known 
to be only mostly data-safe.  If the system would gracefully handle 
unexpected media removals, that would be nice.  Not everything is a 
trustworthy hard drive.

The user ought to be able to tell the system "Yes, da0s1 is an msdos 
filesystem which I'm going to be yanking out at unexpected times.  Yes, 
I know it might lose some data, but at least figure things out and don't 
panic."

-Warren Block * Rapid City, South Dakota USA