Re: [GIT PULL] x86/platforms for v3.15

From: H. Peter Anvin
Date: Tue Apr 01 2014 - 13:24:14 EST


Hi Linus,

This one is largely my fault, but it is not for not asking the questions.

This patch is part of the work of modularizing the IOSF drivers, because
of course standard distros don't want to compile them in. However, this
results in odd problems when IOSF-aware drivers (some of which are
present on non-IOSF hardware, as there are drivers that operate on both
PCI and IOSF, some of which are still coming down the pipe toward mainline.)

It is these dual-mode drivers that make things a bit more complicated
than it ought to be.

I have explicitly asked David to work on modularizing the IOSF core,
even though it is small, exactly to avoid this mess. However, that
change didn't make it in time, and I guess I should just have said "no"
at that point.

I did not want to not have an option to disable it for EXPERT
configurations, because we also have people working very hard at shaving
down the size of the x86 kernel so that Linux rather than "random RTOS
of the month" can be used in deep embedded configurations.

On this issue:

> (a) people don't know about, so asking people about it is f*cking
> retarded to begin with

Well, that is why it is an EXPERT option.

+ bool "IOSF MBI support" if EXPERT

-hpa
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