Re: [PATCH #upstream-fixes] libata: assume no device is attached if both IDENTIFYs are aborted

[Mark Lord <liml@rtr.ca>]

Tejun Heo wrote:
> Mark Lord wrote:
>> Tejun Heo wrote:
>> ..
>>> Modify EH such that it assumes no device is attached if both flavors
>>> of IDENTIFY are aborted by the device.  There really isn't much point
>>> in retrying when the device actively aborts the commands.
>> ..
>>
>> And thus dies support for the few very early IDE drives that lacked
>> IDENTIFY.
>>
>> R.I.P.  :)
>>
>> (not that they would have worked with libata in the first place)
> 
> How did they work anyway?  By specifying geometry manually to the
> driver?  I think we can do that.  We just need another cute HORKAGE.
> ATA_HORKAGE_NO_IDENITFY and some massaging around EH to handle it.
> Heh... That's gonna be a silly but fun project.  :-)
..

Geometry from CMOS, BIOS, partition table, or kernel command line.

But I haven't owned one for perhaps 15 years or more,
and they really are NOT WORTH IT in libata -- all of those
nice little ata_id_* macros would be affected.

If one did want to do it, I think the best approach would be to
generate a fake drive ID block, and populate it with suitably
pre-ATA1 era default values.  Then the rest of libata would not
require modifications.

Cheers