Re: modutils 2.4.2, please test asap

[Miles Lane <miles@megapathdsl.net>]

Keith Owens wrote:

> Please test this modutils patch ASAP, at least one distribution is
> waiting to burn their master CD for kernel 2.4.0.  Remove
> patch-2.4.0-hotplug from the kernel if you have installed it.
> 
> This patch is being released under protest.  It completely drops
> support for USB device ids on kernel 2.4.0-prerelease and earlier.
> That will break USB support for anybody who installs modutils 2.4.2 and
> tries to run a kernel before 2.4.0.
> 
> Breaking backwards compatibility goes completely against the grain for
> modutils.  It goes to a lot of bother to support users on older kernels
> and to ensure that any mix of new modutils and old kernels will work,
> even down to kernel 2.0.  But since the USB maintainers are refusing to
> support USB on anything older than 2.4.0, I have no choice but to break
> backwards compatibility.

Hey.  Let's be fair here.  Linus rejected your patch for reasons that
had absolutely nothing to do with USB backport support issues.
Rather, the kernel version tracking was rejected because Linus wants
that functionality added in 2.5 in a careful manner.  I'm not saying
your patch wasn't perfect and thoughtful.  I thought your patch looked
great, but I don't control kernel checkins.

Regarding the USB backport support, the usbd and kernel policy stuff
that David Brownell and others develops works great for that environment.
There are several important functional holes in the backport.  One of them
being in the USB Storage area.  If I understand this correctly, these are
holes that are intrinsic to the older kernel and are not easily worked
around.  All that to say that noone using a 2.2 kernel is going to be
in USB nirvana anyhow, though it works quite well.
Be assured, I'll be delighted when Linus accepts your patch and
modutils can support kernel version tracking so that modutils can
better support and handle ABI changes.  We are all just rolling with
Linus.  He is calling the shots, here.

I appreciate you getting this functional change into 2.4.2 so that
USB users in the 2.4.0 series can use hotplugging.  I'll test your patch
immediately.

Best wishes,

	Miles


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