The following reply was made to PR kern/36873; it has been noted by GNATS.

From: Manuel Bouyer <bouyer@antioche.eu.org>
To: gnats-bugs@NetBSD.org
Cc: kern-bug-people@NetBSD.org, gnats-admin@NetBSD.org,
	netbsd-bugs@NetBSD.org
Subject: Re: kern/36873: boot takes a long time when there are offline "disks"
Date: Fri, 31 Aug 2007 21:22:35 +0200

 On Fri, Aug 31, 2007 at 02:30:00PM +0000, Arne H. Juul wrote:
 > [...]
 > System: NetBSD inngang 4.99.30 NetBSD 4.99.30 (GENERIC.MP) #6: Fri Aug 31 01:22:50 CEST 2007 root@inngang:/usr/obj/sys/arch/i386/compile/GENERIC.MP i386
 > Architecture: i386
 > Machine: i386
 > >Description:
 >  	My machine takes a looong time (> 5 minutes) to boot currently,
 >  	and I think I've found the reason:
 > 
 >  	I've got a standard new desktop machine with memory card
 >  	readers in front.  These appear as SCSI disks attached via
 >  	USB, and since I don't have memory cards in them they show
 >  	up as "offline".  But still, it takes a very long time
 >  	during boot - probably in findroot for the kernel to figure
 >  	out that these aren't the root disk it's looking for.  It
 >  	should notice the "offline" and continue at once, I guess...
 > 
 >  	The workaround is simply to disconnect the cable that goes
 >  	to the card-readers and front USB connector.
 > >How-To-Repeat:
 > 
 >  	Actually, any offline SCSI disks might produce the same symptoms, I guess:
 
 No, booting with offline drive (be they atapi, SCSI or USB) isn't a problem.
 I think your reader is behaving in an unusual way.
 
 -- 
 Manuel Bouyer <bouyer@antioche.eu.org>
      NetBSD: 26 ans d'experience feront toujours la difference
 --