From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Francois Romieu Subject: Re: Regarding sumbiting a new NIC driver to kernel. Date: Fri, 1 Jul 2011 13:33:48 +0200 Message-ID: <20110701113348.GA4618@electric-eye.fr.zoreil.com> References: <6349D7A510622448B1BA0967850A843801163B91@nasanexd02d.na.qualcomm.com> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=us-ascii Cc: "'davem@davemloft.net'" <'davem@davemloft.net'>, "Huang, Xiong" , "netdev@vger.kernel.org" To: "Ren, Cloud" Return-path: Received: from violet.fr.zoreil.com ([92.243.8.30]:44850 "EHLO violet.fr.zoreil.com" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1755265Ab1GALrb (ORCPT ); Fri, 1 Jul 2011 07:47:31 -0400 Content-Disposition: inline In-Reply-To: <6349D7A510622448B1BA0967850A843801163B91@nasanexd02d.na.qualcomm.com> Sender: netdev-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: (insert the usual "only speaking on behalf of myself" here) Ren, Cloud : [...] > Would you have any advices to us ? If this is possible, how do I submit the > new driver and remove the old driver? Can you give me a doc how to submit > the driver to kernel or any hints ? Advices: - publish early for review and comments. Code is reviewed here, on netdev. - work with the current atl* in-kernel drivers maintainers. - provide a big-bang free migration path. - read netdev. http://vger.kernel.org/vger-lists.html lists some archive. - don't expect the convenience on maintenance to materialize immediately. (old farts may appreciate shorter lines - somewhere between 72 and 80 chars - too) If you have not done so yet, please consider reading: - Documentation/CodingStyle - Documentation/SubmittingPatches Documentation/SubmittingDrivers is imho irrelevant here. > Btw, why do we need to develop the new driver? > The most important reason is for convenience on maintenance 1. we need to > make HW operations uniform on all supported OS, such as WinXP, Win7 and Linux. > 2. As our company is continuous to release new NICs, there are more and more > drivers to support those NICs. It's a pity to develop and maintain so many > drivers. So we have developed the driver, "alx". We will use it to support > as many NICs as possible, including NICs released in future. Platform neutral does not necessarily bode good things... :o/ Don't be shy, show the code. -- Ueimor