removing drivers and ISA support? [Was: Char: correct pci_get_device changes]

removing drivers and ISA support? [Was: Char: correct pci_get_device changes]

[Jiri Slaby]

Alan Cox wrote:
> Ar Sul, 2006-10-15 am 01:36 +0200, ysgrifennodd Jiri Slaby:
> > It affects moxa and rio char drivers. (All this stuff deserves to be
> > converted to pci_probing, though.)
>
> Agreed, or dropped

Alan, do you consider some (char) driver to be removed now?

And what about (E)ISA support. When converting to pci probing, should be ISA bus
support preserved (how much is ISA used in present)? -- it makes code ugly and long.

regards,
-- 
http://www.fi.muni.cz/~xslaby/            Jiri Slaby
faculty of informatics, masaryk university, brno, cz
e-mail: jirislaby gmail com, gpg pubkey fingerprint:
B674 9967 0407 CE62 ACC8  22A0 32CC 55C3 39D4 7A7E

Re: removing drivers and ISA support? [Was: Char: correct pci_get_device changes]

[Alan Cox]

Ar Iau, 2006-10-26 am 19:59 +0200, ysgrifennodd Jiri Slaby:
> Alan, do you consider some (char) driver to be removed now?

I think some of the drivers like epca we should seriously consider
dropping and seeing if there is any complaint, my guess will be not.

> And what about (E)ISA support. When converting to pci probing, should be ISA bus
> support preserved (how much is ISA used in present)? -- it makes code ugly and long.

Your guess is as good as mine 8)

Re: removing drivers and ISA support? [Was: Char: correct pci_get_device changes]

[Adrian Bunk]

On Thu, Oct 26, 2006 at 07:59:56PM +0200, Jiri Slaby wrote:
>...
> And what about (E)ISA support. When converting to pci probing, should be ISA bus
> support preserved (how much is ISA used in present)? -- it makes code ugly and long.

There seem to be still many running 486 machines - and only the last 486 
boards also had PCI slots.

While deprecating OSS drivers, I got emails from people still using some 
of the ISA cards.

And there are even Pentium 4 boards with ISA slots available.

> regards,

cu
Adrian

-- 

       "Is there not promise of rain?" Ling Tan asked suddenly out
        of the darkness. There had been need of rain for many days.
       "Only a promise," Lao Er said.
                                       Pearl S. Buck - Dragon Seed

Re: removing drivers and ISA support? [Was: Char: correct pci_get_device changes]

[Jesper Juhl]

On 27/10/06, Adrian Bunk <bunk@stusta.de> wrote:
> On Thu, Oct 26, 2006 at 07:59:56PM +0200, Jiri Slaby wrote:
> >...
> > And what about (E)ISA support. When converting to pci probing, should be ISA bus
> > support preserved (how much is ISA used in present)? -- it makes code ugly and long.
>
> There seem to be still many running 486 machines - and only the last 486
> boards also had PCI slots.
>
> While deprecating OSS drivers, I got emails from people still using some
> of the ISA cards.
>
> And there are even Pentium 4 boards with ISA slots available.
>
Not to mention many embedded boards - many pc104 boards use ISA, just
to mention one type.


-- 
Jesper Juhl <jesper.juhl@gmail.com>
Don't top-post  http://www.catb.org/~esr/jargon/html/T/top-post.html
Plain text mails only, please      http://www.expita.com/nomime.html

Re: removing drivers and ISA support? [Was: Char: correct pci_get_device changes]

[Jiri Slaby]

Jesper Juhl wrote:
> On 27/10/06, Adrian Bunk <bunk@stusta.de> wrote:
>> On Thu, Oct 26, 2006 at 07:59:56PM +0200, Jiri Slaby wrote:
>> >...
>> > And what about (E)ISA support. When converting to pci probing,
>> should be ISA bus
>> > support preserved (how much is ISA used in present)? -- it makes
>> code ugly and long.
>>
>> There seem to be still many running 486 machines - and only the last 486
>> boards also had PCI slots.
>>
>> While deprecating OSS drivers, I got emails from people still using some
>> of the ISA cards.

That might be a problem if the whole subsystem disappears, but if only ISA
support from some driver is pruned away, they are still able to use the old
driver by replacing the new one from some older kernel.
Then, we'll get nicer drivers in return.

>> And there are even Pentium 4 boards with ISA slots available.
>>
> Not to mention many embedded boards - many pc104 boards use ISA, just
> to mention one type.

I don't know if you understand me correctly (I might write it slightly unclear)
and if I understand you correctly now. I didn't mean to wipe out the (E)ISA
support from the kernel, I meant eliminating it from drivers which will be
rewritten to pci probing.

regards,
-- 
http://www.fi.muni.cz/~xslaby/            Jiri Slaby
faculty of informatics, masaryk university, brno, cz
e-mail: jirislaby gmail com, gpg pubkey fingerprint:
B674 9967 0407 CE62 ACC8  22A0 32CC 55C3 39D4 7A7E

Re: removing drivers and ISA support? [Was: Char: correct pci_get_device changes]

[Adrian Bunk]

On Fri, Oct 27, 2006 at 01:35:06AM +0159, Jiri Slaby wrote:
> Jesper Juhl wrote:
> > On 27/10/06, Adrian Bunk <bunk@stusta.de> wrote:
> >> On Thu, Oct 26, 2006 at 07:59:56PM +0200, Jiri Slaby wrote:
> >> >...
> >> > And what about (E)ISA support. When converting to pci probing,
> >> should be ISA bus
> >> > support preserved (how much is ISA used in present)? -- it makes
> >> code ugly and long.
> >>
> >> There seem to be still many running 486 machines - and only the last 486
> >> boards also had PCI slots.
> >>
> >> While deprecating OSS drivers, I got emails from people still using some
> >> of the ISA cards.
> 
> That might be a problem if the whole subsystem disappears, but if only ISA
> support from some driver is pruned away, they are still able to use the old
> driver by replacing the new one from some older kernel.
> Then, we'll get nicer drivers in return.

- this doesn't work for people using distribution kernels
- "by replacing the new one from some older kernel" doesn't sound
  reasonable - 3 or 4 point releases later it will have become pretty
  unlikely that the driver will still work unmodified
  (if you disagree, please name one ISA driver where the 2.6.15 version
   compiles without any modifications in 2.6.19-rc3)

> >> And there are even Pentium 4 boards with ISA slots available.
> >>
> > Not to mention many embedded boards - many pc104 boards use ISA, just
> > to mention one type.
> 
> I don't know if you understand me correctly (I might write it slightly unclear)
> and if I understand you correctly now. I didn't mean to wipe out the (E)ISA
> support from the kernel, I meant eliminating it from drivers which will be
> rewritten to pci probing.

Sure, but see my comment above.

> regards,

cu
Adrian

-- 

       "Is there not promise of rain?" Ling Tan asked suddenly out
        of the darkness. There had been need of rain for many days.
       "Only a promise," Lao Er said.
                                       Pearl S. Buck - Dragon Seed

Re: removing drivers and ISA support? [Was: Char: correct pci_get_device changes]

[John Stoffel]

>>>>> "Alan" == Alan Cox <alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk> writes:

Alan> Ar Iau, 2006-10-26 am 19:59 +0200, ysgrifennodd Jiri Slaby:
>> Alan, do you consider some (char) driver to be removed now?

Alan> I think some of the drivers like epca we should seriously consider
Alan> dropping and seeing if there is any complaint, my guess will be not.

>> And what about (E)ISA support. When converting to pci probing,
>> should be ISA bus support preserved (how much is ISA used in
>> present)? -- it makes code ugly and long.

I'm still using my Cyclom-Y ISA 8-port serial card.  But that probably
won't be for too much longer if I get a new system... but it's still
in use!

Re: removing drivers and ISA support? [Was: Char: correct pci_get_device changes]

[Jiri Slaby]

Adrian Bunk wrote:
> On Fri, Oct 27, 2006 at 01:35:06AM +0159, Jiri Slaby wrote:
>> Jesper Juhl wrote:
>>> On 27/10/06, Adrian Bunk <bunk@stusta.de> wrote:
>>>> On Thu, Oct 26, 2006 at 07:59:56PM +0200, Jiri Slaby wrote:
>>>>> ...
>>>>> And what about (E)ISA support. When converting to pci probing,
>>>> should be ISA bus
>>>>> support preserved (how much is ISA used in present)? -- it makes
>>>> code ugly and long.
>>>>
>>>> There seem to be still many running 486 machines - and only the last 486
>>>> boards also had PCI slots.
>>>>
>>>> While deprecating OSS drivers, I got emails from people still using some
>>>> of the ISA cards.
>> That might be a problem if the whole subsystem disappears, but if only ISA
>> support from some driver is pruned away, they are still able to use the old
>> driver by replacing the new one from some older kernel.
>> Then, we'll get nicer drivers in return.
> 
> - this doesn't work for people using distribution kernels
> - "by replacing the new one from some older kernel" doesn't sound
>   reasonable - 3 or 4 point releases later it will have become pretty
>   unlikely that the driver will still work unmodified
>   (if you disagree, please name one ISA driver where the 2.6.15 version
>    compiles without any modifications in 2.6.19-rc3)

Ok, thank all for the notes,
-- 
http://www.fi.muni.cz/~xslaby/            Jiri Slaby
faculty of informatics, masaryk university, brno, cz
e-mail: jirislaby gmail com, gpg pubkey fingerprint:
B674 9967 0407 CE62 ACC8  22A0 32CC 55C3 39D4 7A7E