Q: MTD and NIC Roms...

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----- Original Message ----- 
From: "yxh" <yangxhui at i-net.com.cn>
To: "Eric W. Biederman" <ebiederman at lnxi.com>; "Jeff Garzik" <jgarzik at pobox.com>
Cc: <linux-mtd at lists.infradead.org>; "David Woodhouse" <dwmw2 at infradead.org>
Sent: Friday, February 14, 2003 8:33 AM
Subject: Re: Q: MTD and NIC Roms...


> 
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "Eric W. Biederman" <ebiederman at lnxi.com>
> To: "Jeff Garzik" <jgarzik at pobox.com>
> Cc: <linux-mtd at lists.infradead.org>; "David Woodhouse" <dwmw2 at infradead.org>
> Sent: Thursday, February 13, 2003 3:38 PM
> Subject: Re: Q: MTD and NIC Roms...
> 
> 
> > Jeff Garzik <jgarzik at pobox.com> writes:
> > 
> > > Eric W. Biederman wrote:
> > > > Currently I have a patch to eepro100.c that adds an MTD map driver so
> > > > the onboard rom can be written.  Making code like etherboot easier to
> > > > flash etc.
> > > [...]
> > > > I am currently looking for ideas on ways to cleanly get this code
> > > > into the kernel, and I am looking for ideas.  The map driver is
> > > 
> > > 
> > > Well... this functionality has existed for a while, and it doesn't need to be in
> > > the kernel :)
> > > 
> > > Donald Becker's diag suite can do flashing. ftp://www.scyld.com/pub/diag/  He
> > > provides means to program the flash from userspace.
> > 
> > Not on the eepro100, it does look like one or two other kinds of nic
> > are supported though.  His libflash.c is quite deficient when it comes
> > to the number of flash chips supported, the correctness of the
> > implementation of the cfi command set 2, and the completeness of it's
> > probe routine.
> > 
> > None of which goes into the races, or the portability problems
> > that arise from doing this in user space.
> > 
> > The linux mtd layer with it's larger user base, and the fact it sits
> > in the does not have any of those problems with handling flash chips.
> > And it steadily gets fewer problems as more kinds of flash chips are
> > looked at, and the problems in the code are addressed generically.
> > 
> > > And I think that's the best place for it.  We _could_ bloat up the kernel code
> > > by adding the ability flash -- but how many users is that going to serve, that
> > > are not already served by existing programs?  So, I disagree with getting this
> > > stuff into the kernel at all.
> > 
> > Given the lack of existing programs for the eepro100 every user served
> > is a new one.  Plus with the better support libraries provided by the 
> > linux mtd layer it is easier to do a quality job in the kernel.
> > 
> > I totally agree that this is not day to day functionality, and so it
> > should not burden the fast common paths of the kernel.  The code was
> > enclosed in a config option.  It is worth noting one of the busiest
> > booths at LinuxWorld was the etherboot booth.  And by other counts
> > as well there are quite a large number of users network booting.   So
> > the potential user base is significant.
> > 
> > And as David said it really is not that much code.
> > 
> > Eric
> > 
> > 
> > ______________________________________________________
> > Linux MTD discussion mailing list
> > http://lists.infradead.org/mailman/listinfo/linux-mtd/
> 
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