From owner-freebsd-hackers Wed May 7 09:55:58 1997 Return-Path: Received: (from root@localhost) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) id JAA01528 for hackers-outgoing; Wed, 7 May 1997 09:55:58 -0700 (PDT) Received: from mail.cdsnet.net (mail.cdsnet.net [204.118.244.5]) by hub.freebsd.org (8.8.5/8.8.5) with ESMTP id JAA01517 for ; Wed, 7 May 1997 09:55:55 -0700 (PDT) Received: from shasta.altavista-software.com (shasta.altavista-software.com [205.181.164.61]) by mail.cdsnet.net (8.8.5/8.7.3) with SMTP id JAA06536; Wed, 7 May 1997 09:55:45 -0700 (PDT) Message-Id: <3.0.1.32.19970507125334.006b90d0@www.3am-software.com> X-Sender: matt@www.3am-software.com (Unverified) X-Mailer: Windows Eudora Pro Version 3.0.1 (32) Date: Wed, 07 May 1997 12:53:34 -0400 To: dg@root.com From: Matt Thomas Subject: Re: if_de.c ???? Cc: hackers@FreeBSD.ORG Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset="us-ascii" Sender: owner-hackers@FreeBSD.ORG X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Precedence: bulk At 06:27 PM 5/6/97 -0700, David Greenman wrote: > The if_de driver is a #ifdef mess. It tries to support multiple operating >systems that are diverging quickly every day. Simply put, I can't personally >support it. This arrangement was fine while the author was willing to support >it, but he pulled support for FreeBSD and announced his intentions of only >supporting NetBSD. I never said that. I said that NetBSD was my primary development O/S. My W/S still runs FreeBSD (and wonders of wonders my new driver runs there just fine). Supporting BSD/OS, FreeBSD, NetBSD is a real pain. I really wish that that three could start converging instead of diverging but that isn't going to happen soon. Now that FreeBSD is going to be ported to Alpha I can only hope that FreeBSD doesn't invent its own way of doing architectural independent bus access but instead adopts NetBSD's bus_space idea (and does not gratutiously change it). > At that point the code started to grow some mold. I really really wish that FreeBSD has a stable DDK interface. Unfortunately FreeBSD changes faster than I have the free time to keep pace with. At least the NetBSD folks notify when something is changing so I know to react. >One of the problems with having such a popular NIC, coupled with little >architectural direction from the manufacturer, is that you get a variant- >a-week syndrome (different serial EEPROMs, different format for the data >in the EEPROM, etc) - and no matter what you do, it's not possible to deal >with this in a clean way. So how can I or anyone else who is knowledgeable >about the 'de' cards recommend them? Sure, the old ones work fine - but this >means nothing when you go out and buy a new one. The new driver does deal with SEEPROM in a clean way. That's why I spent six months rewriting and testing it. It's only problem is that it requires some code that currently is not part of FreeBSD. Sigh, -- Matt Thomas Internet: matt@3am-software.com 3am Software Foundry WWW URL: http://www.3am-software.com/bio/matt.html Westford, MA Disclaimer: I disavow all knowledge of this message