Re: [RFC PATCH 11/12] platform/x86: skeleton for oftree based board device initialization

From: Andy Shevchenko
Date: Wed Feb 10 2021 - 05:38:36 EST


On Tue, Feb 9, 2021 at 12:27 AM Enrico Weigelt, metux IT consult
<info@xxxxxxxxx> wrote:
>
> Lots of boards have extra devices that can't be fully probed via bus'es
> (like PCI) or generic firmware mechanisms like ACPI. Often those capabilities
> are just partial or even highly depend on firmware version.
>
> Instead of hand-writing board specific drivers merely for the correct
> initialization / parameterization of generic drivers, hereby introducing
> a generic mechanism, using the already well supported oftree.
>
> These oftrees are compiled into the driver, which first tries to match
> machine identifications (eg. DMI strings) against rules defined in the
> individual oftrees, and on success, probes the devices that are defined
> by them.
>
> For the time being, we just support matching on DMI_BOARD_NAME and
> DMI_SYS_VENDOR - other criteria, even bus- or ACPI-id's can be added later,
> when needed.

This is weird and seems it missed the fact of the DMI based modprobe
mechanism that the kernel has for ages.

--
With Best Regards,
Andy Shevchenko