Re: Procedure to make the driver into the backports project

[Arend van Spriel <arend@broadcom.com>]

On 05-06-14 23:30, Fariya wrote:
> Hello,
>
> Thanks for answering all my queries so far. I just wanted to clarify
> one important thing - The latest backport release is of the kernel
> 3.15-rc1-1. [http://drvbp1.linux-foundation.org/~mcgrof/rel-html/backports/]
> So this means I need to submit my patch(es) for this kernel or the
> latest kernel available on kernel.org which is 3.15-rc8? Also, can I
> send like a single patch which handles all kernels or do I need to
> submit patches for each kernel from 3.0 to 3.14?

Let's try once more. the release page contains stable releases and 
development release. The development release is a snapshot taken from 
linux-next (so including wireless-next) so it has everything you throw 
at John and gets applied by him. The package can be used to build 
drivers for a particular target kernel, ie. 3.0 to 3.14. So you don't 
need to submit any driver patches as the backport packaging script will 
get simply copy the driver sources from linux-next repository.

Regards,
Arend

> Regards,
> Fariya
>
>
> On Thu, Jun 5, 2014 at 3:57 AM, Fariya <fariyaf@gmail.com> wrote:
>
>> On Thu, May 29, 2014 at 8:09 PM, Arend van Spriel <arend@broadcom.com> wrote:
>>> On 05/29/14 12:03, Fariya wrote:
>>>>
>>>> Hello Arend,
>>>>
>>>> Thanks for the reply. I do have a few more questions:
>>>> a) I kind of went through the existing drivers in the backport release
>>>> and found that the framework that you are talking of is more of #ifdef
>>>> LINUX_VERSION_CODE>= KERNEL_VERSION() handling for various kernels.
>>>> Please correct me if I am wrong.
>>>
>>>
>>> Kind of correct. A backport release is done taking a snapshot of
>>> linux-stable and patch it with those ifdef and other tricks. The script
>>> taking the snapshot and the patches is what is in the backport repo.
>>>
>>> Basically, the drivers are copied as is and the kernel functions these
>>> driver use are subject to being backported when these functions are not
>>> available in the older kernels.
>>>
>>>
>>>> b) How do I ensure that my driver gets into backport repo. Do I need
>>>> to send patches [the patch will contain code for various kernels,
>>>> handled via the #ifdef LINUX_VERSION_CODE>= .... code?] for my latest
>>>> driver onto this e-mail list?
>>>
>>>
>>> The backport takes a snapshot from linux-stable and linux-next so anything
>>> you send to John will end up in the backport releases. So you only need to
>>> submit something if the backport driver code would not compile, which means
>>> some function called in the driver needs backporting.
>>>
>>>
>>>> c) Assuming my driver gets into the backport repo soon, I am wondering
>>>> how the future versions of my driver will be backported? [considering
>>>> that I would be submitting code compatible to the latest kernel onto
>>>> the linux-wireless mailing list] Do I need to send a patch to the
>>>> backports mailing list, for any submission that I make to the
>>>> linux-wireless mailing list?
>>>
>>>
>>> As mentioned above there is no need unless you want to contribute to the
>>> code in the backports repo, ie. the stuff that creates the backport
>>> releases.
>>>
>>> Regards,
>>> Arend
>>>
>>>
>>>> On Mon, May 26, 2014 at 7:45 PM, Arend van Spriel<arend@broadcom.com>
>>>> wrote:
>>>>>
>>>>> On 05/26/14 15:44, Arend van Spriel wrote:
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> On 05/26/14 11:47, Fariya wrote:
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Hi,
>>>>>>>
>>>>>>> My company's wireless driver is a part of the latest 3.15-rc kernel.
>>>>>>> My question is pertaining to the backports project. How does the
>>>>>>> procedure at backports work? Will my driver be picked up and
>>>>>>> backported by the backports group now that it is part of the kernel or
>>>>>>> the owner of the driver needs to backport the driver [for various
>>>>>>> kernels] and provide it on to this mailing list initially?
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> The backport repo does not hold a backported driver, but a framework to
>>>>>> create a package of the latest drivers which can be automatically
>>>>>> backported to various kernels.
>>>>>>
>>>>>> When you check out the backports repository on kernel.org there is a
>>>>>> copy-list file which lists everything that is copied from the kernel
>>>>>> tree to be included in the backport package. First step would be to add
>>>>>> you driver to that list. If you are lucky that might be sufficient.
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>> However, a quick try over here shows not :-p
>>>>>
>>>>> /tmp/backporst-rsi/drivers/net/wireless/rsi/rsi_91x_mac80211.c: In
>>>>> function
>>>>> rsi_mac80211_attach:
>>>>> /tmp/backporst-rsi/drivers/net/wireless/rsi/rsi_91x_mac80211.c:988:2:
>>>>> error:
>>>>> implicit declaration of function ether_addr_copy
>>>>> [-Werror=implicit-function-declaration]
>>>>> cc1: some warnings being treated as errors
>>>>> make[7]: ***
>>>>> [/tmp/backporst-rsi/drivers/net/wireless/rsi/rsi_91x_mac80211.o] Error 1
>>>>>
>>>>> Regards,
>>>>> Arend
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>> Regards,
>>>>>> Arend
>>>>>>
>>>>>>> Regards,
>>>>>>> Fariya
>>>>>>> --
>>>>>>> To unsubscribe from this list: send the line "unsubscribe backports" in
>>>>>>> the body of a message to majordomo@vger.kernel.org
>>>>>>> More majordomo info at http://vger.kernel.org/majordomo-info.html
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>>
>>>>>> --
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>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>>
>>>
>>
>>
>>
>> --
>> -Fariya Fatima
>
>
>