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Date:      Fri, 30 Apr 2004 22:01:54 +0200
From:      Marius Strobl <marius@alchemy.franken.de>
To:        sparc64@freebsd.org
Cc:        tmm@freebsd.org
Subject:   Removal of old PCI code
Message-ID:  <20040430220154.A48341@newtrinity.zeist.de>

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If there are no objections I will remove the old sparc64 specific
PCI code (as opposed to "options OFW_NEWPCI") on May 8th, as it's
slowly getting in the way.
The new PCI code is enabled by default in GENERIC for 8 months now
and FreeBSD 5.2 and 5.2.1 shipped with this configuration. So if
you installed FreeBSD/sparc64 with the 5.2 or 5.2.1 release or
you installed with an older release but upgraded and turned on
"options OFW_NEWPCI" in your kernel configuration file since then,
nothing will change for you (other than you will have to remove
"options OFW_NEWPCI" once it no longer exists).

For those _not_ yet running with the new PCI code please switch
to it now!
The log of the commit that added the new PCI code tells you what
changes you might have to expect:

A pitfall, and the reason why this is not the default yet, is that
it changes device enumeration, as mentioned above, which can make
it necessary to change the system configuration if more than one
unit of a device type is present (on a system with two hme cards,
for example, it is possible that hme0 becomes hme1 and vice versa
after enabling the option). Systems with multiple disk controllers
may need to be booted into single user (and require manual specification
of the root file system on boot) to adjust the fstab.

In my experience switching to the new PCI code on a system that
only uses the built-in disk and network interface controllers
is painless and normally doesn't require much of interaction.
However, if your box has more than one built-in NIC and their
order is currently swapped under FreeBSD (i.e. "Net 0" is hme1
and vice versa) be prepared that their order switches to what
is actually printed on the box.

For those who wonders, the removal of the old PCI code is
agreed upon by Thomas Moestl.



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