ide.c question!

Egor Egorov (lkernel@fastware.kiev.ua)
Sat, 31 May 1997 22:14:54 +0300 (EET DST)


I'm willing to write a little tool for Linux. I noticed, that I can swap Ide
drives on-the-fly, i.e., umount drive, turn off the power of particular
drive, pull of the cable, and it's ok for Linux. The same way I can insert
drive, but.. only the same drive.

So, question: now do I implement a re-probe of devices? So I can insert
drive of new type, and for example:

$ rehashdrives
hda: WDC AC2700F, 696MB w/64kB Cache, LBA, CHS=708/32/63
hdb: OTI-SCYLLA, ATAPI CDROM drive
$

Well, is it possible to call do_probe or any of these procedures in ide.c by
implementing another ioctl? Is it ok for kernel? If so, which exactly
function I should call and how (I know, we'll need to BLKRRPART after
calling reprobe)?

Another question: I have an old buggy maxtor drive - 40 megs. It works, but
not under Linux: "No ??Q after issuing write". What can I do with it? :-)
Maybe, the best interface for this drive is wall, but.. ;-)

//ee