Re: [GIT PULL for v7.4] media updates

[Linus Torvalds]

On Mon, 26 Oct 2026 at 08:25, Sakari Ailus <sakari.ailus@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> The patch in question puts camera sensors and related chips in line with
> how the rest of the drivers are selected elsewhere.

.. and other places could probably be improved too, I agree.

But this made things *worse*. Much worse.

The thing is, at least hide them behind some "embedded camera options"
that in turn is hidden behind "EXPERT" or something like that.

Don't make *normal* people who build their own kernels have to see or know.

Let's say that you have a laptop or something that actually uses one
of these sensors for a webcam, then it STILL does not help to ask a
user

 "Do you want a driver for the Analog Devices ADV7170 video encoder"

Because (a) that chip legacy and likely not in any laptop anyway and
(b) even if it was, no laptop user is going to *know* that.

See what I'm saying? You literally make things worse. Don't do that.
You're making the kernel Kconfig script ask insane questions. They are
insane because you cannot reasonably expect people to actually know
the answer to the questions.

In other words: don't ask questions that you know the user cannot answer.

There was a REASON why those menus were hidden.

                  Linus