Why the Ps2 Tool has two drives

Why is my attention drawn to these particular lines ?

 

You tell me!
I thought you would have noticed the memory size first...

 

Thought that was generally known tbh!

 

Ok, you caught me... I'm pretty unfamiliar with a lot of the linux boot process...

I don't follow?

I figured this'd be a no-brainer if we're recompiling the kernel...

What _IS_ the deal with Power Control, and why is it a big deal? I assume this is referring to the reset operations, but I could be wholly wrong?


Anyway.. still waiting for my external PS2 drive to show up- since I can't play with linux until then unless I install on this secondary drive, I'm assuming there's some magical process by which one can recompile the kernel on a retail/TEST, and boot an install session on the TOOL with it?

 

Can you install your own Linux version (or even Windows) on HDD2 and connect it to the SBC? How many IDE ports do both the 586HVE and 815VE have? I initially thought it was 3, but I'm probably wrong...

 

On PS2 models where the hard drive is internal, while the hard drive is active, the syscon will not perform an automatic reset of the system. Instead a flag is set, which is read by the EE kernel signaling that shutdown measures have to be executed, as per user request (reset button was pressed). So tasks such as suspend running threads, close files and unmount filesystem(s) will be performed before an final "ok" is sent to the syscon which then finally shuts down the system.

Perhaps these drivers are meant to implement that behavior on the TOOL ?