[no real] Problem with FC 4 and SATA (hdparm [warning])

[Andy Green]

Sebastian Kösters wrote:

> But what das the error mean and why does it come? 
> 
> On google i did not find a clear answer

>>>HDIO_DRIVE_CMD(null) (wait for flush complete) failed: Inappropriate ioctl
>>>for device

It looks like the SATA driver in use rejects this attempt by hdparm to
use an ioctl.  Ioctls are ways to pass commands and requests to a driver
from userspace that do not fit the "file" semantics of a device node
that communicates with the driver.  For example, you can do stuff like

cat /dev/dsp > /dev/dsp

to copy audio in into your audio out using file semantics, but to set
the sample rate for the audio you use an ioctl on /dev/dsp outside of
the familiar open/read/write/seek/close file semantics.

Since the "wait for flush complete" ioctl is not really critical to
operation of the drive, and if it fails to be honoured is unlikely to
destroy data (except at shutdown arguably), losing that capability only
screws up timing actions like on hdparm.  Hence it looks harmless.

-Andy

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