From mboxrd@z Thu Jan 1 00:00:00 1970 From: Nicolas Pitre Subject: Re: [PATCH 01/10] smc91x: remove unused code enclosed by #ifdef CONFIG_ISA .. #endif Date: Fri, 27 Jun 2008 09:48:34 -0400 (EDT) Message-ID: References: <1214300867-15495-2-git-send-email-eric.y.miao@gmail.com> <486480E6.8070804@garzik.org> <48648467.1080308@gmail.com> <4864894C.8040508@garzik.org> Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: TEXT/PLAIN; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7BIT Cc: Eric Miao , linux-arm-kernel , linux-netdev , Magnus Damm , Eric Miao To: Jeff Garzik Return-path: Received: from relais.videotron.ca ([24.201.245.36]:43343 "EHLO relais.videotron.ca" rhost-flags-OK-OK-OK-OK) by vger.kernel.org with ESMTP id S1751139AbYF0Nsm (ORCPT ); Fri, 27 Jun 2008 09:48:42 -0400 Received: from xanadu.home ([66.131.194.97]) by VL-MO-MR004.ip.videotron.ca (Sun Java(tm) System Messaging Server 6.3-4.01 (built Aug 3 2007; 32bit)) with ESMTP id <0K3400ADIJOY1G70@VL-MO-MR004.ip.videotron.ca> for netdev@vger.kernel.org; Fri, 27 Jun 2008 09:48:35 -0400 (EDT) In-reply-to: <4864894C.8040508@garzik.org> Sender: netdev-owner@vger.kernel.org List-ID: On Fri, 27 Jun 2008, Jeff Garzik wrote: > Eric Miao wrote: > > Jeff Garzik wrote: > > > Eric Miao wrote: > > > > Apparently, the code enclosed by #ifdef CONFIG_ISA .. #endif are no > > > > longer > > > > used > > > What does this mean? > > > > > > CONFIG_ISA platforms still exist, and one presumes that the ISA hardware > > > still exists. > > > > > > Is this hardware covered by another driver? > > > > > > > Well, I assume the original code tends to support ISA with module > > parameters to setup the IO address base and IRQ etc. But obviously, > > those part of the code is now totally invalid and confusing only. > > > > Should there be requirement of supporting ISA hardware with this > > chip, the driver is actually unable to, and I prefer to re-write > > that part of the code if necessary. > > > > BTW: I don't know any ISA NIC with a SMC91X chip by far, and I > > cannot infer by the driver code itself what type of ISA NIC it > > is supporting. > > These are questions that must be researched... > > Where did the ISA support come from? >>From the original driver before I started maintaining it years ago. > Was it copied from another driver, or did it actually work on real hardware at > some point in the past? It did work on real hardware since, originally, the SMC91C9x chips were found on ISA cards only. > If the latter, when did ISA support stop working? i.e. a regression occurred Long long ago I'm afraid. I even sent a call for help from someone with an actual ISA card a couple years ago with no response. I suspect ISA support has been broken for quite a while now and no one ever complained. > Certainly if the driver has -never- worked on ISA hardware, then the code > should be removed. Who knows the definitive answer? What does the driver > look like in older (pre-2.6.12) kernels? I started hacking on that driver in the 2.4.x days, and I suspect I could have broken ISA at that time. Nicolas