Fsys.eide

Driver for ATA/IDE disk interface and ATAPI CD-ROM interface

Syntax:

Fsys.eide [general_options] [fsys fsys_options...]
          [eide eide_options...]

Options:

general_options

If specified, the general_options must precede any fsys or eide options:

-q

Be quiet: don't display any information on startup.

-v

Be verbose.

fsys_options

The fsys_options control the driver's interface to Fsys. If specified, they must follow the fsys keyword:

-B num

Use this many 512-byte buffers for blocking/deblocking (default is 8). You need to specify this option if you have one or more units that don't use 512-byte sectors. CD-ROM units, for example, may use 2048-byte sectors.

The value of num is the sum of all the buffers required for units that use sectors larger than 512 bytes. To obtain the buffer required for a unit, you must use the following formula:

buf = (2*(sector_size / 512))

The value that should be used for num will be the sum of the results for all units.

-d

Allow concurrent I/O with other DMA-based drivers.

Some ISA motherboards have problems when on-board DMA and bus-mastering DMA occur concurrently. To avoid those problems, Fsys drivers which use DMA perform I/O concurrently only if the -d option is specified to either or both drivers. In general, you shouldn't use -d on an ISA machine if the floppy is going to be used at the same time as the SCSI hard disk. This option may be used safely on MCA and EISA machines.

-h head[,sect]

Report this many heads (and optionally, sectors) to Fsys for hard disks (default is 64 heads, 32 sectors per track). The QNX filesystem doesn't need this information for normal operation. The information is needed only to let fdisk write the correct boot cylinder for booting.

-i

Ignore partition table when determining heads/sectors.

-l

("el") Disable locking while open on Removable and Tape.

-m num

Transfer no more than this many 512-byte sectors from the controller to memory in one operation (default is 128).

-M num

Specify the maximum number of drives supported.

-n type=name

For the given unit type, use the specified name. For example, to have hard drives use /dev/eiden, you would specify -n 0=eide. You can specify multiple -n options.

By default, the driver assigns names as follows:

type	String equivalent	Default name
0	direct-access (e.g. hard disk)	hd
1	sequential-access (e.g. tape)	tp
4	WORM	wo
5	CD-ROM	cd
7	optical	mo

You can specify the type using either the number or its string equivalent.

To have the driver ignore a type of device, specify an empty setting. For example, to ignore hard disks, specify -n 0.

-N name

Assign this unique version name to this invocation of the driver. The name can range from 1 to 8 characters in length.

-r

Reassign bad blocks automatically.

-R

Do not try to reserve the unit while mounted/open.

-s mins

Minutes of inactivity before stopping direct drive. (disabled by default)

-S

Try to always use scatter/gather.

-t num

Specify maximum concurrent I/O threads.

eide_options

The eide_options control the driver's interface to the EIDE controller. If you've installed multiple controllers, you can repeat these options for each controller. Remember, however, to specify the eide keyword before each controller's set of options.

-a address

The hex address of the controller. Default 1f0/170.

-b

Do not use BIOS for drive parameters. BIOS is used by default.

-c heads,cyl,sect[,disknum]

Specify drive geometry. Note that disknum is the disk number on the controller, 0 indicating the first disk.

-e

Use enhanced PIO modes. PIO modes are not used by default.

-i irq

The interrupt used by the controller. Default 14/15.

-l lba

Use CHS instead of LBA. LBA used by default.

-p

Don't scan for PCI interfaces.

-S

Don't scan for slave device (default is to scan).

-v

Don't scan for CMD-640 VL interface.

Description:

Fsys.eide is the driver for IDE (Integrated Drive Electronics) EIDE (Enhanced IDE) ATA (AT Attachment) hard disks and ATAPI (ATA Packet Interface) CD-ROM interfaces.

Note: If you are installing multiple OSs on the drive, make sure all OSs use a compatible mode. For example, if your drive is >=528Mb and DOS will also be installed on the drive, the driver should be configured to use LBA.

Fsys.eide autodetects interfaces at address 0x1f0, interrupt 14 and address 0x170 interrupt 15 by default. If you have an interface at a different address/interrupt specify them to the driver.

Fsys.eide will use LBA (Logical Block Addressing) modes if the drive supports them.

If the -l option is specified, LBA is not used and the device is programmed to Cylinder-Head-Sector (CHS) mode. If the -e option is specified, enhanced PIO modes are used.

Examples:

Support an IDE controller, list all connected devices:

    Fsys.eide &

Support an IDE controller at hex address 170, interrupt 15 and don't display list of connected devices. Register direct access devices (e.g. hard disks) as /dev/eide#:

    Fsys.eide -q fsys -n0=eide eide -a170 -i15 &

Files:

Fsys.eide closes its standard input, standard output and standard error immediately after completing its initializations. Error messages may be produced during the initialization phase and will be written to standard error.

Fsys.eide will cause Fsys to adopt various block special devices under /dev. These devices will normally be named hdn, where n is the physical unit number of the device. The base portion of this filename (hd) may be overridden by the -n option.

Exit status:

Fsys.eide will terminate only if an error occurs during startup, or if it has successfully forked itself upon startup because it had not been initially started in the background.

0

Fsys.eide was not started in the background and as a result forked itself. The original process terminated with a zero exit status, the forked process continued.

>0

An error occurred during startup.

Caveats:

Don't use slay to shut down a filesystem driver! If you do, new drivers may not be able to load properly and Fsys itself may experience internal errors.

If you need to shut down a filesystem driver, follow the steps in the "Driver shutdown" section in the documentation for Fsys.

See also:

Blkfsys, Fsys, Fsys.*