Date: Mon, 6 May 2002 15:37:55 -0500 (CDT) From: John Utz <john@utzweb.net> To: Michael Smith <msmith@mass.dis.org> Cc: Michael Smith <msmith@FreeBSD.ORG>, <freebsd-hardware@FreeBSD.ORG> Subject: Re: can anyone suggest what needs fixing /usr/src/contrib/pnpinfo.c Message-ID: <Pine.LNX.4.44.0205061216520.8380-100000@jupiter.linuxengine.net> In-Reply-To: <200205061656.g46Gu8h2001872@mass.dis.org>
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ok, but... On Mon, 6 May 2002, Michael Smith wrote: > > > > john# pnpinfo > > > > Checking for Plug-n-Play devices... > > > > No Plug-n-Play devices were found > > > > > > > > this is on a box that has pnp things in it that get probed by the kernel > > > > and work successfully. > > > > > > You don't have a problem. > > > > interesting assertion. it implies that there is a mechanism for dumping > > the pnp device 'facts' to the screen that i am heretofore unaware of. > > acpidump. not in 4.5. will it be in 4.6? does it support non-ACPI machines? > > > pnpinfo only report on ISA PnP devices, and your PnP devices are > > > enumerated by talking to the BIOS. > > > > yes, but they are enumerated *very* quietly. i'd like to have a userspace > > ability to peek. 'tis a handy thing. > > The PnP BIOS is obsoleted. of course! but it's the one that's on my laptop, and i'm probably not alone. the bulk of my career with FreeBSD has always been with 'lagging edge' technology. I've reached the point in my life where all my *desktop* boxes are legacy free, but my laptop wont be any time soon. legacy support makes freebsd more *accessible*. esp in poorer economies that really *need* to have access to FreeBSD on ancient hardware so that they can spend their money on food and medicine and stuff.... my own first experience with FreeBSD was on a 386/33 at a time when pentiums where the current platform. FreeBSD was a superior choice when compared to Win3.11 or Win95 on said 386. I wonder if i'd be where i am today if the minimum FreeBSD hardware requirement had been a 486.... > > i can su to root and run pciconf. neat tool. > > > > what's the pnp equivalent? pnpinfo, right? > > There is none. > > > my current belief is that adding an ioctl to /usr/src/sys/isa/pnp.c that > > allows a userland process to obtain these facts would be a positive thing. > > It would be useless. well, if acpidump doesnt need acpi, then work on pnpinfo would be merely redundant. :-) if acpidump requires acpi ( which seems to be the case ) then i believe that your assertion of uselessness is unsupported. because there are older computers that can be productively used with FreeBSD that dont have ACPI. of course, you know much more about acpidump then i do, so if i am mistaken and acpidump *will* work on older systems, then i'll consider your strong advice. > > > Can you please stop with this pointless quest now? > > > > if it's pointless, u bet i'll stop! > > > > but i'm currently hypothesizing that you are mistaken. > > No. > > You're running off down a path that has no benefit to either yourself or > FreeBSD in the long run. What you want to achieve is best handled by the > use of ACPI; you can read the raw tables with acpidump and look at the > resulting device tree with devinfo. this is a pretty strong statement! so i should have no problem with not having ACPI? > Consider investing time and effort where it will yield the best return. yup. best return is 'whatever works on my box' followed closely by 'best architecture for long term growth'. > Futzing with pnpinfo is not a good example. if acpidump can run on, or could be convinced to run on, my non-acpi laptop, then i think that you are absolutely right. if it can, i'll think really hard about moving to 5.0 so that i could help make *that* work. > = Mike -- John L. Utz III john@utzweb.net Idiocy is the Impulse Function in the Convolution of Life To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-hardware" in the body of the message
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