Re: [PATCH] Fix the bcm43xx driver breakage in 2.6.24/25.

Re: [PATCH] Fix the bcm43xx driver breakage in 2.6.24/25.

[Andrew Morton]

On Sat, 23 Feb 2008 16:17:55 +0300 Alexey Zaytsev <alexey.zaytsev@gmail.com> wrote:

> Theese two patches fix a problem instroduced in Linux 2.6.24, and
> still present in the current Linus' 2.6.25 tree.
> 
> The bcm43xx Wifi driver won't work any more, if the b44 Ethernet
> driver is enabled. This happens because the b44 driver
> needlessly enables the b43_pci_bridge code, which claims
> the same pci ids as the bcm43xx driver. The b43_pci_bridge
> code is needed for the b43{legacy} drivers, but for the
> b44, only the "ssb pci core" is needed.

Hate to stick my head into this beehive, but...

I have a patch queued (the-scheduled-bcm43xx-removal.patch) which 
will remove this driver from 2.6.26.

Is that bad?

Re: [PATCH] Fix the bcm43xx driver breakage in 2.6.24/25.

[Michael Buesch]

On Friday 29 February 2008 09:21:19 Andrew Morton wrote:
> On Sat, 23 Feb 2008 16:17:55 +0300 Alexey Zaytsev <alexey.zaytsev@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> > Theese two patches fix a problem instroduced in Linux 2.6.24, and
> > still present in the current Linus' 2.6.25 tree.
> > 
> > The bcm43xx Wifi driver won't work any more, if the b44 Ethernet
> > driver is enabled. This happens because the b44 driver
> > needlessly enables the b43_pci_bridge code, which claims
> > the same pci ids as the bcm43xx driver. The b43_pci_bridge
> > code is needed for the b43{legacy} drivers, but for the
> > b44, only the "ssb pci core" is needed.
> 
> Hate to stick my head into this beehive, but...
> 
> I have a patch queued (the-scheduled-bcm43xx-removal.patch) which 
> will remove this driver from 2.6.26.
> 
> Is that bad?

Not at all. The b43 driver from 2.6.26 will work. So there's
no reason to keep bcm43xx.
Alexey just tested a patch that backports the fix to 2.6.24 and it
works fine.

-- 
Greetings Michael.

Re: [PATCH] Fix the bcm43xx driver breakage in 2.6.24/25.

[Ingo Molnar]

* Michael Buesch <mb@bu3sch.de> wrote:

> On Friday 29 February 2008 09:21:19 Andrew Morton wrote:
> > On Sat, 23 Feb 2008 16:17:55 +0300 Alexey Zaytsev <alexey.zaytsev@gmail.com> wrote:
> > 
> > > Theese two patches fix a problem instroduced in Linux 2.6.24, and
> > > still present in the current Linus' 2.6.25 tree.
> > > 
> > > The bcm43xx Wifi driver won't work any more, if the b44 Ethernet
> > > driver is enabled. This happens because the b44 driver
> > > needlessly enables the b43_pci_bridge code, which claims
> > > the same pci ids as the bcm43xx driver. The b43_pci_bridge
> > > code is needed for the b43{legacy} drivers, but for the
> > > b44, only the "ssb pci core" is needed.
> > 
> > Hate to stick my head into this beehive, but...
> > 
> > I have a patch queued (the-scheduled-bcm43xx-removal.patch) which 
> > will remove this driver from 2.6.26.
> > 
> > Is that bad?
> 
> Not at all. The b43 driver from 2.6.26 will work. So there's no reason 
> to keep bcm43xx. Alexey just tested a patch that backports the fix to 
> 2.6.24 and it works fine.

yeah, i'd support the removal of it too, if the transition is smooth and 
the regressions are resolved. And it should be smooth, as long as users 
are able to load the firmware blob, right? There's also an entry for it 
in Documentation/feature-removal-schedule.txt:

  What:   bcm43xx wireless network driver
  When:   2.6.26
  Files:  drivers/net/wireless/bcm43xx
  Why:    This driver's functionality has been replaced by the
          mac80211-based b43 and b43legacy drivers.
  Who:    John W. Linville <linville@tuxdriver.com>

	Ingo

Re: [PATCH] Fix the bcm43xx driver breakage in 2.6.24/25.

[Michael Buesch]

On Friday 29 February 2008 21:54:00 Ingo Molnar wrote:
> 
> * Michael Buesch <mb@bu3sch.de> wrote:
> 
> > On Friday 29 February 2008 09:21:19 Andrew Morton wrote:
> > > On Sat, 23 Feb 2008 16:17:55 +0300 Alexey Zaytsev <alexey.zaytsev@gmail.com> wrote:
> > > 
> > > > Theese two patches fix a problem instroduced in Linux 2.6.24, and
> > > > still present in the current Linus' 2.6.25 tree.
> > > > 
> > > > The bcm43xx Wifi driver won't work any more, if the b44 Ethernet
> > > > driver is enabled. This happens because the b44 driver
> > > > needlessly enables the b43_pci_bridge code, which claims
> > > > the same pci ids as the bcm43xx driver. The b43_pci_bridge
> > > > code is needed for the b43{legacy} drivers, but for the
> > > > b44, only the "ssb pci core" is needed.
> > > 
> > > Hate to stick my head into this beehive, but...
> > > 
> > > I have a patch queued (the-scheduled-bcm43xx-removal.patch) which 
> > > will remove this driver from 2.6.26.
> > > 
> > > Is that bad?
> > 
> > Not at all. The b43 driver from 2.6.26 will work. So there's no reason 
> > to keep bcm43xx. Alexey just tested a patch that backports the fix to 
> > 2.6.24 and it works fine.
> 
> yeah, i'd support the removal of it too, if the transition is smooth and 
> the regressions are resolved. And it should be smooth, as long as users 
> are able to load the firmware blob, right? There's also an entry for it 

As far as I can see, yes. The b43 driver is pretty mature these days.
It does base on the codebase of the bcm43xx driver and the most intrusive
changes date back over a year ago. The driver got lots of testing in the
meantime.
I do own the most common device flavours (except the 4311. So if somebody
has one do donate.. :) ) and I don't see any regressions.

Most "regressions" come from people not installing the updated firmware.
But that's an issue we simply cannot solve in the driver.

Of course, as I always said, if some last-minute regression appears, we
will defer the bcm43xx removal. So I hope I'm not _really_ the worst
maintainer ever, although I try hard to, when it comes to patches I
really dislike. ;)

-- 
Greetings Michael.