From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 Return-Path: Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org via listexpand id S261959AbTJXDrE (ORCPT ); Thu, 23 Oct 2003 23:47:04 -0400 Received: (majordomo@vger.kernel.org) by vger.kernel.org id S261965AbTJXDrE (ORCPT ); Thu, 23 Oct 2003 23:47:04 -0400 Received: from web14915.mail.yahoo.com ([216.136.225.228]:49281 "HELO web14915.mail.yahoo.com") by vger.kernel.org with SMTP id S261959AbTJXDrC (ORCPT ); Thu, 23 Oct 2003 23:47:02 -0400 Message-ID: <20031024034701.16514.qmail@web14915.mail.yahoo.com> Date: Thu, 23 Oct 2003 20:47:01 -0700 (PDT) From: Jon Smirl Subject: Multiple drivers for same hardware:, was: DRM and pci_driver conversion To: Jeff Garzik , Linus Torvalds Cc: Jon Smirl , Eric Anholt , kronos@kronoz.cjb.net, Kernel Mailing List , linux-fbdev-devel@lists.sourceforge.net, dri-devel In-Reply-To: <3F987E18.9080606@pobox.com> MIME-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Sender: linux-kernel-owner@vger.kernel.org X-Mailing-List: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org What about the fundamental question? We have several pairs of device drivers that want to control the same hardware. One example would be radeon DRM and radeon Framebuffer. How should these drivers coordinate probing and claiming resources? What should be the policy for multiple drivers? 1) try new probe first and fall back to old scheme. First driver that loads gets the new probe, second gets the old. First driver reserves resources. 2) Require a mini driver that handles probing. Then both drivers attach to the mini driver. 3) Declare it illegal and make the drivers merge. 4) Declare it illegal and only allow first one loaded to run. Right now radeonfb handles probing and resource reservation. DRM works in stealth mode. DRM uses all of the resources and never tells the kernel, that's how it avoids conflicting with framebuffer. DRM and framebuffer trade off control at VT switch. 2D state is save and restored. There is an assumption that framebuffer won't mess with the 3D state. I'm not sure that suspend/resume are coordinated in any way. ===== Jon Smirl jonsmirl@yahoo.com __________________________________ Do you Yahoo!? The New Yahoo! Shopping - with improved product search http://shopping.yahoo.com