From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-path: Received: from fg-out-1718.google.com ([72.14.220.159]:5759 "EHLO fg-out-1718.google.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1750840AbZDEPVU (ORCPT ); Sun, 5 Apr 2009 11:21:20 -0400 Received: by fg-out-1718.google.com with SMTP id e12so688477fga.17 for ; Sun, 05 Apr 2009 08:21:17 -0700 (PDT) Message-ID: <49D8CC1B.5070104@gmail.com> Date: Sun, 05 Apr 2009 08:19:55 -0700 From: Alan Nisota MIME-Version: 1.0 To: Mauro Carvalho Chehab CC: Patrick Boettcher , linux-media@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: [PATCH] Remove support for Genpix-CW3K (damages hardware) References: <49D2338C.7040703@gmail.com> <49D3C815.6000004@gmail.com> <20090405115539.61d7b600@pedra.chehab.org> In-Reply-To: <20090405115539.61d7b600@pedra.chehab.org> Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ISO-8859-1; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Sender: linux-media-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: Mauro Carvalho Chehab wrote: > We shouldn't drop support for a device just because the manufacturer doesn't > want it to be supported. If it really damages the hardware or violates the > warranty, then we can print a warning message clearly stating that the vendor > refuses to collaborate, briefly explaining the issues and recommending the user > to replace the device to some other from a vendor-friendly at dmesg, but keep > allowing they to use it, with some force option for people that wants to take > the risk. > I'm not going to go through the entire soap-opera as I know it, but basically the manufacturer has 2 tiers of devices, those that were designed to work only with a specific piece of hardware, and those that are supported in Windows and Linux, but come with a significant price premium. The latter devices are supported by the kernel and should be continued to be. The former is what we're talking about and what my patch removes support for. The patch was in response to real users with real problems. I am in no way associated with the manufacturer other than that he provided me with initial help writing the Linux drivers several years ago. I no longer have a use for the drivers myself, and any support I do is just to help the community out. I have provided a patch which makes the driver safe to use. If you prefer an alternate method of achieving the same goal, or wish to just ignore it altogether, that is ok, but I don't have the time to develop and test a patch that is more complicated then what I've already posted. If you are going to take any action, I would prefer it get pushed into the current kernel development tree to minimize the potential harm to users.