Re: OSS 3.8a: SB32 not detected by lowlevel driver

Andrew E. Mileski (aem@netcom.ca)
Wed, 20 Aug 1997 08:15:57 -0400 (EDT)


> > Ummm...then this is a driver problem right? This has nothing to do
> > with PnP as far as I can see - the old non-PnP cards would have the
> > same problem right?
>
> Non-PnP SB32s don't have this problem.

Oh, so it was a PnP kludge :-(

> You are right in that a driver is
> required to initialize AWE32 properly. There is currently just a non-PnP
> AWE32 driver in the kernel and it can't do that.

Yea! That's the answer I was looking for! Thanks! :-)

So is the latest driver on Iwai's site PnP aware?

> Unfortunately the ISA PnP spec is so
> limited that it was not possible to express all requirements of the
> hardware using it.

I never said the specs were flawless! Far from it!

The PnP specs leave too many things optional, and don't even indicate
the proper timings required for device isolation! [There is some
timing info scattered through the documents, but GUESSING is still
required.] Better documentation AND example code (even pseudo-code)
would help a lot. Basically, the PnP specs are the worst docs
I've ever seen for such an important standard :-(

Then there are the cards that don't come close to conforming, and
require specific hacks :-(

Don't even get me started on the PnP-Serial spec, which is quite
possibly the stupidest PnP spec of them all.

--
Andrew E. Mileski   mailto:aem@netcom.ca