> My concern with disabling the new drivers is as follows: I use this > linux kernel and config image to boot machines over PXE and call a > shred program on each of the harddrives. If I turn off CONFIG_ATA, > will this limit my ability to support various new IDE and SATA drives > for running shred? So far, the configuration I have works well with Yes. In that case you can build without CONFIG_IDE_PIIX and with the CONFIG_ATA_PIIX driver and you should be fine too (but your disk will move to /dev/sda on that box). The PIIX is an awkward case as in some modes it combines both the SATA and PATA onto one 'device'. > most of the machines I encounter (and with both SATA and IDE drives), > except for the Dell D610 and HP 7700 (small desktop pc). The models I > just mentioned run the shred really slow, which I believe is due to > the DMA problem I was having (outlined in my previous emails). Any > thoughts? If your shred program is relying on DMA then you are using the wrong tool for the job. The correct way to erase a disk is to send it a security erase command. Rewriting over the data may not do what is wanted. - To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe linux-ide" in the body of a message to majordomo@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
