From owner-freebsd-current Wed May 12 15:55:38 1999 Delivered-To: freebsd-current@freebsd.org Received: from spinner.netplex.com.au (spinner.netplex.com.au [202.12.86.3]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id 5B0FD14DDC for ; Wed, 12 May 1999 15:55:32 -0700 (PDT) (envelope-from peter@netplex.com.au) Received: from netplex.com.au (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by spinner.netplex.com.au (Postfix) with ESMTP id D2D311F58; Thu, 13 May 1999 06:55:28 +0800 (WST) (envelope-from peter@netplex.com.au) X-Mailer: exmh version 2.0.2 2/24/98 To: Mikael Karpberg Cc: mike@smith.net.au (Mike Smith), soda@sra.co.jp, current@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: cvs commit: src/sys/pci pcisupport.c In-reply-to: Your message of "Thu, 13 May 1999 00:36:18 +0200." <199905122236.AAA11182@ocean.campus.luth.se> Date: Thu, 13 May 1999 06:55:28 +0800 From: Peter Wemm Message-Id: <19990512225530.D2D311F58@spinner.netplex.com.au> Sender: owner-freebsd-current@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.ORG Mikael Karpberg wrote: > According to Mike Smith: > > This is actually a major defect in the newconfig design; if the kernel > > doesn't already know about a device when it is built, it can never > > support it. > > That would be so lovely, with a DEVFS too: > > Plug your Cool card into your pcmcia slot, and get the message on > the sytem console that an unknown pcmcia card called "Cool", made > by CoolMakers, Inc. Damn... not even a generic driver wanted this card. > Pull the card out and go for the web: > > # ftp ftp.a.cool.thing.com > ftp> get cool.tgz > --> Downloading file. > ftp> quit > --> Good bye. > # install_driver cool.tgz > --> Adding driver to driver database, and installing /modules/cool.ko! > > And at this point the kernel has not loaded the driver, but just > been told there's a new driver around and for what cards and vendors > it works, etc. This is done by a library call, or something, which > does adds the driver to the database, and a syscall to update the > kernel's already loaded database, or to get it to reload the database. > > Plug the card in again, and the kernel loads in cool.ko and probes the > card, and created a /dev/cool, and everything works just fine. No reboot, > no recompile, nada. *purr* This is exactly the way new-bus works. You merely load the driver, and the configuration engine reruns the probe for unclaimed devices on smart busses automatically. Of course, kicking off a generic driver when a more specific driver is loaded is a different problem... I have not looked to see if this is supported. It should not be a significant problem if it is not yet implemented. Cheers, -Peter To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-current" in the body of the message