Hello, this is a RFC patch for the new pata_parport libata driver - a paride replacement. Protocol driver registration and device creation was changed since the second preview - no more protocol numbers or parport I/O addresses. All parports and all protocol drivers are now probed automatically unless probe=0 parameter is used. So just "modprobe epat" is enough for a Imation SuperDisk drive to work. Manual device creation: echo auto >/sys/bus/pata_parport/new_device echo "parport0 epat 4" >/sys/bus/pata_parport/new_device echo "parport0 auto" >/sys/bus/pata_parport/new_device echo "auto epat" >/sys/bus/pata_parport/new_device Deleting devices: echo pata_parport.0 >/sys/bus/pata_parport/delete_device Haven't found any sane way to hook pi_connect() and pi_disconnect() to libata. So pi_connect() is called on every protocol driver access and pi_disconnect() is called by a timer that's activated after protocol driver access. Found that the EPP-32 mode is buggy in EPAT - and also in many (all?) other protocol drivers - they don't handle non-multiple-of-4 block transfers correctly. I'll fix that later. The bpck_connect() in bpck driver seems to need to know if a CD drive is attached (weird) but it's called before device detection. This probably cannot be fixed without the HW. I have only two devices and both have the same EPAT chip, unfortunately: Imation SupserDisk HP C4381A (drive was dead, replaced by TOSHIBA CD-ROM XM-6202B) The both work: # modprobe epat [ 122.635395] pata_parport: protocol epat registered [ 122.738114] epat pata_parport.0: epat, Shuttle EPAT chip c6 at 0x378, mode 5 (EPP-32), delay 1 [ 122.789035] scsi host4: pata_parport-epat [ 122.789226] ata5: PATA max PIO0 port parport0 protocol epat [ 127.831534] ata5: link is slow to respond, please be patient (ready=0) [ 132.811623] ata5: device not ready (errno=-16), forcing hardreset [ 133.015024] ata5.00: ATAPI: TOSHIBA CD-ROM XM-6202B, 1108, max MWDMA2 [ 133.023016] scsi 4:0:0:0: CD-ROM TOSHIBA CD-ROM XM-6202B 1108 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5 [ 133.043817] scsi 4:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg1 type 5 [ 133.088146] sr 4:0:0:0: [sr0] scsi3-mmc drive: 32x/32x cd/rw xa/form2 cdda tray [ 133.088163] cdrom: Uniform CD-ROM driver Revision: 3.20 [ 133.125939] sr 4:0:0:0: Attached scsi CD-ROM sr0 # mount /dev/sr0 /mnt mount: /mnt: WARNING: source write-protected, mounted read-only. [ 157.922575] ISO 9660 Extensions: Microsoft Joliet Level 3 [ 157.991030] ISO 9660 Extensions: RRIP_1991A # hdparm -t --direct /dev/sr0 /dev/sr0: Timing O_DIRECT disk reads: 2 MB in 3.08 seconds = 664.47 kB/sec # modprobe epat [ 448.160910] pata_parport: protocol epat registered [ 448.267068] epat pata_parport.0: epat, Shuttle EPAT chip c6 at 0x378, mode 5 (EPP-32), delay 1 [ 448.301624] scsi host4: pata_parport-epat [ 448.301769] ata6: PATA max PIO0 port parport0 protocol epat [ 448.533850] ata6.00: ATAPI: LS-120 COSM 04 UHD Floppy, 0270M09T, max PIO2 [ 448.615500] scsi 4:0:0:0: Direct-Access MATSHITA LS-120 COSM 04 0270 PQ: 0 ANSI: 5 [ 448.651279] sd 4:0:0:0: Attached scsi generic sg1 type 0 [ 448.686028] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Media removed, stopped polling [ 448.717879] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Attached SCSI removable disk [ 472.259786] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Read Capacity(16) failed: Result: hostbyte=DID_ERROR driverbyte=DRIVER_OK [ 472.259805] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] Sense not available. [ 483.042442] sd 4:0:0:0: [sdb] 246528 512-byte logical blocks: (126 MB/120 MiB) [ 483.158446] sdb: detected capacity change from 0 to 246528 [ 483.309771] sdb: # hdparm -t --direct /dev/sdb /dev/sdb: Timing O_DIRECT disk reads: 2 MB in 44.19 seconds = 46.35 kB/sec