[lm-sensors] Driver for Fintech F75375S?

[lm-sensors] Driver for Fintech F75375S?

[Martin Michlmayr]

I was wondering if anyone is working on a driver for the Fintech
F75375S?  According to http://www.lm-sensors.org/wiki/NewDrivers
a datasheet is available, but there is "no request".  I have a
Thecus N2100, an ARM based NAS device, which has such a sensor
and it would be great if it was supported.  While the vendor includes
a driver, it is not done in a way that would be appropriate for
mainline kernel inclusion.

Is anyone interested in implementing such a driver?  I'd be glad to
test it.
-- 
Martin Michlmayr
http://www.cyrius.com/

[lm-sensors] Driver for Fintech F75375S?

[Jean Delvare]

Hi Martin,

On Thu, 10 Aug 2006 19:42:46 +0200, Martin Michlmayr wrote:
> I was wondering if anyone is working on a driver for the Fintech
> F75375S?  According to http://www.lm-sensors.org/wiki/NewDrivers
> a datasheet is available, but there is "no request".  I have a

I've updated the page to mention your request.

> Thecus N2100, an ARM based NAS device, which has such a sensor
> and it would be great if it was supported.  While the vendor includes
> a driver, it is not done in a way that would be appropriate for
> mainline kernel inclusion.

That's still interesting that they provided a Linux driver. If it is
publicly available, can you please point me to it?

> Is anyone interested in implementing such a driver?  I'd be glad to
> test it.

Riku Voipio (Cc'd) has been writing a driver. Nobody reviewed nor
tested it yet as far as I know, but you might want to be the first
tester (at your own risk, of course.) Riku, can you please send the
latest version of your driver to Martin (in private, as the list
received it some times ago already)? Thanks.

-- 
Jean Delvare

[lm-sensors] Driver for Fintech F75375S?

[Martin Michlmayr]

Jean,

* Jean Delvare <khali at linux-fr.org> [2006-11-04 15:23]:
> That's still interesting that they provided a Linux driver. If it is
> publicly available, can you please point me to it?

It's included in their GPL source tar ball which can be found at
http://www.thecus.com/dl.php  The current URL seems to be
http://www.thecus.com/Downloads/n2100_2.1.01_GPL.tar.bz2

> Riku Voipio (Cc'd) has been writing a driver. Nobody reviewed nor
> tested it yet as far as I know, but you might want to be the first
> tester (at your own risk, of course.) Riku, can you please send the
> latest version of your driver to Martin (in private, as the list
> received it some times ago already)? Thanks.

I know.  I'm successfully using this driver already.  It would be
great if someone could review it so it can be included in the mainline
kernel.

Thanks.
-- 
Martin Michlmayr
http://www.cyrius.com/

[lm-sensors] Driver for Fintech F75375S?

[Riku Voipio]

On Sat, Nov 04, 2006 at 03:48:54PM +0100, Martin Michlmayr wrote:
> Jean,
> 
> * Jean Delvare <khali at linux-fr.org> [2006-11-04 15:23]:
> > That's still interesting that they provided a Linux driver. If it is
> > publicly available, can you please point me to it?
 
> It's included in their GPL source tar ball which can be found at
> http://www.thecus.com/dl.php  The current URL seems to be
> http://www.thecus.com/Downloads/n2100_2.1.01_GPL.tar.bz2

and a direct link to the file:

http://piipiip.net/~nchip/All6500_2.0.00/build/linux/drivers/i2c/chips/thecus_rtc.c

functions starting with "f75373_" are related to the fintek chip.
Notice that they don't implement a hwmon device, but rather their own
/proc/thecus_io interface.

[lm-sensors] Driver for Fintech F75375S?

[Jean Delvare]

On Sat, 4 Nov 2006 17:07:15 +0200, Riku Voipio wrote:
> On Sat, Nov 04, 2006 at 03:48:54PM +0100, Martin Michlmayr wrote:
> > Jean,
> > 
> > * Jean Delvare <khali at linux-fr.org> [2006-11-04 15:23]:
> > > That's still interesting that they provided a Linux driver. If it is
> > > publicly available, can you please point me to it?
>  
> > It's included in their GPL source tar ball which can be found at
> > http://www.thecus.com/dl.php  The current URL seems to be
> > http://www.thecus.com/Downloads/n2100_2.1.01_GPL.tar.bz2

A 120 MB archive, took me 2 hours to fetch. Not exactly convenient.

> and a direct link to the file:
> 
> http://piipiip.net/~nchip/All6500_2.0.00/build/linux/drivers/i2c/chips/thecus_rtc.c
> 
> functions starting with "f75373_" are related to the fintek chip.
> Notice that they don't implement a hwmon device, but rather their own
> /proc/thecus_io interface.

Indeed, it might be GPL source code, but it's proprietary code in the
sense it doesn't follow any standard. A single driver for three
distinct I2C devices isn't exactly smart, and many values appear to be
hardcoded for the exact Thecus N2100 hardware, so the code is hardly
reusable.

I admit I don't understand companies who base their products on Linux,
and play fair by contributing their code back to the comunity, but in a
way that it'll never get merged. It means they spent efforts inventing
interfaces when standard ones existed. It also means they have to
maintain their contribution by themselves forever, and that their
contribution won't integrate well with the rest of the Linux software.
So in the end the user doesn't benefit at all.

-- 
Jean Delvare

[lm-sensors] Driver for Fintech F75375S?

[Jean Delvare]

On Sat, 4 Nov 2006 15:48:54 +0100, Martin Michlmayr wrote:
> * Jean Delvare <khali at linux-fr.org> [2006-11-04 15:23]:
> > Riku Voipio (Cc'd) has been writing a driver. Nobody reviewed nor
> > tested it yet as far as I know, but you might want to be the first
> > tester (at your own risk, of course.) Riku, can you please send the
> > latest version of your driver to Martin (in private, as the list
> > received it some times ago already)? Thanks.
> 
> I know.  I'm successfully using this driver already.  It would be
> great if someone could review it so it can be included in the mainline
> kernel.

True, it would be great, if someone with the appropriate skills would
have the time to do so. I don't at the moment.

-- 
Jean Delvare