Date: Mon, 19 Jan 2009 09:12:36 -0800 From: Maxim Sobolev <sobomax@FreeBSD.org> To: Sam Leffler <sam@FreeBSD.org> Cc: svn-src-head@FreeBSD.org, svn-src-all@FreeBSD.org, src-committers@FreeBSD.org Subject: Re: svn commit: r187426 - head/sys/amd64/conf Message-ID: <4974B484.7030608@FreeBSD.org> In-Reply-To: <4974ABCC.7000107@freebsd.org> References: <200901190710.n0J7ACSg001385@svn.freebsd.org> <497432A1.9060805@samsco.org> <497446D4.5020104@FreeBSD.org> <4974ABCC.7000107@freebsd.org>
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Sam Leffler wrote: > Maxim Sobolev wrote: >> Scott Long wrote: >>> prepare to be wrong. And above all else, don't put drivers into here >>> that you haven't tested. It's pretty silly to admit in your commit >>> message, for all to see, that you are blatantly committing without >>> testing. >> >> Actually this is interesting point, what the best strategy for us as >> the project should be? Should we new put drivers that have been tested >> on i386 only and don't have any particular reason to be i386-specific >> (i.e. ISA/EISA drivers, PCMCIA drivers etc) into amd64 GENERIC >> automatically and wait for somebody to report a problem, or stay on >> the safe side and enable drivers on amd64 only after somebody actually >> has tested them and confirms that they are working? Should this policy >> depend on driver class (for example a storage driver has much higher >> potential for screwing user's data compared to a network driver or a >> sound driver) and on release (HEAD / STABLE)? IMHO FreeBSD could >> benefit by putting at least non-storage untested non i386-specific >> drivers into amd64 kernel and/or at least in HEAD to give them testing >> and a wider exposure. >> >> This is not just idle interest for me - recently our company has >> started shipping amd64 version of our FreeBSD-based product, so that >> we are a little bit concerned about hardware support with amd64 7.1 >> kernel being a little bit narrower compared to i386 7.1 kernel. >> >> I apologize if this topic has been discussed somewhere already. > > I think the answer to your question about default-enabling drivers is > very clear: it is the decision of the person maintaining the driver. If > you're willing to SUPPORT a driver on a platform then feel free to > enable it. Otherwise doing a drive-by to enable a driver that may or > may not work may easily result in complaints that are unanswered. These > have resulted in people concluding wider breakage that easily becomes > de-facto and are hard to kill given that people google for help, find > old complaints, and stop searching. OK, makes sense. By the way, there is a question on this topic to you. The wi(4) has been removed from i386 GENERIC, but it is still present in amd64 GENERIC. Is it intentional or just a mistake? -Maxim
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