ATA APM and NCQ support in FreeBSD atacontrol

[Jeremy Chadwick]

On Mon, May 12, 2008 at 03:36:50AM -0400, jonathan at kc8onw.net wrote:
> On Mon, May 12, 2008 03:23, Jeremy Chadwick wrote:
> > On Mon, May 12, 2008 at 03:16:10AM -0400, jonathan at kc8onw.net wrote:
> >> ataidle is easy enough to find, I won't deny, but why make users do the
> >>  google search and install a port when there is (what looks to me) a
> >> fairly simple patch that can be added to the base system.  Either way it
> >> would be good to get the PR closed one way or the other considering the
> >> backlog...
> >
> > There are a "decent" number of PRs pertaining to ATA/SATA stuff in
> > FreeBSD, some going back over 2 years which fix very severe bugs in RAID
> > (see my Common Issues list for examples).
> 
> Where is this list?  I did a quick search but couldn't find it.

http://wiki.freebsd.org/JeremyChadwick/Commonly_reported_issues

> > Your cries are heard by some, but I'm left believing Soren is just super
> > busy with real life.  I consider this even more justification that the ATA
> > layer in FreeBSD needs additional eyes familiar with it, and not just a
> > single person.
> 
> No argument here.  Soren does an incredible job maintaining ATA as it is
> and I am very grateful that he has put as much of his time into the
> project as he has.  (Thanks Soren!)

I am too, but PRs that are 2 years old which include patches for severe
bugs that affect reliability of RAID is (in my opinion) not acceptable.
I've been spanked over saying this before ("you don't understand how
open source works"), but necessity easily supercedes idealism.

Linux's libata has evolved very quickly and very well, and has multiple
eyes familiar with the code (in the case the author takes vacation,
etc.).  It has the upper hand here.

-- 
| Jeremy Chadwick                                jdc at parodius.com |
| Parodius Networking                       http://www.parodius.com/ |
| UNIX Systems Administrator                  Mountain View, CA, USA |
| Making life hard for others since 1977.              PGP: 4BD6C0CB |