From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Vernon Mauery Subject: Re: [Patch] IBM Real-Time "SMI Free" mode driver -v7 Date: Thu, 21 Oct 2010 07:38:21 -0700 Message-ID: <20101021143821.GB8754@lucy> References: <20101005224718.GC4046@lucy> <20101021135429.GC22133@srcf.ucam.org> <20101021142319.GA8754@lucy> <20101021142523.GA23171@srcf.ucam.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Return-path: Received: from e38.co.us.ibm.com ([32.97.110.159]:44186 "EHLO e38.co.us.ibm.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751985Ab0JUOiY (ORCPT ); Thu, 21 Oct 2010 10:38:24 -0400 Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <20101021142523.GA23171@srcf.ucam.org> Sender: platform-driver-x86-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: To: Matthew Garrett Cc: Linux Kernel Mailing List , Randy Dunlap , Linux Documentation , Platform driver x86 On 21-Oct-2010 03:25 PM, Matthew Garrett wrote: >On Thu, Oct 21, 2010 at 07:23:19AM -0700, Vernon Mauery wrote: >> On 21-Oct-2010 02:54 PM, Matthew Garrett wrote: >>> Applied, thanks. It'd be nice if we didn't have to rely on DMI, >>> especially since enterprise customers often end up running later kernels >> >> I am not sure what you mean here by problems with DMI running later >> kernels. > >Oops, sorry! I mean running on older kernels. Do older kernels not have DMI support? I would think that if an enterprise distribution wanted this driver they would likely already have DMI support backported as well. Or they can work with me to find a way that works in that kernel. I was thinking that in the current (and future) kernel, DMI was the best way to go. >>> - is there any other way to determine that this is safe to load? Could >> >> I can't think of anything off the top of my head that would allow us to >> ensure that this is only loaded on IBM systems. DMI is pretty good >> about that. > >I'd suggest using DMI to verify that it's an IBM, and perhaps also using >DMI to check that it's a server or blade rather than a laptop or >desktop. After that you could just check the ebda rather than having to >have an entry for every specific machine. I went for a better safe than sorry route. Before I added the DMI checking I had some reports of this getting loaded on non-IBM hardware and it came up with some nasty error messages. I figured since I knew exactly which platforms have support, I could just limit the driver to those. Then there is the force parameter that allows a user to ignore the DMI data and try to load the driver anyway. --Vernon