From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: "Justin T. Gibbs" Subject: Re: [PATCH] 2.6.0 aic7xxx and aic79xx stale pci_device list entry Date: Fri, 30 Jan 2004 08:03:56 -0700 Sender: linux-scsi-owner@vger.kernel.org Message-ID: <1787668112.1075475036@aslan.scsiguy.com> References: <1073076654.2048.19.camel@opiate> <1073120514.4429.0.camel@laptop.fenrus.com> <1282412704.1073168696@aslan.scsiguy.com> <20040104100448.GA2416@devserv.devel.redhat.com> <2228980000.1075440305@aslan.btc.adaptec.com> <1075473710.4272.2.camel@laptop.fenrus.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit Return-path: Received: from aslan.scsiguy.com ([63.229.232.106]:46088 "EHLO aslan.scsiguy.com") by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S261406AbUA3PD5 (ORCPT ); Fri, 30 Jan 2004 10:03:57 -0500 In-Reply-To: <1075473710.4272.2.camel@laptop.fenrus.com> Content-Disposition: inline List-Id: linux-scsi@vger.kernel.org To: arjanv@redhat.com Cc: Eric Kerin , linux-scsi@vger.kernel.org >> Well, if you look at the Adaptec drivers, they already attach to all >> possible IDs for the chips that are supported. They do this by registering >> a very generic PCI ID table and filtering all requests through their >> own tables. > > May I ask why this is done? Because creating a specific table for Linux would duplicate the more generic probing mechanism that already exists for this purpose in the driver core which is shared amongst all supported OSes. Code duplication equals bugs in my opinion. This also allows the driver to attach generically to any chip that it can support. The Linux probe mechanisms does not allow this without user intervention (and I wasn't even aware this was possible until you told me). I would probably need a 500+ entry table to be able to attach to all of the possible IDs that an OEM could decide to use when they put Adaptec Silicon on their MB. > It sounds not the right thing that needs all > kinds of special cases in the OS userland... I don't know why the userland would care. Just because a driver's PCI probe routine is called does not mean that it must accept the device. I have never encountered any problems with the approach after three years of using it. -- Justin