[PATCH] SMP fix for 6pack driver

[PATCH] SMP fix for 6pack driver

[Ralf Baechle]

Drivers really only work well in SMP if they actually can be selected.
This is a leftover from the time when the 6pack drive only used to be
a bitrotten variant of the slip driver.

Signed-off-by: Ralf Baechle DL5RB <ralf@linux-mips.org>

 Kconfig |    2 +-
 1 files changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)

Index: linux-cvs/drivers/net/hamradio/Kconfig
===================================================================
--- linux-cvs.orig/drivers/net/hamradio/Kconfig	2005-05-20 12:29:58.000000000 +0100
+++ linux-cvs/drivers/net/hamradio/Kconfig	2005-07-04 18:23:17.000000000 +0100
@@ -17,7 +17,7 @@
 
 config 6PACK
 	tristate "Serial port 6PACK driver"
-	depends on AX25 && BROKEN_ON_SMP
+	depends on AX25
 	---help---
 	  6pack is a transmission protocol for the data exchange between your
 	  PC and your TNC (the Terminal Node Controller acts as a kind of

Re: [PATCH] SMP fix for 6pack driver

[Chuck Hast]

On 7/4/05, Ralf Baechle <ralf@linux-mips.org> wrote:
> Drivers really only work well in SMP if they actually can be selected.
> This is a leftover from the time when the 6pack drive only used to be
> a bitrotten variant of the slip driver.
> 
> Signed-off-by: Ralf Baechle DL5RB <ralf@linux-mips.org>
> 
>  Kconfig |    2 +-
>  1 files changed, 1 insertion(+), 1 deletion(-)
> 
> Index: linux-cvs/drivers/net/hamradio/Kconfig
> ===================================================================
> --- linux-cvs.orig/drivers/net/hamradio/Kconfig 2005-05-20 12:29:58.000000000 +0100
> +++ linux-cvs/drivers/net/hamradio/Kconfig      2005-07-04 18:23:17.000000000 +0100
> @@ -17,7 +17,7 @@
> 
>  config 6PACK
>         tristate "Serial port 6PACK driver"
> -       depends on AX25 && BROKEN_ON_SMP
> +       depends on AX25
>         ---help---
>           6pack is a transmission protocol for the data exchange between your
>           PC and your TNC (the Terminal Node Controller acts as a kind of
> 
> -
Ralf,
Does 6pack still only handle 1 tnc under Linux or have you got it to do
a ring of TNC's like the DOS one does? Sure would like to see that on
Linux, would cut cost for us where we have multiple TNC's and want to
use a simple machine.


-- 
Chuck Hast 
To paraphrase my flight instructor;
"the only dumb question is the one you DID NOT ask resulting in my going
out and having to identify your bits and pieces in the midst of torn
and twisted metal."

Re: [PATCH] SMP fix for 6pack driver

[Ralf Baechle DL5RB]

On Tue, Jul 05, 2005 at 04:45:56AM -0600, Chuck Hast wrote:

> Does 6pack still only handle 1 tnc under Linux or have you got it to do
> a ring of TNC's like the DOS one does? Sure would like to see that on
> Linux, would cut cost for us where we have multiple TNC's and want to
> use a simple machine.

Such a limitation has never existed as far as I can tell; the sole
limitation is to a single TNC per RS-232 interface.  Daisy chaining
multiple TNCs per interface is still not supported.  If you run out
of serial interfaces using for example USB serial interfaces should
work just fine.

(For dare devils, attaching a remote 6pack TNC via for example ssh sort
of works also ;-)

73 de DL5RB op Ralf

--
Loc. JN47BS / CQ 14 / ITU 28 / DOK A21

Re: [PATCH] SMP fix for 6pack driver

[Chuck Hast]

On 7/5/05, Ralf Baechle DL5RB <ralf@linux-mips.org> wrote:
> On Tue, Jul 05, 2005 at 04:45:56AM -0600, Chuck Hast wrote:
> 
> > Does 6pack still only handle 1 tnc under Linux or have you got it to do
> > a ring of TNC's like the DOS one does? Sure would like to see that on
> > Linux, would cut cost for us where we have multiple TNC's and want to
> > use a simple machine.
> 
> Such a limitation has never existed as far as I can tell; the sole
> limitation is to a single TNC per RS-232 interface.  Daisy chaining
> multiple TNCs per interface is still not supported.  If you run out
> of serial interfaces using for example USB serial interfaces should
> work just fine.
> 
Ralf,
What is lacking that would allow 6pack TNC's to be daisy chained?
By doing so we would be able to use a single serial port to support
multiple TNC's I have the documentation on how to wire the hardware
and that is no big deal.

I have USB running on a laptop, it works well most of the time but
at times when the machine boots one or other ports generates the
"trying to synch tnc" message. The serial port always works. 

I think that at times the USB part is slow to get totally initialized so
I have gone in and added sleeps to slow things down a bit at init.



> (For dare devils, attaching a remote 6pack TNC via for example ssh sort
> of works also ;-)
> 

Ahh a subversive TNC to spy on a remote network???



-- 
Chuck Hast 
To paraphrase my flight instructor;
"the only dumb question is the one you DID NOT ask resulting in my going
out and having to identify your bits and pieces in the midst of torn
and twisted metal."

Re: [PATCH] SMP fix for 6pack driver

[Ralf Baechle DL5RB]

On Tue, Jul 05, 2005 at 12:06:41PM -0400, Chuck Hast wrote:

> Ralf,
> What is lacking that would allow 6pack TNC's to be daisy chained?
> By doing so we would be able to use a single serial port to support
> multiple TNC's I have the documentation on how to wire the hardware
> and that is no big deal.

Well, by the time I was writing that driver I didn't have a 6pack TNC
at all, so I wrote a 6pack TNC emulator that is capable of simulating
a single TNC.  I still don't have multiple TNCs, unfortunately, so I'm
planning on extending that emulator for my work :-)

You could try EB6EBU's m6pack which is an application level solution
to the problem. I'm undecieded, maybe it's even preferable over a kernel
solution.

> I have USB running on a laptop, it works well most of the time but
> at times when the machine boots one or other ports generates the
> "trying to synch tnc" message. The serial port always works. 
> 
> I think that at times the USB part is slow to get totally initialized so
> I have gone in and added sleeps to slow things down a bit at init.

Mine seems to be ok as long as the machine survives plugging in the
USB device and open()ing the device file.  Never really looked into it,
blaming the driver for now.

> > (For dare devils, attaching a remote 6pack TNC via for example ssh sort
> > of works also ;-)
> > 
> 
> Ahh a subversive TNC to spy on a remote network???

It's a strategy that allows attaching the TNC to any UNIX machine,
even without AX.25 support.  It's a hack but I was playing with it
for a while when I ran out of interfaces.

73 de DL5RB op Ralf

--
Loc. JN47BS / CQ 14 / ITU 28 / DOK A21

Re: [PATCH] SMP fix for 6pack driver

[Bill Vodall]

> 
> It's a strategy that allows attaching the TNC to any UNIX machine,
> even without AX.25 support.  It's a hack but I was playing with it
> for a while when I ran out of interfaces.

That could be VERY userful...   Any more details available?

Thanks,
Bill - WA7NWP

Re: [PATCH] SMP fix for 6pack driver

[Ralf Baechle DL5RB]

On Tue, Jul 05, 2005 at 05:39:44PM -0500, Bill Vodall wrote:

> > It's a strategy that allows attaching the TNC to any UNIX machine,
> > even without AX.25 support.  It's a hack but I was playing with it
> > for a while when I ran out of interfaces.
> 
> That could be VERY userful...   Any more details available?

6pack is implemented as a line discipline, so any tty, including a pseudo
tty can be turned into a 6pack interface.  So all it takes is a network
connection, let's say through ssh, an application on the remote side that
transfers data on the remote side between that connecton and the
/dev/tty... character device to which the TNC is connected.  Same thing
also on the local side, just between the pseudo-tty and the filedescriptor.
Pretty much a nobrainer to implement but latency could be a slight
problem.

(And if you don't truncate the cc list of email you even have a chance to
getting answers in time ...)

  Ralf

SMP fix for mkiss driver ?

[Bernard Pidoux]

Hi all,

Has someone worked on making mkiss driver compatible with smp kernel ?

73 de Bernard, f6bvp

mkiss driver patch applied ?

[Bernard Pidoux]

Hi,

I tried to apply Ralf's patch to mkiss.c without success.

Did someone succeed ?

I would like very much to test this version with 2.6.11mdksmp kernel.

Could someone send me privately the full modified mkiss.c ?

73 de Bernard, f6bvp

-----------------
From: Ralf Baechle <eymz.emoob@killerinstinct.net>
Date: Thu Jul 07 2005 - 22:27:01 EEST

This is an almost complete rewrite of the mkiss driver trying to fix all
the issues this driver was having such as SMP, preemption etc. Basically
this makes this driver more of a descendant of PPP than of the old slip
code, as it used to be.

73 de DL5RB op Ralf

--
Loc. JN47BS / CQ 14 / ITU 28 / DOK A21
  mkiss.c | 1052 
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++----------------------------------
  1 files changed, 507 insertions(+), 545 deletions(-)
Index: linux-cvs/drivers/net/hamradio/mkiss.c
===================================================================
--- linux-cvs.orig/drivers/net/hamradio/mkiss.c	2005-07-06 
22:09:27.000000000 +0100
+++ linux-cvs/drivers/net/hamradio/mkiss.c	2005-07-06 22:48:52.000000000 
+0100

Re: mkiss driver patch applied ?

[Stephen]

On Sat, 9 Jul 2005 4:51 pm, Bernard Pidoux wrote:

> I tried to apply Ralf's patch to mkiss.c without success.
>
> Did someone succeed ?
>
> I would like very much to test this version with 2.6.11mdksmp kernel.
>
> Could someone send me privately the full modified mkiss.c ?

the patch is only for 2.6.12.x kernels


-- 
Stephen - vk3heg

Re: mkiss driver patch applied ?

[Bernard Pidoux]

Hi Stephen,

Thank you.

But I tried to apply it on different mkiss.c up to the last kernel 
2.6.12.2 without success.

I really need some more info about the source of mkiss.c repository or 
to receive the full patched mkiss.c

73 de Bernard, f6bvp

-----------

Stephen wrote :
> On Sat, 9 Jul 2005 4:51 pm, Bernard Pidoux wrote:
> 
> 
>>I tried to apply Ralf's patch to mkiss.c without success.
>>
>>Did someone succeed ?
>>
>>I would like very much to test this version with 2.6.11mdksmp kernel.
>>
>>Could someone send me privately the full modified mkiss.c ?
> 
> 
> the patch is only for 2.6.12.x kernels
> 
> 

Re: mkiss driver patch applied ?

[Ralf Baechle DL5RB]

On Sat, Jul 09, 2005 at 11:13:10PM +0000, Stephen wrote:

> 
> > I tried to apply Ralf's patch to mkiss.c without success.
> >
> > Did someone succeed ?
> >
> > I would like very much to test this version with 2.6.11mdksmp kernel.
> >
> > Could someone send me privately the full modified mkiss.c ?
> 
> the patch is only for 2.6.12.x kernels

Or more accurately, it should work for 2.6.12-rc4 or newer.  The
sympthom for kernels older than this is this warning:

  CC      drivers/net/hamradio/mkiss.o
drivers/net/hamradio/mkiss.c: In function `ax_bump':
drivers/net/hamradio/mkiss.c:267: warning: implicit declaration of function
`ax25_type_trans'

The warning unfortunately is the sympthom of a serious problem ...

  Ralf

Re: [stable] [PATCH] SMP fix for 6pack driver

[Chris Wright]

* Ralf Baechle (ralf@linux-mips.org) wrote:
> Drivers really only work well in SMP if they actually can be selected.
> This is a leftover from the time when the 6pack drive only used to be
> a bitrotten variant of the slip driver.

Hmm, it's been this way for quite a while, and users can still build w/
CONFIG_CLEAN_COMPILE=n.  So, obligatory questions...  I suspect it was
orignally marked broken for cli/sti abuse, quick grep suggests this has
been dealt with.  Have the reasons it was marked broken been addressed?

thanks,
-chris

Re: [stable] [PATCH] SMP fix for 6pack driver

[Ralf Baechle DL5RB]

On Tue, Jul 05, 2005 at 08:26:06AM -0700, Chris Wright wrote:

> * Ralf Baechle (ralf@linux-mips.org) wrote:
> > Drivers really only work well in SMP if they actually can be selected.
> > This is a leftover from the time when the 6pack drive only used to be
> > a bitrotten variant of the slip driver.
> 
> Hmm, it's been this way for quite a while, and users can still build w/
> CONFIG_CLEAN_COMPILE=n.  So, obligatory questions...  I suspect it was
> orignally marked broken for cli/sti abuse, quick grep suggests this has
> been dealt with.  Have the reasons it was marked broken been addressed?

Obviously, otherwise I'd not send such a patch :-)  cli/sti abuse etc.
6pack was pretty much 2.0 or even pre-2.0 code before I started.

Somehow I managed to strip the BROKEN_ON_SMP patch bit from the last set
of 6pack patches I sent, it was supposed to be in there.

I got a similar near-rewrite for mkiss in the queue but that certainly
isn't something for -stable, way too large.

73 de DL5RB op Ralf

--
Loc. JN47BS / CQ 14 / ITU 28 / DOK A21

Re: [stable] [PATCH] SMP fix for 6pack driver

[Chris Wright]

* Ralf Baechle DL5RB (ralf@linux-mips.org) wrote:
> Obviously, otherwise I'd not send such a patch :-)

;-)

> cli/sti abuse etc.
> 6pack was pretty much 2.0 or even pre-2.0 code before I started.
> 
> Somehow I managed to strip the BROKEN_ON_SMP patch bit from the last set
> of 6pack patches I sent, it was supposed to be in there.

Thanks Ralf, I've no issue with this, esp. since it's so trivial.
-chris

Re: [PATCH] SMP fix for 6pack driver

[Jeff Garzik]

applied