[PATCH v4 34/34] wireless: mark prism54.ko as deprecated and mark for removal

[PATCH v4 34/34] wireless: mark prism54.ko as deprecated and mark for removal

[Luis R. Rodriguez]

The preferred modules is p54.ko, which also supports FullMAC
PCI / Cardbus devices. We schedule removal for 2.6.34. Reason
to remove this is no one really is testing prism54.ko anymore,
and while it works p54.ko provides support for the same hardware.
It should be noted I have been told some FullMAC devices may not
have worked with the SoftMAC driver but to date we have yet to
recieve a single bug report regarding this. If there are users
out there please let us know!

Cc: aquilaver@yahoo.com
Cc: linux-kernel@vger.kernel.org
Cc: Dan Williams <dcbw@redhat.com>
Cc: Kai Engert <kengert@redhat.com>
Cc: Jean Tourrilhes <jt@hpl.hp.com>
Cc: Tim de Waal<tim.dewaal@yahoo.com>
Cc: Roy Marples <uberlord@gentoo.org>
Cc: Alan Cox <alan@lxorguk.ukuu.org.uk>
Cc: Christian Lamparter <chunkeey@web.de>
Cc: Björn Steinbrink <B.Steinbrink@gmx.de>
Cc: Tim Gardner <tim.gardner@canonical.com>
Cc: Larry Finger <Larry.Finger@lwfinger.net>
Cc: Johannes Berg <johannes@sipsolutions.net>
Signed-off-by: Luis R. Rodriguez <lrodriguez@atheros.com>
---
 Documentation/feature-removal-schedule.txt |   29 +++++++++++++++
 drivers/net/wireless/Kconfig               |   53 +++++++--------------------
 2 files changed, 43 insertions(+), 39 deletions(-)

diff --git a/Documentation/feature-removal-schedule.txt b/Documentation/feature-removal-schedule.txt
index 09e031c..e887764 100644
--- a/Documentation/feature-removal-schedule.txt
+++ b/Documentation/feature-removal-schedule.txt
@@ -6,6 +6,35 @@ be removed from this file.
 
 ---------------------------
 
+What:	PRISM54
+When:	2.6.34
+
+Why:	prism54 FullMAC PCI / Cardbus devices used to be supported only by the
+	prism54.ko wireless driver. After Intersil stopped selling these
+	devices in preference for the newer more flexible SoftMAC devices
+	a SoftMAC device driver was required and prism54.ko did not support
+	them. The p54 driver now exists and has been present in the kernel for
+	a while. This driver supports both SoftMAC devices and FullMAC devices.
+	The main difference between these devices was the amount of memory which
+	could be used for the firmware. The SoftMAC devices support a smaller
+	amount of memory. Because of this the SoftMAC firmware fits into FullMAC
+	devices's memory. p54 supports not only PCI / Cardbus but also USB
+	and SPI. Since p54.ko supports all devices prism54.ko supports
+	you will have a conflict. I'm not quite sure how distributions are
+	handling this conflict right now. prism54.ko was kept around due to
+	claims users may experience issues when using the SoftMAC driver.
+	Time has passed users have not reported issues. If you use prism54.ko
+	and for whatever reason you cannot use p54.ko please let us know!
+	E-mail us at: linux-wireless@vger.kernel.org
+
+	For more information see the p54 wiki page:
+
+	http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/p54
+
+Who:	Luis R. Rodriguez <lrodriguez@atheros.com>
+
+---------------------------
+
 What:	IRQF_SAMPLE_RANDOM
 Check:	IRQF_SAMPLE_RANDOM
 When:	July 2009
diff --git a/drivers/net/wireless/Kconfig b/drivers/net/wireless/Kconfig
index 2b0fdf4..974c4ae 100644
--- a/drivers/net/wireless/Kconfig
+++ b/drivers/net/wireless/Kconfig
@@ -267,51 +267,26 @@ if CONEXANT_ST_80211
 source "drivers/net/wireless/p54/Kconfig"
 
 config PRISM54
-	tristate 'Intersil Prism GT/Duette/Indigo PCI/Cardbus' 
+	tristate 'Intersil Prism GT/Duette/Indigo PCI/Cardbus (DEPRECATED)'
 	depends on PCI && EXPERIMENTAL
 	select WIRELESS_EXT
 	select FW_LOADER
 	---help---
-	  Enable PCI and Cardbus support for the following chipset based cards:
+	  This enables support for FullMAC PCI/Cardbus prism54 devices. This
+	  driver is now deprecated in favor for the SoftMAC driver, p54. p54
+	  supports FullMAC PCI/Cardbus devices as well. For details on the
+	  removal of this driver on the kernel see the feature removal
+	  schedule:
 
-	  ISL3880 - Prism GT            802.11 b/g
-	  ISL3877 - Prism Indigo        802.11 a
-	  ISL3890 - Prism Duette        802.11 a/b/g
-	  
-	  For a complete list of supported cards visit <http://prism54.org>.
-	  Here is the latest confirmed list of supported cards:
-
-	  3com OfficeConnect 11g Cardbus Card aka 3CRWE154G72 (version 1)
-	  Allnet ALL0271 PCI Card
-	  Compex WL54G Cardbus Card
-	  Corega CG-WLCB54GT Cardbus Card
-	  D-Link Air Plus Xtreme G A1 Cardbus Card aka DWL-g650
-	  I-O Data WN-G54/CB Cardbus Card
-	  Kobishi XG-300 aka Z-Com Cardbus Card
-	  Netgear WG511 Cardbus Card
-	  Ovislink WL-5400PCI PCI Card
-	  Peabird WLG-PCI PCI Card
-	  Sitecom WL-100i Cardbus Card
-	  Sitecom WL-110i PCI Card
-	  SMC2802W -    EZ Connect g 2.4GHz 54 Mbps Wireless PCI Card
-	  SMC2835W -    EZ Connect g 2.4GHz 54 Mbps Wireless Cardbus Card
-	  SMC2835W-V2 - EZ Connect g 2.4GHz 54 Mbps Wireless Cardbus Card
-	  Z-Com XG-900 PCI Card
-	  Zyxel G-100 Cardbus Card
-
-	  If you enable this you will need a firmware file as well.
-	  You will need to copy this to /usr/lib/hotplug/firmware/isl3890.
-	  You can get this non-GPL'd firmware file from the Prism54 project page:
-	  <http://prism54.org>
-	  You will also need the /etc/hotplug/firmware.agent script from
-	  a current hotplug package.
-
-	  Note: You need a motherboard with DMA support to use any of these cards 
+	  Documentation/feature-removal-schedule.txt
+
+	  For more information refer to the prism54 wiki:
+
+	  http://wireless.kernel.org/en/users/Drivers/p54
+
+	  Note: You need a motherboard with DMA support to use any of these cards
 	  
-	  If you want to compile the driver as a module ( = code which can be
-	  inserted in and removed from the running kernel whenever you want),
-	  say M here and read <file:Documentation/kbuild/modules.txt>.
-	  The module will be called prism54.
+	  When built as module you get prism54.ko
 
 endif # CONEXANT_ST_80211
 
-- 
1.6.2.5

Re: [PATCH v4 34/34] wireless: mark prism54.ko as deprecated and mark for removal

[Johannes Berg]

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On Fri, 2009-08-14 at 16:25 -0400, Luis R. Rodriguez wrote:
> The preferred modules is p54.ko, which also supports FullMAC
> PCI / Cardbus devices. We schedule removal for 2.6.34. Reason
> to remove this is no one really is testing prism54.ko anymore,
> and while it works p54.ko provides support for the same hardware.
> It should be noted I have been told some FullMAC devices may not
> have worked with the SoftMAC driver but to date we have yet to
> recieve a single bug report regarding this. If there are users
> out there please let us know!

Not that I care about the changelog, but I do find it illogical to refer
to modules w/o .ko everywhere and then with .ko in the changelog. Of
course you were consistent ;)

> -	  The module will be called prism54.
> +	  When built as module you get prism54.ko

NAK this change.

johannes

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Re: [PATCH v4 34/34] wireless: mark prism54.ko as deprecated and mark for removal

[Luis R. Rodriguez]

On Sat, Aug 15, 2009 at 12:59:42AM -0700, Johannes Berg wrote:
> On Fri, 2009-08-14 at 16:25 -0400, Luis R. Rodriguez wrote:
> > The preferred modules is p54.ko, which also supports FullMAC
> > PCI / Cardbus devices. We schedule removal for 2.6.34. Reason
> > to remove this is no one really is testing prism54.ko anymore,
> > and while it works p54.ko provides support for the same hardware.
> > It should be noted I have been told some FullMAC devices may not
> > have worked with the SoftMAC driver but to date we have yet to
> > recieve a single bug report regarding this. If there are users
> > out there please let us know!
> 
> Not that I care about the changelog, but I do find it illogical to refer
> to modules w/o .ko everywhere and then with .ko in the changelog. Of
> course you were consistent ;)

Heh I've gone and cleaned this up in the series, I just removed the
.ko usage when I refer to modules in the entries and commit log.

> > -	  The module will be called prism54.
> > +	  When built as module you get prism54.ko
> 
> NAK this change.

Heh ok, changed it.

  Luis