Re: RFC: [2.6 patch] let BLK_DEV_UB depend on EMBEDDED

[Matthew Dharm <mdharm-kernel@one-eyed-alien.net>]

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On Sun, Dec 19, 2004 at 10:37:23PM -0800, Pete Zaitcev wrote:
> On Sun, 19 Dec 2004 22:20:55 -0800, Matthew Dharm <mdharm-kernel@one-eyed-alien.net> wrote:
> 
> > I can tell you that this has turned into the single largest source of bug
> > reports/complaints about usb-storage.  Something has to be done.  I just
> > don't know what.
> 
> Is it that bad, really? Honestly, I could not imagine users can be so dumb.

'There are more things in Heaven and Earth, Horatio...."

Yes, users can be so dumb.  Commonly, the exchange goes like this:

USER: My device used to work in 2.6.7, and now it's busted.
US: Please turn on debugging and send us the logs.
USER: (sends dmesg which shows ub in use)
US: Turn off CONFIG_BLK_DEV_UB
USER: It works!  You should make it more clear that UB breaks things...

And that's the optimal case.  Often times they cut the dmesg so we can't
see what's wrong.  And this usually takes 3 days for the entire exchange.

> The option defaults to off. There is a warning in the Kconfig. And yet they
> first enable it and then complain about it. I don't know what to do about
> it, either.

The best idea I have is to hide CONFIG_BLK_DEV_UB behind
CONFIG_EXPERIMENTAL.

The next-best idea I have is to make UB print out some sort of warning
message at startup.

Neither of these ideas is very good, I'll admit.

Matt

-- 
Matthew Dharm                              Home: mdharm-usb@one-eyed-alien.net 
Maintainer, Linux USB Mass Storage Driver

A:  The most ironic oxymoron wins ...
DP: "Microsoft Works"
A:  Uh, okay, you win.
					-- A.J. & Dust Puppy
User Friendly, 1/18/1998

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