On Monday 17 Nov 2003 1:41 pm, Anarky wrote: > Anne Wilson wrote: > >On Monday 17 Nov 2003 12:26 pm, Anarky wrote: > >>I saw the fix and everything ... but still I don't believe it's a > >>nice thing to leave software that does that like that .. might > >> make people (me too) think that mandrake stuff isn't all that > >> great ... which is not a nice thing :) > > > >Anarky - you are way out on this. Mandrake does *not* break > > drives. Drives that have a built-in firmware fault break when > > certain software, which would include windows software, make a > > recognised ATAPI function call. It is *not* a Mandrake problem. > > The only *fix* Mandrake can give is a temporary one - the removal > > of some functionality of the kernel. They should not have to do > > that. > > yes, but assuming those drives only break for Mandrake, maybe not > even other distros nor windows .. then some could (reasonably imo) > argue that the hardware is okay and it's Mandrake's fault. I'm just > thinking how I'm going to explain this to somebody I might promote > linux to: how can I explain that it's his hardware's fault when he > sees it working right?
It's not only Mandrake. As I said, any software, including, say, windows cd-rewriting software might use the call. Remember that these drives haven't been around long, so there may not have been enough cases yet for it to be recognised for what it is - after all we are used to horrific problems in windows, so it wouldn't be worth a comment. Maybe I'm being unfair, but I don't think so. The next few weeks will tell. Second - do recognise that Mandrake is a cutting-edge distro. People like it because it gives them the latest and greatest. That makes it inevitable that if something really weird happens, like an ATAPI drive that turns out not to be ATAPI-compliant, Mandrake has a high chance of being the first one to fall foul of it. Lastly, These drives are not ATAPI-compliant, and they are sold as such. In the UK that is an offence, under the Trade Descriptions Act. I would be surprised if that were not so elsewhere. As for convincing your friends, I'm sure you now know enough to make sure that you know whether they have a drive likely to be affected. You know how to guard against it by installing the patch. Once again, it is demonstrated that problems with Linux are identified quickly. In this case a software work-around was provided for the time it took to get LG to publish the fix. I'd say that was pretty good. Anne -- Registered Linux User No.293302 Have you visited http://twiki.mdklinuxfaq.org yet?
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