From owner-freebsd-mobile Tue Mar 9 3: 8:47 1999 Delivered-To: freebsd-mobile@freebsd.org Received: from phk.freebsd.dk (phk.freebsd.dk [212.242.40.153]) by hub.freebsd.org (Postfix) with ESMTP id B2F1015247 for ; Tue, 9 Mar 1999 03:08:44 -0800 (PST) (envelope-from phk@critter.freebsd.dk) Received: from critter.freebsd.dk (critter.freebsd.dk [212.242.40.131]) by phk.freebsd.dk (8.9.1/8.8.8) with ESMTP id MAA12840; Tue, 9 Mar 1999 12:08:25 +0100 (CET) (envelope-from phk@critter.freebsd.dk) Received: from critter.freebsd.dk (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by critter.freebsd.dk (8.9.2/8.9.2) with ESMTP id MAA22839; Tue, 9 Mar 1999 12:08:16 +0100 (CET) (envelope-from phk@critter.freebsd.dk) To: Michael Robinson Cc: jkh@zippy.cdrom.com, dkulp@neomorphic.com, freebsd-mobile@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: compatibility list In-reply-to: Your message of "Tue, 09 Mar 1999 18:10:49 +0800." <199903091010.SAA19722@netrinsics.com> Date: Tue, 09 Mar 1999 12:08:16 +0100 Message-ID: <22837.920977696@critter.freebsd.dk> From: Poul-Henning Kamp Sender: owner-freebsd-mobile@FreeBSD.ORG Precedence: bulk X-Loop: FreeBSD.org Before people get all armoured and heads for the windmills, let me just throw in a few observations from my corner: PCCARDs are just one instance of dynamic hardware. Undoubtedly the most prolific and worst designed, but still just one kind. We should step backwards one step and review the generic case just one bit before we rush in and code, this is where the PAO effort has failed most: They didn't design, they coded. Making a BSD kernel (or any classical UNIX kernel) aware and tolerant of devices coming and going all the time is no light task, and if it is just hacked in (see: PAO), the result will predictably be a mess. One "minor detail" is that all drivers should be probe/attached AFTER the kernel is in "normal state", ie, with timeouts and interrupts working and all that. (Alert people will have noticed that Sorens new ata driver does this :-) Obviously this should be tied into the "new bus" stuff, since that will be the frame work for future dynamic devices to work in (cardbus!) In other words: Yes, go for it, but don't focus blindly on pccards... -- Poul-Henning Kamp FreeBSD coreteam member phk@FreeBSD.ORG "Real hackers run -current on their laptop." FreeBSD -- It will take a long time before progress goes too far! To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-mobile" in the body of the message