strange problems after upgrading to kernel 2.6.10rc1

[Jouni Malinen]

On Fri, Oct 29, 2004 at 10:01:12AM -0700, Jean Tourrilhes wrote:
> Jouni wrote :
> > With the new development model for Linux 2.6, this is likely to become
> > more frequent.. Linux 2.6.10-rc1 seems to have changed PCI calls for
> > driver registration and power saving state in a way which is not
> > backwards compatible.

> 	I remember some driver authors grumbling about all the changes
> to the Wireless Extension API and all the pain it was causing in his
> driver. I'm glad that this time, I'm not the culprit.

Most, if not all, changes in wireless extensions were backwards
compatible at least in the source level. From my viewpoint, it's quite
a bit different to start removing function arguments..

> 	Some kernel developpers seem to have a position that backward
> compatibility should be avoided at all cost and breaking it is good
> fun. One of the "benefit" is that it punishes driver living outside
> the kernel, and therefore encourage people to maintain their driver in
> the kernel. So, I guess we can expect more of it.

Well.. I can understand the goal of having a clean interface to internal
kernel functionality. Yes, it will mean things get broken every now and
then, but then again, one can go the route of taking a distro kernel and
hope for the best that the distro in question includes all the needed
drivers.

> 	Wich brin nicely to the topic of inclusion of HostAP in the
> kernel...

I didn't get much (well, none) comments on this when I submitted the
driver for wireless-2.6 tree. I could try to update wireless-2.6 version
to match with my current work version and then ask whether it could be
merged into linux-2.6 tree..

-- 
Jouni Malinen                                            PGP id EFC895FA