From mboxrd@z Thu Jan  1 00:00:00 1970
Received: from mailman by lists.gnu.org with tmda-scanned (Exim 4.43)
	id 1LXlRx-0006fT-ND
	for qemu-devel@nongnu.org; Thu, 12 Feb 2009 18:58:33 -0500
Received: from exim by lists.gnu.org with spam-scanned (Exim 4.43)
	id 1LXlRu-0006d1-8t
	for qemu-devel@nongnu.org; Thu, 12 Feb 2009 18:58:32 -0500
Received: from [199.232.76.173] (port=59477 helo=monty-python.gnu.org)
	by lists.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.43) id 1LXlRt-0006cy-Sx
	for qemu-devel@nongnu.org; Thu, 12 Feb 2009 18:58:29 -0500
Received: from mx20.gnu.org ([199.232.41.8]:19547)
	by monty-python.gnu.org with esmtps (TLS-1.0:RSA_AES_256_CBC_SHA1:32)
	(Exim 4.60) (envelope-from <paul@codesourcery.com>)
	id 1LXlRt-00071O-IB
	for qemu-devel@nongnu.org; Thu, 12 Feb 2009 18:58:29 -0500
Received: from mail.codesourcery.com ([65.74.133.4])
	by mx20.gnu.org with esmtp (Exim 4.60)
	(envelope-from <paul@codesourcery.com>) id 1LXlRs-0007T6-Lb
	for qemu-devel@nongnu.org; Thu, 12 Feb 2009 18:58:28 -0500
From: Paul Brook <paul@codesourcery.com>
Subject: Re: [Qemu-devel] [RFC] Machine description as data
Date: Thu, 12 Feb 2009 23:58:25 +0000
References: <20090212040138.GD31142@yookeroo.seuss>
	<20090212.094613.514366467.imp@bsdimp.com>
	<4994B22E.6060608@gmx.net>
In-Reply-To: <4994B22E.6060608@gmx.net>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain;
  charset="utf-8"
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
Content-Disposition: inline
Message-Id: <200902122358.25864.paul@codesourcery.com>
Reply-To: qemu-devel@nongnu.org
List-Id: qemu-devel.nongnu.org
List-Unsubscribe: <http://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/qemu-devel>,
	<mailto:qemu-devel-request@nongnu.org?subject=unsubscribe>
List-Archive: <http://lists.gnu.org/pipermail/qemu-devel>
List-Post: <mailto:qemu-devel@nongnu.org>
List-Help: <mailto:qemu-devel-request@nongnu.org?subject=help>
List-Subscribe: <http://lists.nongnu.org/mailman/listinfo/qemu-devel>,
	<mailto:qemu-devel-request@nongnu.org?subject=subscribe>
To: qemu-devel@nongnu.org
Cc: devicetree-discuss@ozlabs.org, Carl-Daniel Hailfinger <c-d.hailfinger.devel.2006@gmx.net>, hollisb@us.ibm.com

> Unless I'm mistaken, Linux is able to probe most hardware properties.

You are badly mistaken.

On x86 workstation/server class hardware you might get away with it because 
everything interesting is either  standard legacy ports or PCI, and your 
firmware/bios already took care of the really hairy bits.

On embedded systems there's often very little that can be automatically 
detected, much less functionality provided by the firmware (You're lucky if 
all your RAM is even turned on!) and you just have to know where stuff is.

Paul