Re: [PATCH] Acer Aspire One Fan Control

[Pavel Machek <pavel@ucw.cz>]

Hi!

>> the more I'm looking at the driver, the more I get annoyed by that
>> user/kernel mode operation split. Remind me again why the driver should
>> be loaded and not started automatically but the user should be required
>> to activate it explicitly?
>
> The idea of not starting the module in kernel mode was from Matthew. And 
> he stated that it could harm the hardware when software controls the fan  
> instead of the BIOS. It may also be possible, that the warranty gets 

Well... hw is usually designed to protect itself.

>> That's not so optimal, I'd say. The kernel module should _replace_
>> the userspace program, not work alongside it, since the last is flaky
>> and unreliable, and this was the main reason the kernel module was
>> introduced in the first place - to control the fan from kernel space,
>> which is the more sane choice.
>
> The main reason to do this in kernel was the availabilty of atomic ec- 
> read and write functions. But I agree with you that either kernel or BIOS 
> should control the fan and not a userspace tool. I added the user mode 
> just because it wasn't really much more code than just an implementation 
> of the enable/disable functionality.

Kernels crash, too, just like userspace does. It would still make
sense to allow userspace to increase fan speed.
							Pavel
-- 
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