Re: [stable] Wanted: Allow adding new device IDs during the -stable cycle

Greg KH
2007-05-22T19:40:04Z

On Tue, May 22, 2007 at 03:04:08PM -0400, Jeff Garzik wrote:
> Greg KH wrote:
> > What's wrong with the current sysfs way of adding new device ids without
> > touching the kernel? Devices described above was the very reason we
> > added that functionality, so users would not have to constantly update
> > their kernel. The distros provide userspace tools that enable these ids
> > to be added and at boot time, everything "just works" properly.
>
> I haven't found a single distro that (a) makes it trivial to add PCI IDs at
> install time, and then (b) ensures those PCI IDs remain persistent for each
> boot. We are not at all to the "just works" stage yet.

Well, SuSE handles this just fine, but I do notice that RHEL 5 disables
the new_id stuff entirely, so I can see why you might get this
impression :)

> > So, because of that, I don't really see a need to be adding new device
> > ids to the -stable tree.
>
> Maybe you are just not seeing all the developers that keep bringing this
> up??

This is the second time it has occurred that I know of.

> Really, it is just silly to think that one-line PCI IDs patches will cause
> any harm at all, and it should be self-evident that there is clear potential
> to HELP Linux users. That's why we're all here, right?

I'm not disagreeing that it will help a set of users, or that it will
cause any harm at all. It's just currently outside the scope for what
we defined -stable as, and it will slightly increase the workload that
Chris and I have in keeping up with these patches.

So, if there is an overwhelming majority of people that strongly feel
that this is a good thing, fine, we can try it out.

I'm just trying to point out that the new_id sysfs stuff is there
explicitly for this very reason, as people were demanding that (Dell
being the major company behind it.)

thanks,

greg k-h