The ioctl is the traditional way of doing this. The daemon does have
to be running all the time in many cases such as the Digi C/X
products where the concentrators are remote and could be power cycled
by accident. The driver has to be prepared to give the box a
firmware download at any time.
Err... yeah, I guess that's a good reason to have a driver do it. I
still think in general it's a bad idea, but yes, there are times when it
is the best way to go about things.
- Ted