Subject: Re: SBIC (a3000, gvpscsi, 2091)
To: None <current-users@NetBSD.ORG>
From: Frank Dana <danaf@cs.rpi.edu>
List: current-users
Date: 11/02/1995 03:11:24
In amiga-dev@netbsd.org,

With Shakespearian flourish, Bruce Albrecht writes:
> [Sync SCSI]
> 
> I'd like to see it disabled in the GENERIC version, because I think
> many people would not be able to boot initially otherwise.  I must
> admit that the first time I ever went throught the entire process to
> make my own kernel was about 3 weeks ago, after my work got a T1 line,
> and I got a full tarball and rebuilt everything.  It wasn't as bad as
> I expected, but I was totally lost until I got some advice from
> someone who had done it before.

Agreed. I started on this whole NetBSD trip with 1.0--and when I made the
move to -current, I was experienced and able to do the binpatch work re-
quired to make my system work when sync broke it. If I were a new user,
coming to NetBSD fresh, and it refused to boot at all (remember, the install
disk won't even boot if your system is non-sync-able), I would flush it
right down the toilet and head for Linux. No joke--that's how I got turned
on to NetBSD in the first place. Linux refused to boot on my system, and
I didn't feel like trying to make it. I realize, now, that I picked the
right UNIX path--but at the time it wasn't an informed decision.

The GENERIC system is supposed to "work on as many systems as possible"
(says so right in the kernel config file). Well, async works on every sys-
tem sync works on, plus a hell of a lot more. Do we need a better argument
for defaulting to async?

It would be great if sync worked. But it doesn't, and I don't think there's
time left to iron out all of the problems.

								-Frank

--
 ____ PRI | Frank R. Dana Jr.|Tau Epsilon Phi|email:danaf@cs.rpi.edu | _ _
 \ _/__ D |----------------------------------------------------------| U U
  \X  / E |  I come from Queens, my birthday is National Coming Out  |  < 
    \/    |    Day... alright, already! I get the hint!! Jeez...     | \_/