Re: Linux 2.4 Status / TODO page (Updated as of 2.4.0-test10)

Jeff Garzik
2000-11-03T22:22:45Z

tytso@mit.edu wrote:
> 4. Boot Time Failures
>
> * Crashes on boot on some Compaqs ? (may be fixed)

compaq laptops? desktops? or alphas?

> * Various Alpha's don't boot under 2.4.0-test9 (PCI resource
> allocation problem? Michal Jaegermann; Richard Henderson may have
> an idea what's failing.)

Elaboration: PCI-PCI bridges are not configured correctly

> 5. Compile errors

I doubt you need this category :)

> 6. In Progress
> * Fix all remaining PCI code to use pci_enable_device (mostly done)

Most drivers are done, and all of the important drivers are done
(IMHO). Maybe we could move this to a cleanup category? Its definitely
not a showstopper..

> * DMFE is not SMP safe (Frank Davis patch exists, but hasn't gotten
> much commens yet)

update: frank davis patch is poor.

DMFE accesses multiple hardware registers for a single operation, and
requires SMP locking to synchronize between all that code.

> * Audit all char and block drivers to ensure they are safe with the
> 2.3 locking - a lot of them are not especially on the
> read()/write() path. (Frank Davis --- moving slowly; if someone
> wants to help, contact Frank)

Haven't heard any update on this in a long while...

> * Fixing autofs4 to deal with VFS changes (Jeremy Fitzhardinge)

I thought this was complete a long time ago?

> 8. Fix Exists But Isnt Merged

> * Many network device drivers don't call MOD_INC_USE_COUNT in
> dev->open. (Paul Gortmaker has patches)

There exists a patch which makes MOD_xxx in net drivers obsolete. I'm
hoping that one will get applied...

> * mtrr.c is broken for machines with >= 4GB of memory (David Wragg
> has a fix)

His patch looks ok to me, too.... Does somebody want to submit this
patch to Linus? I haven't seen the maintainer (Richard Gooch) speak up
on this issue at all.

> * Issue with notifiers that try to deregister themselves? (lnz;
> notifier locking change by Garzik should backed out, according to
> Jeff)

Done.

> * The new hot plug PCI interface does not provide a method for
> passing the correct device name to cardmgr (David Hinds, alan)

Move to "in progress"...

> * 2.4.0-test8 pcmcia is unusable in fall forms (kernel, mixed, or
> dhinds code) (David Ford)

"fall forms"?

David clearly has problems w/ pcmcia, but it is not at all as broken as
he makes it out to be: all my cardbus laptops boot and work.

> * Spin doing ioctls on a down netdeice as it unloads == BOOM
> (prumpf, Alan Cox)

not an issue.

> Possible other net driver SMP issues (andi
> kleen)

No showstoppers AFAICS, but small races do exist.

> * PCMCIA/Cardbus hangs (Basically unusable - Hinds pcmcia code is
> reliable)

Again "whatever". The CardBus code is definitely usable. It is not
mature, but saying it is "basically unusable" is wildly inaccurate.

> * RTL 8139 cards sometimes stop responding. Both drivers don't
> handle this quite good enough yet. (reported by Rogier Wolff,
> tentatively reported as fixed by David Ford; reports from Frank
> Jacobberger and Shane Shrybman indicate that it doesn't appear to
> be fixed in test9)

I'm hoping this is fixed in test10, but haven't gotten any reports back
yet...

> * kiobuf seperate lock functions/bounce/page_address fixes

Do Stephen Tweedie's recently posted kiobuf patches fix this issue?

> * Potential races in file locking code (Christian Ehrhardt)
> + locks_verify_area checks the wrong range if O_APPEND is set
> and the current file position is not at the end of the file.
> + dito if the file position changes between the call to
> locks_verify_area and the actual read/write (requires a
> shared file pointer, an attacker can use this to circumvent
> virtually any mandatory lock).
> + active writes should prevent anyone from getting mandatory
> locks for the area beeing written.
> + active reads should prevent anyone from getting mandatory
> write locks for the area beeing read.

a fix patch for file locks (related to nfs, but still it appears to fix
some general issues) was posted this week:
http://boudicca.tux.org/hypermail/linux-kernel/this-week/0404.html

> * Eepro100 driver can sometimes report out of resources on reboot
> (Josue Emmanuel Amaro)

More than just on reboot.

--
Jeff Garzik | Dinner is ready when
Building 1024 | the smoke alarm goes off.
MandrakeSoft | -/usr/games/fortune