Re: [PULL REQ] IXP4xx changes for Linux 3.7

[Jason Cooper <jason@lakedaemon.net>]

On Tue, Oct 30, 2012 at 10:27:55PM +0000, Arnd Bergmann wrote:
> On Monday 29 October 2012, Richard Cochran wrote:
> > On Thu, Oct 18, 2012 at 12:01:17AM +0200, Krzysztof Halasa wrote:
> > > 
> > > Don't get me wrong. If I had time for this it could be different.
> > > Unfortunately IXP4xx is a legacy arch, and for me it's simply a hobby at
> > > this point. Given the raised barriers to participate, probably aimed at
> > > paid maintainers, I have to quit doing this.
> > > 
> > > BTW since Imre has probably even much less time, it would be a good time
> > > to find someone to maintain IXP4xx code. I will be publishing (from time
> > > to time) my tree (I'm using the hw myself), so even simple
> > > cherry-picking would probably make some sense.
> > 
> > So if no one else wants to do this, then I am willing to look after
> > the IXP code. I think that I do have the time for it.
> 
> Thanks for the offer! 

Yes, thank you!

> Jason Cooper was also volunteering to help out with this, and even we can't
> convince Krzysztof to continue doing it, there is also Imre who is officially
> listed as maintainer for IXP4xx and who has not commented on this. As Krzysztof
> mentions, he probably doesn't have much time for it, but I'd like to give
> him the chance to comment as well.

Agreed.

> I'm sure we can find some solution between the four of you. Right now, I think
> we should focus on getting the bug fixes from Krzysztof's tree into mainline
> and the stable kernels where applicable, and then establish a better working
> mode for the future kernels.

We also need to keep an eye on the big picture.  If we are going to
keep/maintain ixp4xx in the kernel, there are some things which need to
be done.  The drivers need moved to drivers/, platform headers need
moved to platform_data/, and we may as well add devicetree bindings
while we're moving things around.

Making ixp4xx compatible with multiplatform zImage would probably help
out the embedded distros as well.

thx,

Jason.