PROBLEM: IDE Zip drive doesn't work under 2.6.12

PROBLEM: IDE Zip drive doesn't work under 2.6.12

[Jim Faulkner]

Recently I upgraded from 2.6.11.11 to 2.6.12.3.  This morning I tried
using my Zip drive... unfortunately it doesn't work under 2.6.12.3.  To
verify that this was a kernel problem, I rebooted to 2.6.11.11.  Here's
some relevant output using 2.6.11.11:

uname -a:
Linux michelangelo 2.6.11.11 #2 SMP Fri Jun 3 21:02:33 EDT 2005 i686
Intel(R) Xeon(TM) CPU 1700MHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux

parts of dmesg:
    ide1: BM-DMA at 0xffa8-0xffaf, BIOS settings: hdc:DMA, hdd:DMA
hdd: IOMEGA ZIP 250 ATAPI, ATAPI FLOPPY drive
hdd: 98304kB, 196608 blocks, 512 sector size
hdd: 98304kB, 96/64/32 CHS, 4096 kBps, 512 sector size, 2941 rpm
 hdd: hdd4

michelangelo ~ # mount /dev/hdd4 /mnt/zip
michelangelo ~ # df -h
Filesystem            Size  Used Avail Use% Mounted on
/dev/md1               17G  3.7G   13G  23% /
udev                  506M  2.6M  503M   1% /dev
none                  506M     0  506M   0% /dev/shm
/dev/hdd4              96M     0   96M   0% /mnt/zip

And here's what happens under the 2.6.12 kernel:

Linux michelangelo 2.6.12.3 #1 SMP Wed Jul 20 18:14:36 EDT 2005 i686
Intel(R) Xeon(TM) CPU 1700MHz GenuineIntel GNU/Linux

 ide1: BM-DMA at 0xffa8-0xffaf, BIOS settings: hdc:DMA, hdd:DMA
hdd: IOMEGA ZIP 250 ATAPI, ATAPI FLOPPY drive
hdd: 98304kB, 196608 blocks, 512 sector size
hdd: 98304kB, 96/64/32 CHS, 4096 kBps, 512 sector size, 2941 rpm
hdd: CHECK for good STATUS
 hdd: hdd4

michelangelo ~ # mount /dev/hdd4 /mnt/zip
mount: special device /dev/hdd4 does not exist
michelangelo ~ #

Every time I run that "mount" command under 2.6.12.3 I get that same error
message, and each time this line shows up in my dmesg again:
 hdd: hdd4

Something else weird happens when I run the "mount" command.  Right after
running the command, /dev/hdd4 disappears for a few seconds, then
re-appears:
michelangelo ~ # ls -al /dev/hdd4
brw-rw----  1 root root 22, 68 Jul 21 11:05 /dev/hdd4
michelangelo ~ # mount /dev/hdd4 /mnt/zip
mount: special device /dev/hdd4 does not exist
michelangelo ~ # ls -al /dev/hdd4
ls: /dev/hdd4: No such file or directory
michelangelo ~ # ls -al /dev/hdd4
ls: /dev/hdd4: No such file or directory
michelangelo ~ # ls -al /dev/hdd4
brw-rw----  1 root root 22, 68 Jul 21 11:06 /dev/hdd4
michelangelo ~ #

I'm using udev-058.  Should I be using a newer version of udev with
2.6.12?  Or is this a kernel bug?  Please CC my e-mail address in any
replies since I am not subscribed to this list.

thanks,
Jim Faulkner

Re: PROBLEM: IDE Zip drive doesn't work under 2.6.12

[Grant Coady]

On Thu, 21 Jul 2005 11:21:05 -0400 (EDT), Jim Faulkner <jfaulkne@ccs.neu.edu> wrote:
>
>Recently I upgraded from 2.6.11.11 to 2.6.12.3.  This morning I tried
>using my Zip drive... unfortunately it doesn't work under 2.6.12.3.  To
>verify that this was a kernel problem, I rebooted to 2.6.11.11.  Here's
>some relevant output using 2.6.11.11:

I too see this issue, but it doesn't go away on 2.6.11.12 for me, 
something is eating /dev/ nodes, writing to them, this doesn't 
happen in 2.4, so yet another "don't do that", or user-space, I 
haven't the foggiest.

fdisk sees the drive on 2.6, 2.4 sees it okay on same hardware

usb-storage also stomps /dev/sdX nodes on this and a different box, 
so something odd is happening with removable storage.

Grant.

Re: PROBLEM: IDE Zip drive doesn't work under 2.6.12

[Bill Davidsen]

Grant Coady wrote:
> On Thu, 21 Jul 2005 11:21:05 -0400 (EDT), Jim Faulkner <jfaulkne@ccs.neu.edu> wrote:
> 
>>Recently I upgraded from 2.6.11.11 to 2.6.12.3.  This morning I tried
>>using my Zip drive... unfortunately it doesn't work under 2.6.12.3.  To
>>verify that this was a kernel problem, I rebooted to 2.6.11.11.  Here's
>>some relevant output using 2.6.11.11:
> 
> 
> I too see this issue, but it doesn't go away on 2.6.11.12 for me, 
> something is eating /dev/ nodes, writing to them, this doesn't 
> happen in 2.4, so yet another "don't do that", or user-space, I 
> haven't the foggiest.
> 
> fdisk sees the drive on 2.6, 2.4 sees it okay on same hardware

I haven't tried on the most recent kernels, but ZIP seemed to work 
nicely with ide-scsi in earlier 2.6. You might want to try that as a 
data point if nothing else.

-- 
    -bill davidsen (davidsen@tmr.com)
"The secret to procrastination is to put things off until the
  last possible moment - but no longer"  -me