Re: [Patch] IBM Real-Time "SMI Free" mode driver -v7

[Vernon Mauery]

On 21-Oct-2010 03:25 PM, Matthew Garrett wrote:
> On Thu, Oct 21, 2010 at 07:23:19AM -0700, Vernon Mauery wrote:
> > On 21-Oct-2010 02:54 PM, Matthew Garrett wrote:
> > > Applied, thanks. It'd be nice if we didn't have to rely on DMI,
> > > especially since enterprise customers often end up running later kernels
> >
> > I am not sure what you mean here by problems with DMI running later
> > kernels.
>
> Oops, sorry! I mean running on older kernels.

Do older kernels not have DMI support?  I would think that if an 
enterprise distribution wanted this driver they would likely already 
have DMI support backported as well.

Or they can work with me to find a way that works in that kernel.  I was 
thinking that in the current (and future) kernel, DMI was the best way 
to go.

> > > - is there any other way to determine that this is safe to load? Could
> >
> > I can't think of anything off the top of my head that would allow us to
> > ensure that this is only loaded on IBM systems.  DMI is pretty good
> > about that.
>
> I'd suggest using DMI to verify that it's an IBM, and perhaps also using
> DMI to check that it's a server or blade rather than a laptop or
> desktop. After that you could just check the ebda rather than having to
> have an entry for every specific machine.

I went for a better safe than sorry route.  Before I added the DMI 
checking I had some reports of this getting loaded on non-IBM hardware 
and it came up with some nasty error messages.  I figured since I knew 
exactly which platforms have support, I could just limit the driver to 
those.  Then there is the force parameter that allows a user to ignore 
the DMI data and try to load the driver anyway.

--Vernon
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