I've been using SATA disk hotswap for some time with no problems, but that was with a mobo's sata_nv + libata driven hardware. For upgrading some older PCs with SATA disks (+ hotswap backup) I got a generic SATA card with a VT6421 chip on it. Everything works fine (openSUSE 10.3, ubuntu 8.10) when the computer is booted with the disk connected. Removing the disk shows no discernible action - other than the hang on next access. Re-inserting the disk gets things going again (we'll ignore data integrity for now). Obviously the kernel fails to notice that the disk has gone missing. Likewise it never notices when plugging the disk in after boot.
What particular circumstance does it depend on whether hotswap does in fact work? Can anyone suggest a SATA PCI card which does work with hotswap? Thanks, Volker PS The icute 1000 / HW200 racks are great... (though you have to think about cooling). -- Volker Kuhlmann is list0570 with the domain in header http://volker.dnsalias.net/ Please do not CC list postings to me.
