Re: Kernel bug crashing in HDIO_DRIVE_TASKFILE

[Robert Hancock <hancockrwd@gmail.com>]

Norman Diamond wrote:
> Robert Hancock wrote:
>> Norman Diamond wrote:
>>> [attribution stolen:]
>>>
>>>> Libata should be used for any new setup that doesn't have a strict 
>>>> legacy requirement now.
>>>
>>> 90% agreed.  However, I've read that libata will never support add-on 
>>> IDE boards.
>>
>> Huh? It already does support most or all that one is likely to see..
> 
> That is good news then.
> 
> Last week when searching for articles about Slax and libata, I found 
> various postings about methods that temporarily worked but no longer 
> (for example there used to be a kernel boot parameter for the combined 
> mode of some Intel chipsets, and there used to be a parameter to disable 
> probing by ide_generic).  While not finding a way to get a particular 
> chipset to be recognized as /dev/sda instead of /dev/hda, I also found 
> other articles explaining various limitations of libata.  Some said that 
> SATA is the priority for libata as it should be, but PATA was low 
> priority with just enough effort to get it working with common legacy 
> IDE controllers, and add-on IDE boards were zero priority.  My troubles 

That's probably a fairly old article, not really the way things are today.

> last week were with notebook PCs that didn't have add-on IDE cards, but 
> I will also have to support add-on IDE cards.
> 
> If anyone here knows how to put libata in control of chipsets that could 
> be claimed by either libata or legacy ide, please say.  As mentioned I 
> found various postings by others that temporarily worked but no longer.  
> It was kind of reassuring to see my program operate correctly under Slax 
> 6.0.3 with my slight modification to Slax's config kernel 2.6.24.3 to 
> enable taskfiles -- and then heartbreaking to see ordinary programs get 
> 1.5 megabytes per second to the hard drive.

Likely easiest to just disable CONFIG_IDE in your kernel configuration 
entirely. If you have two drivers compiled for the same hardware, there 
isn't really a good way to force one or the other to be used.