Re: [PATCH] pnp & pci structure cleanups

[Greg KH <greg@kroah.com>]

On Mon, Dec 30, 2002 at 06:14:36PM -0500, Jeff Garzik wrote:
> On Mon, Dec 30, 2002 at 02:51:34PM -0800, Greg KH wrote:
> > On Mon, Dec 30, 2002 at 05:50:12PM -0500, Jeff Garzik wrote:
> > > Note that we need a way to do field replacement of PCI id tables.
> > > 
> > > I've been harping on that to various ears for years :)
> > 
> > And USB id tables.  A number of usb drivers are slowly adding module
> > paramater hacks to get around this, but it would be really nice to do
> > this "correctly" for all drivers.  Somehow...
> 
> Surely there is a sysfs path we can devise to do
> 
> 	echo "add <pci_device_id line>" > /sys/pci/driver/tulip
> 
> (or replace that with a file-oriented interface that inputs an entire
> table)
> 
> and internally just refer to, and update, a kmalloc'd copy of the
> original driver's pci (or usb) table.

Yes, that would be a good thing to have, I sure would like that.

(hint, hint, hint, for anyone wanting a way to contribute...)

> > > <tangent>
> > > I also want to add PCI revision id and mask to struct pci_device_id.
> > > </tangent>
> > 
> > Do any drivers need that today?  It shouldn't be that hard to do it, and
> > now is the time :)
> 
> Yes.  tulip driver could find this useful, but that's currently a small
> case worked around in the driver.
> 
> The big and annoying case is 8139C+ (8139cp.c), which has the same
> PCI id as old 8139 boards, but additionally includes dramatically new
> and better functionality.  The distinguishing characteristic at the
> probe phase is the PCI revision id, as the PCI id is the same as another
> driver.

Ok, sounds like a good enough reason to add these fields :)

thanks,

greg k-h