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    SubjectRe: [PATCH] libata: fix broken Kconfig setup
    On Wed, 19 Oct 2005, Alistair John Strachan wrote:

    > On Monday 17 October 2005 18:25, Linus Torvalds wrote:
    > > On Mon, 17 Oct 2005, Jeff Garzik wrote:
    > > > Linus Torvalds wrote:
    > > > > Btw, if you want to have the _question_ always be y/n only, that's easy
    > > > > enough to do, just make that one do
    > > > >
    > > > > config SATA_MENU
    > > > > bool "Want to see SATA drivers"
    > > > > depends on SCSI != n
    > > > >
    > > > > config SCSI_SATA
    > > > > tristate
    > > > > depends on SCSI && SATA_MENU
    > > > > default y
    > > > >
    > > > > and now you have a totally sensible setup, where the low-level drivers
    > > > > can depend on something sane.
    > > > > I don't think it _buys_ you anything, but hey, at least it's logical.
    > > >
    > > > That's a reasonable solution. I think it does buy you reduced user
    > > > confusion.
    > >
    > > The thing that worries me is that while the question may appear a bit more
    > > straightforward that way, I actually think it makes the end result _less_
    > > so.
    > >
    > > Let's say that I'm a clueless user, and I just don't realize that SATA
    > > depends on SCSI. After all, to a user, SATA sure as hell isn't SCSI,
    > > that's just an implementation detail inside the kernel.
    > >
    > > So I've happened to say "m" to SCSI (for whatever reason - don't ask why
    > > users do strange things, but maybe I realize that USB storage needs it),
    > > and now I see the question for SATA. And I say "y".
    > >
    > > And then I wonder why I can only select my sata drivers as modules. I
    > > didn't ask for SATA as a module, but they refuse to say "m".
    > >
    > > Now, with SCSI_SATA as a straight M/n choice (or whatever), if I had SCSI
    > > as a module, at least I'll see at SATA selection time that I can only
    > > compile SATA drivers as modules. I might wonder at that time why, but I
    > > think it's less confusing there (and we could even mention it in the
    > > help-text).
    > >
    > [snip]
    >
    > Pretty much this exact thing happened to me. SATA=y when SCSI=y, then I
    > selected my mainboard's SATA chipset (NFORCE=y), then a few kernels later I
    > went back to set SCSI=m (I can't remember the rationale, something to do with
    > udev and me thinking I didn't need to compile SCSI into the kernel).
    >
    > Of course, without asking me, this changed my SATA chipset driver to a module,
    > and the resulting kernel wouldn't get to init (because I was attempting to
    > boot from a disc on the SATA controller).
    >
    > This particular issue is perhaps more difficult to resolve, but I think this
    > illustrates that a conceptual link between SCSI and SATA is a bad idea at the
    > KConfig level (even if, within the kernel, SATA depends on parts of SCSI).

    I agree and it seems that Jeff expects to change that.
    I think that what I said (or I guess I "asked") here makes sense:
    http://marc.theaimsgroup.com/?l=linux-kernel&m=112839490116475&w=2

    --
    ~Randy
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