Re: i8k: move driver from char to hwmon

[Guenter Roeck <linux@roeck-us.net>]

On 02/22/2015 03:50 AM, Pali Rohár wrote:
> Hello,
>
> currently i8k driver for DELLDIAG SMM operations (charger,
> battery, hotkeys, temperature and fan control) supports two
> interfaces:
>
> 1) old /proc/i8k char device
> 2) new hwmon interface
>
> Driver now lives in char subsystem, but nowadays I think lot of
> people are interested only in hwmon interface which provides
> temperature & fan control. Power management and hotkeys support
> (which is missing in 2) but provided by 1)) is already handled by
> ACPI or input subsystem for new laptops.
>
> Also name "i8k" is really non intuitive what it means and
> supports... (I was told it is abbreviation for Inspirion 8000
> model which was probably first dell model supported by that
> DELLDIAG interface). Now driver is used on Vostro, Latitude and
> also Precision and XPS models. I think at least "dell" should be
> part of driver name and config option.
>
> So I have idea for some changes:
>
> 1) Move driver from char subsystem to hwmon
>
I am ok with this one.

> 2) Rename driver from i8k to something like delldiag or dellsmm
>
Might be problematic, as it would break existing configurations
unless you keep the CONFIG_I8K but rename the driver. Driver names
are never perfect, so I would just leave it as is.

> 3) Add new CONFIG_ option to enable/disable /proc/i8k device and
> compile only hwmon interface support

Makes sense. I would suggest to make hwmon suppport the default
and mandatory if the driver is enabled and add a new CONFIG_I8K_PROCIF
or similar which should be enabled by default.

Are you interested in adding yourself as maintainer for this driver ?

Thanks,
Guenter