usb v1.1 external 2.0" hard disk problems with FreeBSD 5.1-RELEASE

[Jesse Guardiani]

Jesse Guardiani wrote:

> Bruce M Simpson wrote:
> 
>> On Tue, Nov 18, 2003 at 03:59:46PM -0500, Jesse Guardiani wrote:
>>> I'm running FreeBSD 5.1-RELEASE. I just bought a generic
>>> USB 1.1/2.0/firewire external drive enclosure for my 32gb
>>> Travelstar 12.5mm hard drive.
>> 
>> I began hacking a uata (USB->ATA) bridge driver with sos's help today.
>> 
>> It might help you.
> 
> I seriously doubt it. :) I don't mind C coding a bit, but I'm afraid
> I don't know where to start here.
> 
> Can anyone walk me through a low level troubleshooting process? Do I
> have to have CAMDEBUG in my kernel? (not a problem if I DO, but I don't
> right now)
> 
> I'd personally like to know why the /dev/da0sN device isn't being created.
> I think identifying the reason for it not being created
> 
> 
>> Some of the cheaper enclosures use USB->ATA bridge
>> chips which aren't handled by the standard umass driver.
> 
> Might be the case here. Windows XP detects it as a "USB to ATAPI" bridge
> though. The Coolmax Gemini enclosure (the one that works with FreeBSD)
> is detected by Windows XP as a genuine "USB to IDE" device.
> 
> 
>> Before anyone asks, these are evil, and don't talk SCSI/UFI/etc, they
>> talk ATA task file register over USB, so branching off ata is more
>> appropriate; I should be able to leverage most of the existing ATAng
>> code base for this.
> 
> Well, I'd be happy to help you test if we can somehow confirm that my
> device is indeed one of these ugly USB->ATA devices. I'm not 100%
> convinced though. Take a look at these two posts that have exactly the
> same dmesg:
> 
> http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-current/2003-August/008504.html
> 
> http://lists.freebsd.org/pipermail/freebsd-hardware/2003-July/000393.html
> 
> The last fellow shows that his drive works perfectly under Linux with SCSI
> emulation.
> 

Well, what does this list think? Should I ask this question on -CURRENT?
Should I contact the umass driver maintainer directly? Should I file a PR?

What is the proper course of action?

-- 
Jesse Guardiani, Systems Administrator
WingNET Internet Services,
P.O. Box 2605 // Cleveland, TN 37320-2605
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