Re: [PATCH] Stop pmac_zilog from abusing 8250's device numbers.

[Russell King <rmk+lkml@arm.linux.org.uk>]

On Wed, Apr 04, 2007 at 08:21:54AM -0400, Theodore Tso wrote:
> So if we're going to do the "Worse is Better" thing, what I'd suggest
> doing is that someone simply submit a hack so that pmac_zilog can
> steal minor numbers and use /dev/ttyS0.  I accepted the patch way back
> when I was serial maintainer; Russell ripped it out when he became the
> serial maintainer; but now that he's no longer the serial maintainer,
> he doesn't get to complain about that any more :-)

The problem with that approach was that it was being extended to more
and more drivers in the ARM world, creating an #ifdef mess in the
serial driver.

Moreover, it provided *no* way to select an 8250-based serial port in
the presence of a "foreign" port claiming the ttyS console namespace.
Utterly unacceptable when you have a real environment of mixed serial
port types.

IOW, it was utterly broken.  It prevented me from doing the things I
wanted to do.

The only real answer is to fix the problem *properly*.  Hacks just end
up breaking peoples setups.

-- 
Russell King
 Linux kernel    2.6 ARM Linux   - http://www.arm.linux.org.uk/
 maintainer of: