[Fwd: Re: [Wylug-help] Which Version of Linux?]

[Philip Wyett]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: wylug-help-bounces at wylug.org.uk
> [mailto:wylug-help-bounces at wylug.org.uk]On Behalf Of Anne Wilson
> Sent: 25 October 2005 10:28
> To: wylug-help at wylug.org.uk
> Subject: Re: [Fwd: Re: [Wylug-help] Which Version of Linux?]
> 
> 
> On Monday 24 Oct 2005 23:14, Philip Wyett wrote:
> > On Mon, 2005-10-24 at 21:38 +0100, Anne Wilson wrote:
> > > On Monday 24 Oct 2005 20:23, Philip Wyett wrote:
> > > > I am not doing down Mandrake/Mandriva totally as it has it's
> > > > merits, but when it comes to issues they seem to be head of the
> > > > queue. My all time favourite is the Mandrake 9.2 install
> > > > Lucky/Goldstar (LG) drive killer and the blaming of LG for not
> > > > testing their drives against Mandrake, but no taking
> > > > responsibility for a lack of Quality Control.
> > >
> > > I have no problem with your choosing another distro, but you
> > > certainly have your facts wrong.  The LG problem had nothing to do
> > > with not testing against Mandrake - and incidentally, 
> Mandrake were
> > > the first distro to be caught by this, but not the only one.  The
> > > incident was down to LG manufacturing some drives which used a
> > > standard call in a way that is totally non-standard.  If I recall
> > > correctly, a call to flush the buffer caused it to erase 
> the eprom.
> >
> > As I recall the problem was MandrakeSoft at that time merging a non
> > standard packet writing kernel patch that issued the FLUSH_CACHE
> > command (only valid on recorders) unconditionally that ended up
> > hosing drives. True, LG really should have issued firmware for
> > readers that ignored the command, but the kernel patch should have
> > included the necessary checks and been checked extensively being a
> > non standard patch. 
> 
> That is not correct.  As I said, the problem was not exclusive to 
> Mandrake.  It is impossible for any distro to be checked 
> against every 
> mode of every make of hardware.  No-one inside or outside of 
> MandrakeSoft actually knew that this problem existed before Mandrake 
> discovered it the hard way - and it was only with certain 
> models of LG 
> drives.  Please consider, also, that LG would not have got a firmware 
> patch onto the Internet, not to say speedily, had it been a distro 
> problem.
> 

You just said it "No-one inside or outside of MandrakeSoft actually
knew that this problem existed before Mandrake discovered it the
hard way" - Quality Control. Also your assertion at "certain" LG
drives actually translates into over 20 models affected.

> > I stand by my reference to Quality Control 
> > especially with patches.
> >
> You are entitled to your opinion.
> 

My opinion/long experience and knowlege here is more valid than
that of most as it's the profession I'm in both hardware and
software!

I'm not going to get into your justification of the different
versions and memberships. The assertion was that it could be
confusing for newcomers and nothing more.

Regards

Phil

Philip Wyett
Quality Engineer
A-Novo UK Limited. (Saltaire, Shipley).
An ISO9001 Company
Telephone: 01274 534156
Mobile: 07886 675493
Switchboard: 01274 534152
Fax: 01274 534196
Email: pwyett at a-novo.co.uk