RE: IDE/Promise 20276 FastTrack RAID Doesn't work in 2.4.21, patchattached to fix

Chad Kitching
2003-07-10T21:51:59Z

I don't know. That seemed to have changed the option from merely mystifying to down right confusing. By that wording, does that feature override it into being a plain IDE controller, or an IDE RAID controller? The new name seems to imply the former, while the mentions of ataraid suggest the latter.

Despite the grammatical errors, pdc202xx.c's comments perhaps describe it better.
* Linux kernel will misunderstand FastTrak ATA-RAID series as Ultra
* IDE Controller, UNLESS you enable "CONFIG_PDC202XX_FORCE"
* That's you can use FastTrak ATA-RAID controllers as IDE controllers.

If this is true, may I suggest something more along the lines of:

Ignore FastTrak BIOS and configure controller for RAID
CONFIG_PDC202XX_FORCE
Forces the driver to use the ATA-RAID capabilities, overriding the
BIOS configuration of the controller. Do not enable if you are
using Promise's binary module. This option is compatible with the
ataraid driver.

If the Linux driver has the same limitation in regards to using CD-ROM drives on the controller while it's in RAID mode as the Windows drivers do, it may be useful to mention the fact that the option is incompatible with CD-ROM drives attached to the controller.

Of course, maybe it means the complete opposite, and I'm reading everything wrong, in which case, there are some comments you may want to fix, too.

-----Original Message-----
From: Samuel Flory
Sent: July 10, 2003 4:11 PM
Subject: Re: IDE/Promise 20276 FastTrack RAID Doesn't work in 2.4.21,
patchattached to fix

Bartlomiej Zolnierkiewicz wrote:

>Hi,
>
>Do you have "Special FastTrak Feature" enabled?

Can we change the option to something that makes sense. I get the
feeling no one understands what it does at 1st glance. This is the 2nd
time I've seen a patch like this.