From: hans@mo.hobby.nl (Hans Oey) Subject: Re: Some thoughts on device drivers Date: Tue, 14 Jul 1992 06:08:36 GMT
mike@gcnext.gac.peachnet.edu (Michael A. Murphy) writes:
>In article <1992Jul11.004130.16419@atlantis.uucp> markt@atlantis.uucp (Mark Tarrabain) writes:
>> Presently, if a person wants to add a device driver to Linux, he has
>>to add some lines to the Linux kernel source, then he could link in
>>his driver and it would be installed.
....
>> What I suggest is that instead, a table of entry points should be
>>used...
....
>>Nonetheless, I believe this should be a priority since the
>>longer it goes unchecked, the harder it will be to change. Finally,
>>I would like to point out that the ease with which future developments
>>could be installed (or existing/obsolete ones removed) would make this
>>change very worthwhile and inevitably rewarding.
>>
>I'd like to voice my support for this, and the quicker it gets done,
>the better. I've already run into a bit of this problem with my own
>installation (the bus mouse driver). I love the speed with which
>Linux is developing, but i would hate to see it reach a point where
>further development (device drivers for example) is squelched because
>time wasn't taken during the pre-1.0 stage to make sure it was an
>easily extensible system.
Since Januari I posted 2 or 3 requests to Linus about this.
Because all device drivers and optional kernel services
like DOS file system drivers should be repackaged to fit
such a scheme, I wanted his approval before starting something
like /etc/config in SYSV. Not only device numbers, but
also IRQ's and i/o addresses should be put in seperate
configuration files. Never got any reply.
Hey, did _this_ message get out of my machine?