Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S967998AbWLEBjE (ORCPT ); Mon, 4 Dec 2006 20:39:04 -0500 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S968000AbWLEBjE (ORCPT ); Mon, 4 Dec 2006 20:39:04 -0500 Received: from rwcrmhc13.comcast.net ([216.148.227.153]:42420 "EHLO rwcrmhc13.comcast.net" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S967998AbWLEBjB (ORCPT ); Mon, 4 Dec 2006 20:39:01 -0500 Message-ID: <4574CDB4.1050704@comcast.net> Date: Mon, 04 Dec 2006 20:39:00 -0500 From: Ed Sweetman User-Agent: Icedove 1.5.0.8 (X11/20061129) MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Jeff Garzik CC: Bernard Pidoux , linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: Why SCSI module needed for PCI-IDE ATA only disks ? References: <457492B2.2050107@ccr.jussieu.fr> <4574B2E4.8060206@garzik.org> In-Reply-To: <4574B2E4.8060206@garzik.org> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Content-Length: 1560 Lines: 33 Jeff Garzik wrote: > Bernard Pidoux wrote: >> I am asking why need to compile the following modules while I do not >> have any SCSI device ? > > libata uses SCSI to provide a lot of infrastructure that it would > otherwise have to recreate. Also, using SCSI meant that it > automatically worked in existing installers. > > Jeff > This confusion could easily be remedied by explaining the requirement in the Help output for libata drivers/section. Also, making a dependency in the menu (since there is one) or automatically selecting the required scsi items when you select a libata driver would seem logical. As it is, nothing is said of scsi requirements in menuconfig. Trying to boot a machine without compiling the scsi drivers (something you're allowed to do) results in a system that boots and initializes the ata busses but can't communicate to any of the drives on them, (useless). Then maybe later down the road, moving those scsi drivers shared by scsi and libata to the generic block layer would seem logical. That is, when ide is gone from the kernel and all the kernel speaks is scsi, there would be no need to differentiate scsi from the generic block layer devices, and no need to compile "scsi" drivers to have libata driver support, eliminating any possible further confusion. - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-kernel" in the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html Please read the FAQ at http://www.tux.org/lkml/