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Firewire Updates For Scheduled FreeBSD 4.8 Release

Dan writes "Hidetoshi Shimokawa has added new functionality to Firewire scheduled for FreeBSD 4.8 release. New features include built-in DV support, improved recovery process & timeout stability and Write/ioctl support for /dev/fwmem0. He has not tested this on PAL and is looking for volunteers."

34 comments

  1. Dump without tape! by noctrnl9 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I think this is going to be great for dump/restore backups. not to mention the potential to dump raw DV footage from the source to a portable drive while in to field. Then there is the fact that 100MB/s (1394b) & 400MB/s (1394(?)) is just a question of time.

    1. Re:Dump without tape! by essdodson · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I don't know if you were implying it or not, but it seems some folks have figured out how to use a DV camcorder to store data. :)

      --
      scott
    2. Re:Dump without tape! by drinkypoo · · Score: 2, Interesting
      That doesn't sound very hard. I'd think one could pretty much wrap the data up so it would look like the proper type of MPEG frames and spit out as you would any other DV stream.

      Anyone have a link to someone who's done this? How much capacity is there on a DV tape?

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
    3. Re:Dump without tape! by Groganz · · Score: 2, Funny

      And it would make a hell of a movie combined with some magic mushrooms, lsd, or other hallucinogenic.

    4. Re:Dump without tape! by xA40D · · Score: 1

      to a portable drive

      Last time I saw a portable Firewire drive, the performance sucked big time. Turns out the actual drive was IDE.

      --
      Do you mind, your karma has just run over my dogma.
    5. Re:Dump without tape! by noctrnl9 · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Actually I was referring to the roots (AT&T) of the dump/restore commands as a means of archiving. In addition, there is the fact that 1394 is a standard that allows peer to peer isochronous and asynch video/audio/data transfer. this means the: iLink port on the PS2 can be networked with another PS2; a 1394 drive could be networked with a computer that has a 1394 port (replacing the SCSI tape drive; or a DV camera could transfer information to a fro. Once the divice drivers mature. I know the applications of the technology will open various combinations of data transfer over a wide (50MB/s 1394a, 100MB/s 1394b, and 400MB/s 1394{?}) data pipeline.

    6. Re:Dump without tape! by Beetjebrak · · Score: 1

      Try playing a C64 data tape in a normal deck or a CD-ROM in an audio player (if it will play at all). That's the kind of stuff you're going to experience! Hopefully it'll be more pleasing visually..

      --
      Learn from the mistakes of others. There isn't enough time to make them all yourself.
    7. Re:Dump without tape! by Blademan007 · · Score: 1

      1394 already does 400MB. 1394b however will do up to 3.2GB. 1394ta 1394b

    8. Re:Dump without tape! by faeryman · · Score: 1

      Check out Backfire. Sadly, it hasn't been updated in ~2 years though. The idea of that project is to encapsulate the data as movie frames, so it should be possible.

      If you search on google around the Groups, this topic appears a few times. I don't know of anyone who has gotten it to work though, and for as many people who question the integrity of data stored on a DV camera, there's just as many who think it would work fine. Maybe if the data was compressed with some sort of error checking/correction beforehand..

      --


      ,
      faeryman
    9. Re:Dump without tape! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      You mean 400Mb. Megabit not Megabyte.

    10. Re:Dump without tape! by The+Gline · · Score: 1

      The idea is not a good one if only because DV's error correction is not robust enough for this sort of thing. Another poster mentioned compensating for this ahead of time w/compression and redundancy, but the idea still gives me the shudders.

      --
      Honorary Member of Jackie Chan's Kung Fu Process Servers
    11. Re:Dump without tape! by drinkypoo · · Score: 1

      I doubt it. Since it's digital, and MPEG, I suspect that it would just be detected as invalid video. Then again, I could be wrong. If anyone finds any cool sekrit messages from the aliens in their DV-encoded backups, let me know.

      --
      "You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"
  2. fp. and last post, because *BSD is dying! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
    It is official; Netcraft now confirms: *BSD is dying

    One more crippling
    bombshell hit the already beleaguered *BSD community when IDC confirmed that *BSD
    market share has dropped yet again, now down to less than a fraction of 1 percent of
    all servers. Coming on the heels of a recent Netcraft survey which plainly states
    that *BSD has lost more market share, this news serves to reinforce what we've
    known all along. *BSD is collapsing in complete disarray, as fittingly exemplified by

    failing dead last
    in the recent Sys Admin comprehensive networking test.

    You don't need to
    be a Kreskin to predict *BSD's
    future. The hand writing is on the wall: *BSD faces a bleak future. In fact there won't
    be any future at all for *BSD because *BSD is dying. Things are looking very
    bad for *BSD. As many of us are already aware, *BSD continues to lose market share. Red
    ink flows like a river of blood.

    FreeBSD is the most endangered of them all, having
    lost 93% of its core developers. The sudden and unpleasant departures of long time
    FreeBSD developers Jordan Hubbard and Mike Smith only serve to underscore the point
    more clearly. There can no longer be any doubt: FreeBSD is dying.

    Let's
    keep to the facts and look at the numbers.

    OpenBSD leader Theo states that there
    are 7000 users of OpenBSD. How many users of NetBSD are there? Let's see. The number of
    OpenBSD versus NetBSD posts on Usenet is roughly in ratio of 5 to 1. Therefore there are
    about 7000/5 = 1400 NetBSD users. BSD/OS posts on Usenet are about half of the volume
    of NetBSD posts. Therefore there are about 700 users of BSD/OS. A recent article put
    FreeBSD at about 80 percent of the *BSD market. Therefore there are (7000+1400+700)*4 =
    36400 FreeBSD users. This is consistent with the number of FreeBSD Usenet posts.



    Due to the troubles of Walnut Creek, abysmal sales and so on, FreeBSD went out
    of business
    and was taken over by BSDI who sell another troubled OS. Now BSDI
    is also dead
    , its corpse turned over to yet another charnel house.

    All major
    surveys show that *BSD has steadily declined in market share. *BSD is very sick and
    its long term survival prospects are very dim. If *BSD is to survive at all it will
    be among OS dilettante dabblers. *BSD continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle
    could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, *BSD is dead.


    Fact: *BSD is dying

    1. Re:fp. and last post, because *BSD is dying! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

      "1400 NetBSD users"

      We are 5000 students in our school using NetBSD..
      We also use Solaris/Sparc and OSF1/Alpha (Digital Unix) but all the workstations are on NetBSD.

  3. FIRST *BSD IS DYING POST by Tuxinatorium · · Score: -1, Troll

    nt

  4. *BSD is dying by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
    It is official; Netcraft now confirms: *BSD is dying

    One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered *BSD community when IDC confirmed that *BSD market share has dropped yet again, now down to less than a fraction of 1 percent of all servers. Coming on the heels of a recent Netcraft survey which plainly states that *BSD has lost more market share, this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. *BSD is collapsing in complete disarray, as fittingly exemplified by failing dead last in the recent Sys Admin comprehensive networking test.

    You don't need to be a Kreskin to predict *BSD's future. The hand writing is on the wall: *BSD faces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for *BSD because *BSD is dying. Things are looking very bad for *BSD. As many of us are already aware, *BSD continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of blood.

    FreeBSD is the most endangered of them all, having lost 93% of its core developers. The sudden and unpleasant departures of long time FreeBSD developers Jordan Hubbard and Mike Smith only serve to underscore the point more clearly. There can no longer be any doubt: FreeBSD is dying.

    Let's keep to the facts and look at the numbers.

    OpenBSD leader Theo states that there are 7000 users of OpenBSD. How many users of NetBSD are there? Let's see. The number of OpenBSD versus NetBSD posts on Usenet is roughly in ratio of 5 to 1. Therefore there are about 7000/5 = 1400 NetBSD users. BSD/OS posts on Usenet are about half of the volume of NetBSD posts. Therefore there are about 700 users of BSD/OS. A recent article put FreeBSD at about 80 percent of the *BSD market. Therefore there are (7000+1400+700)*4 = 36400 FreeBSD users. This is consistent with the number of FreeBSD Usenet posts.

    Due to the troubles of Walnut Creek, abysmal sales and so on, FreeBSD went out of business and was taken over by BSDI who sell another troubled OS. Now BSDI is also dead, its corpse turned over to yet another charnel house.

    All major surveys show that *BSD has steadily declined in market share. *BSD is very sick and its long term survival prospects are dimmer than dim. If *BSD is to survive at all it will be among OS dilettante dabblers. *BSD continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, *BSD is dead.

    Fact: *BSD is dying

  5. stick a fork in it by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    It's dead, Jim. Fini. Kaput: *BSD is dead

  6. Video Tape Backup Howto by Groganz · · Score: 5, Funny

    1. Point your video camera at screen
    2. cat /dev/ad0s1a

  7. *BSD is as dead as this old troll by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic
    *_g_o_a_t_s_e_x_*_g_o_a_t_s_e_x_*_g_o_a_t_s_e_x_*_
    g_______________________________________________g_ _
    o_/_____\_____________\____________/____\_______o_ _
    a|_______|_____________\__________|______|______a_ _
    t|_______`._____________|_________|_______:_____t_ _
    s`________|_____________|________\|_______|_____s_ _
    e_\_______|_/_______/__\\\___--___\\_______:____e_ _
    x__\______\/____--~~__________~--__|_\_____|____x_ _
    *___\______\_-~____________________~-_\____|____*_ _
    g____\______\_________.--------.______\|___|____g_ _
    o______\_____\______//_________(_(__>__\___|____o_ _
    a_______\___.__C____)_________(_(____>__|__/____a_ _
    t_______/\_|___C_____)/______\_(_____>__|_/_____t_ _
    s______/_/\|___C_____)_______|__(___>___/__\____s_ _
    e_____|___(____C_____)\______/__//__/_/_____\___e_ _
    x_____|____\__|_____\\_________//_(__/_______|__x_ _
    *____|_\____\____)___`----___--'_____________|__*_ _
    g____|__\______________\_______/____________/_|_g_ _
    o___|______________/____|_____|__\____________|_o_ _
    a___|_____________|____/_______\__\___________|_a_ _
    t___|__________/_/____|_________|__\___________|t_ _
    s___|_________/_/______\__/\___/____|__________|s_ _
    e__|_________/_/________|____|_______|_________|e_ _
    x__|__________|_________|____|_______|_________|x_ _
    *_g_o_a_t_s_e_x_*_g_o_a_t_s_e_x_*_g_o_a_t_s_e_x_*_


    Important Stuff: Please try to keep posts on topic. Try to reply to other people's comments instead of starting new threads. Read other people's messages before posting your own to avoid simply duplicating what has already been said. Use a clear subject that describes what your message is about. Offtopic, Inflammatory, Inappropriate, Illegal, or Offensive comments might be moderated. (You can read everything, even moderated posts, by adjusting your threshold on the User Preferences Page) If you want replies to your comments sent to you, consider logging in or creating an account.

    Important Stuff: Please try to keep posts on topic. Try to reply to other people's comments instead of starting new threads. Read other people's messages before posting your own to avoid simply duplicating what has already been said. Use a clear subject that describes what your message is about. Offtopic, Inflammatory, Inappropriate, Illegal, or Offensive comments might be moderated. (You can read everything, even moderated posts, by adjusting your threshold on the User Preferences Page) If you want replies to your comments sent to you, consider logging in or creating an account.

    Important Stuff: Please try to keep posts on topic. Try to reply to other people's comments instead of starting new threads. Read other people's messages before posting your own to avoid simply duplicating what has already been said. Use a clear subject that describes what your message is about. Offtopic, Inflammatory, Inappropriate, Illegal, or Offensive comments might be moderated. (You can read everything, even moderated posts, by adjusting your threshold on the User Preferences Page) If you want replies to your comments sent to you, consider logging in or creating an account.

    Important Stuff: Please try to keep posts on topic. Try to reply to other people's comments instead of starting new threads. Read other people's messages before posting your own to avoid simply duplicating what has already been said. Use a clear subject that describes what your message is about. Offtopic, Inflammatory, Inappropriate, Illegal, or Offensi

    Read the rest of this comment...

  8. Elegy for *BSD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1
    I am a *BSD user
    and I try hard to be brave
    That is a tall order
    *BSD's foot is in the grave.

    I tap at my toy keyboard
    and whistle a happy tune
    but keeping happy's so hard,
    *BSD died so soon.

    Each day I wake and softly sob
    Nightfall finds me crying
    Not only am I a zit faced slob
    but *BSD is dying.
  9. fp!: Imagine a beowulf cluster of SOVIET grits by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Offtopic

    3.Profit!!!

  10. *BSD is dying by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
    It is now official. Netcraft has confirmed: *BSD is dying

    One more crippling bombshell hit the already beleaguered *BSD community when IDC confirmed that *BSD market share has dropped yet again, now down to less than a fraction of 1 percent of all servers. Coming on the heels of a recent Netcraft survey which plainly states that *BSD has lost more market share, this news serves to reinforce what we've known all along. *BSD is collapsing in complete disarray, as fittingly exemplified by failing dead last in the recent Sys Admin comprehensive networking test.

    You don't need to be a Kreskin to predict *BSD's future. The hand writing is on the wall: *BSD faces a bleak future. In fact there won't be any future at all for *BSD because *BSD is dying. Things are looking very bad for *BSD. As many of us are already aware, *BSD continues to lose market share. Red ink flows like a river of blood.

    FreeBSD is the most endangered of them all, having lost 93% of its core developers. The sudden and unpleasant departures of long time FreeBSD developers Jordan Hubbard and Mike Smith only serve to underscore the point more clearly. There can no longer be any doubt: FreeBSD is dying.

    Let's keep to the facts and look at the numbers.

    OpenBSD leader Theo states that there are 7000 users of OpenBSD. How many users of NetBSD are there? Let's see. The number of OpenBSD versus NetBSD posts on Usenet is roughly in ratio of 5 to 1. Therefore there are about 7000/5 = 1400 NetBSD users. BSD/OS posts on Usenet are about half of the volume of NetBSD posts. Therefore there are about 700 users of BSD/OS. A recent article put FreeBSD at about 80 percent of the *BSD market. Therefore there are (7000+1400+700)*4 = 36400 FreeBSD users. This is consistent with the number of FreeBSD Usenet posts.

    Due to the troubles of Walnut Creek, abysmal sales and so on, FreeBSD went out of business and was taken over by BSDI who sell another troubled OS. Now BSDI is also dead, its corpse turned over to yet another charnel house.

    All major surveys show that *BSD has steadily declined in market share. *BSD is very sick and its long term survival prospects are very dim. If *BSD is to survive at all it will be among OS dilettante dabblers. *BSD continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, *BSD is dead.

    Fact: *BSD is dying

  11. 4.8? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

    Wasn't 5.0 released about 3 weeks ago?

    1. Re:4.8? by cant_get_a_good_nick · · Score: 2, Informative

      Wasn't 5.0 released about 3 weeks ago?

      1) 5.0 isn't considered a stable release yet. I think 5.1, maybe even 5.2 will be the first stable release on the 5.x series. It's considered a test release.

      2) Lots of people are just plain conservative. Some people still use the 3.x series because they see no need to upgrade. I'm sure some folks still use the 2.0.x series kernel, and look for updates.

    2. Re:4.8? by Strog · · Score: 1

      Yes 5.0 was released a month ago. 4.8 will have things back-ported to it and bug fixes. Many people consider a .0 release too much risk for production environments. FreeBSD releases are very well supported for a good period of time.

      Look at the releases page. You will notice that 3.5 was released 3 months after 4.0.

  12. FreeBSD developers admit the truth by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll

    FreeBSD 5.0, 2.5 million years in the making, is a collosal failure from every angle. Despite all of the radical changes, it is turning out to be the MS-DOS 4.0 of the Unix world, so buggy that even its developers think twice about using it in a serious production environment. Now finally they are taking a step back and conceding defeat, retreating back into the obsolete past with yet another maintenance release on the 4.0 branch. Meanwhile, Mac OS, Linux, and Windows are moving forward into the future.

    So what do all you folks who still think BSD is alive say now?

    1. Re:FreeBSD developers admit the truth by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0

      I think it is telling that only a few months ago someone realised that SMPng would touch the VM code, and, um, maybe we should tell the VM guys about SMP. Oops. So all of the driver functions that may have to allocate memory using the VM must be executed serially. Suuuuuuck go the CPU cycles.

    2. Re:FreeBSD developers admit the truth by Stinson · · Score: 1

      So what do all you folks who still think BSD is alive say now?, well, i'd have to say BSD is still alive now, maybe freebsd is in the past as you say, but don't forget freebsd != BSD, open/free/net/bsdi = BSD. But here's also something to think about. Whats linux in right now, 2.4.20? something like that? they're already working on 3 anyways, so does it make them in the past if they were to release something like 2.4.21? "oh god! they're releasing more under that OLD branch!".

  13. That's actually useful by Animats · · Score: 1
    I'mw riting FireWire support for QNX, and having that to look at will be helpful.

    Linux support for FireWire isn't very general yet. The bus reset logic needs work, and the isochronous support only appears to support one device (on channel zero) at a time.

  14. BSD is dying by Anonymous Coward · · Score: -1, Troll
    It is official; Netcraft now confirms: *BSD is dying

    One more crippling
    bombshell hit the already beleaguered *BSD community when IDC confirmed that *BSD
    market share has dropped yet again, now down to less than a fraction of 1 percent of
    all servers. Coming on the heels of a recent Netcraft survey which plainly states
    that *BSD has lost more market share, this news serves to reinforce what we've
    known all along. *BSD is collapsing in complete disarray, as fittingly exemplified by
    failing dead last
    in the recent Sys Admin comprehensive networking test.

    You don't need to
    be a Kreskin to predict *BSD's
    future. The hand writing is on the wall: *BSD faces a bleak future. In fact there won't
    be any future at all for *BSD because *BSD is dying. Things are looking very
    bad for *BSD. As many of us are already aware, *BSD continues to lose market share. Red
    ink flows like a river of blood.

    FreeBSD is the most endangered of them all, having
    lost 93% of its core developers. The sudden and unpleasant departures of long time
    FreeBSD developers Jordan Hubbard and Mike Smith only serve to underscore the point
    more clearly. There can no longer be any doubt: FreeBSD is dying.

    Let's
    keep to the facts and look at the numbers.

    OpenBSD leader Theo states that there
    are 7000 users of OpenBSD. How many users of NetBSD are there? Let's see. The number of
    OpenBSD versus NetBSD posts on Usenet is roughly in ratio of 5 to 1. Therefore there are
    about 7000/5 = 1400 NetBSD users. BSD/OS posts on Usenet are about half of the volume
    of NetBSD posts. Therefore there are about 700 users of BSD/OS. A recent article put
    FreeBSD at about 80 percent of the *BSD market. Therefore there are (7000+1400+700)*4 =
    36400 FreeBSD users. This is consistent with the number of FreeBSD Usenet posts.


    Due to the troubles of Walnut Creek, abysmal sales and so on, FreeBSD went out
    of business
    and was taken over by BSDI who sell another troubled OS. Now BSDI
    is also dead
    , its corpse turned over to yet another charnel house.

    All major
    surveys show that *BSD has steadily declined in market share. *BSD is very sick and
    its long term survival prospects are very dim. If *BSD is to survive at all it will
    be among OS dilettante dabblers. *BSD continues to decay. Nothing short of a miracle
    could save it at this point in time. For all practical purposes, *BSD is dead.


    Fact: *BSD is dying

    1. Re:BSD is dying by LuckyStarr · · Score: 1

      funny. now that i just realized how cool it is and after switching dozens of machines to it.... it dies.

      i figure i am always a little bit too late...

      --
      Meme of the day: I browse "Disable Sigs: Checked". So should you.
    2. Re:BSD is dying by buggered · · Score: 1

      Whew!, you really had me worried there for a second. But I logged into my machine and FreeBSD is running just fine.

      And it appears to me that you left all of the Mac OS X users out of your calculations. There are a million or two of those. Technically aren't they FreeBSD users?

    3. Re:BSD is dying by TheRaven64 · · Score: 1

      Platforms always seem to become popular just after I stop using them (NT derivatives, Linux etc.) I plan on stopping using FreeBSD and moving to the Mac in a few months. Watch this space...

      --
      I am TheRaven on Soylent News
  15. Elegy for *BSD by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 0
    Elegy For *BSD

    I am a *BSD user
    and I try hard to be brave
    That is a tall order
    *BSD's foot is in the grave.

    I tap at my toy keyboard
    and whistle a happy tune
    but keeping happy's so hard,
    *BSD died so soon.

    Each day I wake and softly sob
    Nightfall finds me crying
    Not only am I a zit faced slob
    but *BSD is dying.