SimNOW and SeaBIOS

[Myles Watson]

SeaBIOS won't work with SimNOW unless you make the error checking in
ata.c less strict.

This is the message you get:
ata_transfer : no sectors left (status 00000008)

I reported it to the SimNOW team since it seems like they're not
following the spec, but it's been a long time and the bug is still
there.  To get past it:
    dprintf(6, "ata_transfer : no sectors left (status %02x)\n", status);
+       if (status != 0x8)
              return -7;

Thanks,
Myles

[Kevin O'Connor]

On Mon, Mar 09, 2009 at 10:55:28AM -0700, Myles Watson wrote:
> SeaBIOS won't work with SimNOW unless you make the error checking in
> ata.c less strict.
>
> This is the message you get:
> ata_transfer : no sectors left (status 00000008)
>
> I reported it to the SimNOW team since it seems like they're not
> following the spec, but it's been a long time and the bug is still
> there.  To get past it:
>     dprintf(6, "ata_transfer : no sectors left (status %02x)\n", status);
>   if (status != 0x8)
>         return -7;

Yeah, I've run into this too.  It looks like the SimNOW CDROM doesn't
clear the DRQ bit - even though the spec definitely says it must be
cleared.

I make the same change locally (just warn and not abort the transfer)
when I test with SimNOW.

-Kevin

[Carl-Daniel Hailfinger]

On 10.03.2009 01:05, Kevin O'Connor wrote:
> On Mon, Mar 09, 2009 at 10:55:28AM -0700, Myles Watson wrote:
> > SeaBIOS won't work with SimNOW unless you make the error checking in
> > ata.c less strict.
> >
> > This is the message you get:
> > ata_transfer : no sectors left (status 00000008)
> >
> > I reported it to the SimNOW team since it seems like they're not
> > following the spec, but it's been a long time and the bug is still
> > there.  To get past it:
> >     dprintf(6, "ata_transfer : no sectors left (status %02x)\n", status);
> >   if (status != 0x8)
> >         return -7;
>
> Yeah, I've run into this too.  It looks like the SimNOW CDROM doesn't
> clear the DRQ bit - even though the spec definitely says it must be
> cleared.
>
> I make the same change locally (just warn and not abort the transfer)
> when I test with SimNOW.

Maybe add a conditional message: "Working around SimNow bug" so users
and coders know what's happening.

Regards,
Carl-Daniel

[Myles Watson]

On Mon, Mar 9, 2009 at 11:55 AM, Myles Watson  wrote:
> SeaBIOS won't work with SimNOW unless you make the error checking in
> ata.c less strict.
>
> This is the message you get:
> ata_transfer : no sectors left (status 00000008)
>
> I reported it to the SimNOW team since it seems like they're not
> following the spec, but it's been a long time and the bug is still
> there.  To get past it:
>    dprintf(6, "ata_transfer : no sectors left (status %02x)\n", status);
> if (status != 0x8)
>
> return -7;

It's been fixed internally, so at the next public release we shouldn't
need this patch anymore.

Thanks,
Myles