Messages in this thread | | | Date | Mon, 22 Nov 2010 14:02:06 -0500 | From | Douglas Gilbert <> | Subject | Re: [PATCH repost 3] [SCSI] Retrieve the Caching mode page |
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On 10-11-22 12:07 PM, Linus Torvalds wrote: > On Mon, Nov 22, 2010 at 8:56 AM, Luben Tuikov<ltuikov@yahoo.com> wrote: >> >> Some kernel transport drivers unconditionally disable >> retrieval of the Caching mode page. One such for example is >> the BBB/CBI transport over USB. > > One reason for that is that historically we've seen devices that > simply go crazy - to the point of simply stopping to respond to > anything - when you ask for pages that Windows doesn't ask for. > > It's especially common on USB storage, but it happens elsewhere too. > The device firmware simply hasn't ever been tested in that situation, > and it's buggy. > > So I don't mind the patch per se, but I think it's potentially way > more dangerous than it looks.
The vast majority of USB mass storage devices are based on SCSI-2 (1994) or a particularly nasty standard called RBC (Reduced Block Commands, 1999) which is a partial subset of the block commands (i.e. disk related). We are all aware of the quality of most of the device end implementations out in the wild.
I believe what Luben is working with is a new standard called UAS (soon to be ratified) which is based on www.t10.org work in the last few years. It seems to be an attempt to throw out the older USB mass storage transport and do it again, properly.
In the USB domain the UAS transport is identified in an interface as mass storage class (8), SCSI transparent command set subclass (6) and protocol 0x62. I would think that the USB and SCSI layers could be modified to remove some or all of its mass storage hacks (e.g. disabling retrieval of the Caching mode page) when the transport is UAS.
Doug Gilbert
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