>>>>> "jl" == James Lever <j...@jamver.id.au> writes:
jl> I thought they were both closed source yes, both are closed source / proprietary. If you are really confused and not just trying to pick a dictionary fight, I can start saying ``closed source / proprietary'' on Solaris lists from now on. On Linux lists, ``proprietary'' is clear enough, but maybe the people around here are different. jl> and that the LSI chipset specifications were proprietary. <shrug> I don't know about specifications, but I do know that Linux has an open source driver for 1068, and Solaris has an open source driver for 1078. Getting source without specifications is a problem, though, yes, if you want to track down a bug in the driver or write a driver for another OS. The other problem is, with both chips but especially with the 1078, it soudns like these cards are very ``firmware'' heavy, and the firmware is proprietary. This causes the complaints here that 'hd' (smartctl equivalent) doesn't work. And that with PERC/1078 they have to make RAID0's of each disk with LSI labels on the disk which blocks moving the disk from one controller to another---meaning a broken controller could potentially toast your whole zpool no matter what disk redundancy you had, unless you figure out some way to escape the trap. If not for the ``closed-source / proprietary'' firmware, these two problems could never persist. so, there is still no SATA driver for Solaris that: * is open-source. like a fully-open stack, not just ``here look! here is some source. is that a rabbit over there?'' open-source meaning I can add smartctl or DVD writer or NCQ support without bumping into some strange blob that stops me. open-source meaning I can swap out a disk without having to run any proprietary code to ``bless'' the disk first. no BIOS bluescreen garbage either. * supports NCQ and hotplug * performs well and doesn't have a lot of bugs, like ``freezes'' and so on * works on x86 and SPARC * comes in card form so it can achieve high port density on Linux, both Marvell and LSI 1068 driver come close to or meet all these. (smartctl DOES work with Linux's open source 1068 driver.) Sun has more leverage with LSI than Linux not less because they are an actual customer of LSI's chips for the hardware they sell---even ditched Marvell for LSI!---yet they do worse on driver openness negotiation and then try to blame LSI's whim, and tell random scmuck user to ``go complain to LSI'' when we are not LSI's customer, Sun is. The issue gets more complicated, but not better, IMHO.
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