From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: from caramon.arm.linux.org.uk (caramon.arm.linux.org.uk [217.147.92.249]) (using TLSv1 with cipher DHE-RSA-AES256-SHA (256/256 bits)) (Client did not present a certificate) by ozlabs.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 9E602DDE29 for ; Thu, 5 Apr 2007 02:10:51 +1000 (EST) Date: Wed, 4 Apr 2007 17:10:29 +0100 From: Russell King To: Theodore Tso , David Miller , dwmw2@infradead.org, paulus@samba.org, alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk, flar@allandria.com, linuxppc-dev@ozlabs.org, linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org Subject: Re: [PATCH] Stop pmac_zilog from abusing 8250's device numbers. Message-ID: <20070404161029.GB18990@flint.arm.linux.org.uk> References: <1175663999.2932.8.camel@shinybook.infradead.org> <17939.15726.114059.679277@cargo.ozlabs.ibm.com> <1175666635.2932.17.camel@shinybook.infradead.org> <20070404.011208.120446173.davem@davemloft.net> <20070404083803.GA13134@flint.arm.linux.org.uk> <20070404122154.GF31973@thunk.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii In-Reply-To: <20070404122154.GF31973@thunk.org> Sender: Russell King List-Id: Linux on PowerPC Developers Mail List List-Unsubscribe: , List-Archive: List-Post: List-Help: List-Subscribe: , 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: