On Wed, 2022-12-07 at 17:04 +0100, Ard Biesheuvel wrote: > On Wed, 7 Dec 2022 at 17:02, Gerd Hoffmann <kra...@redhat.com> wrote: > > > > On Wed, Dec 07, 2022 at 09:14:39AM -0500, James Bottomley wrote: > > > On Wed, 2022-12-07 at 15:09 +0100, Ard Biesheuvel wrote: > > > > So at some point, these drivers will be removed rather than > > > > kept > > > > alive by the core team unless someone steps up. > > > > > > How important is keeping them alive? > > > > Most common use case is probably bootimg images created on other > > hypervisors on qemu. Otherwise there is little reason to use > > something which is not virtio-scsi. > > > > > I can volunteer to "maintain" them which I anticipate won't be > > > much effort (plus I'm used to looking after obsolete SCSI > > > equipment). The hardware is obsolete, so the mechanics of their > > > emulation isn't going to change, the only potential risk is > > > changes in the guest to host transmission layer that breaks > > > something. > > > > Thanks James, that would be very helpful. > > > Yes, I don't expect it being much effort, but knowing oldish scsi > > stuff certainly helps understanding the driver code if needed. If > > you want step up sent a patch updating Maintainers.txt accordingly. > > > > Having the informed opinion of a domain expert should allow us to > diagnose issued related to these drivers with more confidence, and > also give us insight in how obsolete those drivers actually are. > > I can send the patch if you prefer.
Sure, who can resist someone else doing all the work. I note we do have a maintained LSI driver: OvmfPkg/LsiScsiDxe. It seems to be based on the 53c896 which is really only a marginal subset of the 1030 ... if I'm remembering correctly the 1030 did Low Voltage Differential (so a faster SCSI Parallel bus), but since that's a SCSI Bus protocol, it should have no real impact on the utility of the emulation. Is the LsiScsiDxe usable by Debian? James
