Hostap_pci vs. orinoco_pci

[Pavel Roskin]

Hello!

On Fri, 2005-11-18 at 13:53 +0200, Denis Vlasenko wrote:
> On Thursday 17 November 2005 20:54, Jar wrote:
> > 
> > Hello
> > 
> > When using FC4 2.6.12, I have to put the following lines to the end of 
> > the /etc/hotplug/blacklist to get rid of loading orinoco_pci.
> > 
> > # a) Do NOT load orinoco_pci when we are using hostap driver
> > # b) Do NOT load hostap_pci or it's alias wlan1 defined in
> > #    /etc/modprobe.conf, let network service run it instead.
> > orinoco_pci
> > hostap_pci
> > wlan1
[snip]
> > Finally I have to delete orinoco_pci. That is not elegant way to handle 
> > this. What is the _great_ idea to put prism2 device IDs to the orinoco 
> > driver?

The drivers only list devices they support.  The drivers is where this
information is stored for the kernel and userspace utilities.  Drivers
don't scan buses and don't choose whether to support a particular device
or to leave it to another driver.

Not having some supported devices listed in the driver would be a bigger
problem, because if the driver doesn't know whether it supports a
device, how can more generic utilities know that?

> > Is there some other method than the delete method to handle this? What 
> > if I had one orinoco_pci and one hostap_pci device in same PC and I want 
> > to use orinco driver for orinoco and hostap driver for prism2 device?

You should talk to hotplug/udev developers about it.  The mailing list
is at linux-hotplug-devel at lists.sourceforge.net

Blacklisting the driver doesn't look like a flexible solution.  You need
a way to "blacklist" a driver for a device, or better yet, "endorse" a
driver for a device to make sure that no other driver is allowed to use
it.

> Do not build both modules. Or even send patch to remove prism2 dev IDs
> from orinoco.

There is no way such patches will be applied.  The fix doesn't belong to
the driver.

By the way, orinoco_pci only support Prism based cards.  I'm not aware
of any non-prism PCI cards compatible or potentially compatible with
orinoco_pci.  Any "Orinoco PCI cards" are actually supported by
orinoco_plx.

-- 
Regards,
Pavel Roskin