Re: CML2 design philosophy heads-up

Eric S. Raymond
2001-05-08T01:31:59Z

Tom Rini <trini@kernel.crashing.org>:
> On Sun, May 06, 2001 at 01:58:49PM +0100, Alan Cox wrote:
> > > # These were separate questions in CML1
> > > derive MAC_SCC from MAC & SERIAL
> > > derive MAC_SCSI from MAC & SCSI
> > > derive SUN3_SCSI from (SUN3 | SUN3X) & SCSI
> >
> > Not all Mac's use the SCC if they have serial
> > Not all Mac's use the same SCSI controller
>
> Yes, but in this case 'MAC' means m68k mac, which this _might_ be valid, but
> I never did get Linux up and running on the m68ks I had..

Exactly. In fact we can be more specific -- the "Macintoshes" in
question are the old-fashioned NuBus-based 68k toaster boxes, not the
more recent designs with a PCI bus. Relevant stuff in the
Configure.help implies that MAC_SCC and MAC_SCSI enable support for
the on-board hardware built into those puppies.

> But Alan's point is a good one. There are _lots_ of cases you can't get away
> with things like this, unless you get very fine grained. In fact, it would
> be much eaiser to do this seperately from the kernel. Ie another,
> possibly/probably _not_ inkernel config tool which asks what machine you
> have, picks lots of sane defaults and setups a kernel config for you. This
> is _sort of_ what PPC does right now with the large number of 'default
> configs' (arch/ppc/configs).

You're really talking about a different issue here, autoconfiguration
rather than static dependencies. Giacomo Catenazzi is working on that.
--
Eric S. Raymond

Let us hope our weapons are never needed --but do not forget what
the common people knew when they demanded the Bill of Rights: An
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-- Edward Abbey, "Abbey's Road", 1979