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

[Vernon Mauery]

On 21-Oct-2010 03:42 PM, Matthew Garrett wrote:
> On Thu, Oct 21, 2010 at 07:38:21AM -0700, Vernon Mauery wrote:
> > On 21-Oct-2010 03:25 PM, Matthew Garrett wrote:
> > > 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.
>
> I mean that they may run the current driver on newer hardware that isn't
> in the DMI table, and that may be the only thing preventing it from
> working.
>
> > > 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.
>
> It's preferable to have the driver be able to support future hardware
> built to the same spec without having to add extra IDs. It's easy to
> make sure that you're loading on an IBM server - are there any of these
> that have the _RTL_ header but will break?

No, if it has the _RTL_ header it should be fine.  I was more concerned 
about the driver trying to map the EBDA and reading through it on 
non-ibm platforms, so I guess just a check to see that it is IBM should 
be sufficient.  Let me get a patch that does that.

--Vernon
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