Re: [PATCH] media: staging: drop omap4iss

[Laurent Pinchart <laurent.pinchart@ideasonboard.com>]

Hi Andreas,

On Mon, Nov 18, 2024 at 08:00:25PM +0100, Andreas Kemnade wrote:
> Am Mon, 2 Sep 2024 10:42:31 +0200 schrieb Hans Verkuil :
> 
> > The omap4 camera driver has seen no progress since forever, and
> > now OMAP4 support has also been dropped from u-boot (1). So it is
> > time to retire this driver.
> 
> Argumenting with OMAP4 support in U-Boot is silly. That indicates that
> there is no movement in keeping u-boot uptodate. Bootloader
> development/updating is more risky especially if not done by the vendor,
> good chances to brick something. And the bootloader might need
> signing. So that argument is done nothing.
> 
> Better arguments would be to check if someone has something cooking and
> feels not comfortable yet to climb Mount Upstream.
> 
> A good place to ask would be the omap platform
> list: linux-omap@vger.kernel.org
> 
> I get still devicetrees for omap4 devices to review. So there is some
> activity with omap4. If you look at postmarketOS you see also some
> activity.
> 
> And also someone ported the driver to devicetree support:
> https://github.com/iridia-ulb/meta-builderbot/blob/master/recipes-kernel/linux/linux-stable-4.16/0008-omap4iss-Fix-multiple-bugs-and-use-device-tree.patch
> 
> So the situation is not that simple. I am still evaluating it because I
> myself have a device with omap4 and camera.

Have you tested the camera recently ? The omap4iss driver has been
unmaintained in mainline for a very, very long time, and I would be
surprised if it worked.

If someone is interested in taking over maintainership and improving the
driver to get it out of drivers/staging/ to drivers/media/, the removal
can certainly be reverted. drivers/staging/ is not a place where drivers
are left to bitrot, it's meant for active development of code not fully
ready for mainline yet.

-- 
Regards,

Laurent Pinchart