Re: 2.3 wish: integrate pcmcia into mainstream kernel

David Hinds (dhinds@lahmed.Stanford.EDU)
Wed, 2 Jun 1999 10:36:14 -0700


On Wed, Jun 02, 1999 at 12:35:55PM +0200, Pavel Machek wrote:
>
> Well: when someone does big changes to kernel (like turning way
> wait-queues are declared), he/she tends to fix all places in linux
> kernel. He/she certainly will break few drivers. Problem with pcmcia
> drivers is that all of them are allways broken this little way. Is
> pcmcia package distributed in form of patches?

Didn't even the wait-queue changes take a release or two to completely
settle out? PCMCIA is not "always" broken in this sort of way... it
has happened a few times, and each time, an update was available
within days. There are relatively few kernel updates that are simple
global find-and-replace operations.

> > I think this is the first time I've ever heard you express interest in
> > kernel support for dynamically configured devices. I'm somewhat
> > unhappy that it sounds like you're encouraging someone else to do it
> > differently.
>
> mj@ucw.cz + jj@ucw.cz want to do complete rewrite of buses for 2.3,
> and one of their goals is make dynamically configured devices
> available.

I've asked Martin about what he has in mind... but haven't gotten much
info. It can be frustrating to be intimately involved in these issues
but for there to be so little coordination among kernel developers. I
would love to be involved in this, since I've worked on dynamic bus
support since the 1.1.* kernel days, and have a huge amount of effort
invested in it.

> > consideration for me. I'm not dead-set against putting PCMCIA in the
> > kernel, and anyone who felt strongly enough about it is free to just
> > do it, though I'd prefer them to do it in a way that would make it
> > easy to propagate updates from my tree to the kernel tree.
>
> Currently, PCMCIA is licensed using MPL. Would it be possible to
> release pcmcia package under _both_ MPL and GPL in future to make
> in-kernel integration easier? [pretty please] [I'm not a lawyer so I
> do not know if it would be legal to integrate MPL sources into kernel
> tree. And I do not think Linus would like MPL sources in kernel
> tree...]

I already include a GPL exemption to the MPL in my license, so MPL
isn't a conflict (we have the precedent already of code in the kernel
tree that is BSD licensed with a GPL exemption, in some of the SCSI
drivers).

-- Dave

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