From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: yangxhui@i-net.com.cn (yxh) Date: Fri, 14 Feb 2003 08:33:22 +0800 Subject: Q: MTD and NIC Roms... References: <3E4B37CD.8090507@pobox.com> Message-ID: <00dd01c2d3c0$ae5d8020$530ca8c0@yangxhui> To: linux-mtd@lists.infradead.org List-Id: linux-mtd.lists.infradead.org ----- Original Message ----- From: "Eric W. Biederman" To: "Jeff Garzik" Cc: ; "David Woodhouse" Sent: Thursday, February 13, 2003 3:38 PM Subject: Re: Q: MTD and NIC Roms... > Jeff Garzik writes: > > > Eric W. Biederman wrote: > > > Currently I have a patch to eepro100.c that adds an MTD map driver so > > > the onboard rom can be written. Making code like etherboot easier to > > > flash etc. > > [...] > > > I am currently looking for ideas on ways to cleanly get this code > > > into the kernel, and I am looking for ideas. The map driver is > > > > > > Well... this functionality has existed for a while, and it doesn't need to be in > > the kernel :) > > > > Donald Becker's diag suite can do flashing. ftp://www.scyld.com/pub/diag/ He > > provides means to program the flash from userspace. > > Not on the eepro100, it does look like one or two other kinds of nic > are supported though. His libflash.c is quite deficient when it comes > to the number of flash chips supported, the correctness of the > implementation of the cfi command set 2, and the completeness of it's > probe routine. > > None of which goes into the races, or the portability problems > that arise from doing this in user space. > > The linux mtd layer with it's larger user base, and the fact it sits > in the does not have any of those problems with handling flash chips. > And it steadily gets fewer problems as more kinds of flash chips are > looked at, and the problems in the code are addressed generically. > > > And I think that's the best place for it. We _could_ bloat up the kernel code > > by adding the ability flash -- but how many users is that going to serve, that > > are not already served by existing programs? So, I disagree with getting this > > stuff into the kernel at all. > > Given the lack of existing programs for the eepro100 every user served > is a new one. Plus with the better support libraries provided by the > linux mtd layer it is easier to do a quality job in the kernel. > > I totally agree that this is not day to day functionality, and so it > should not burden the fast common paths of the kernel. The code was > enclosed in a config option. It is worth noting one of the busiest > booths at LinuxWorld was the etherboot booth. And by other counts > as well there are quite a large number of users network booting. So > the potential user base is significant. > > And as David said it really is not that much code. > > Eric > > > ______________________________________________________ > Linux MTD discussion mailing list > http://lists.infradead.org/mailman/listinfo/linux-mtd/