RFC: re-enable auto loading of floppy driver when the PNP info says there is a floppy

[Matthew Garrett]

On Wed, Apr 14, 2010 at 09:49:13AM +0200, Hans de Goede wrote:
> Hi,
> > So of the machines you tested that have a floppy controller, 25% are
> > buggy in the way that Kyle described.
> 
> Erm, no, they are not buggy the BIOS authors have simply chosen to add
> a separate config option for disabling the floppy controller, rather then
> automatically doing so when the floppy type is set to None.

The point is that we do not wish to probe the floppy controller if there 
are no floppy drives attached. Therefore autoloading on PNP0700 is not 
acceptable.

> 1) We are currently shipping a non upstream patch,
>     with no intention of taking it upstream (clear violation of Fedora
>     kernel policies last time I checked).

This is a policy decision, not a functionality decision. We ship several 
such patches.

> 2) This causes peoples hardware to not work out of the box (regression!)

It causes most people's hardware to work better.

> 3) This is done so that people who have not configured their system
>     properly do not suffer a boot delay (nothing more).

This is done so that people who have a common hardware configuration do 
not suffer a boot delay.

> Note I don't care much personally as I very seldom use floppies and I'm
> technically capable of fixing this. But this does not make us look good
> wrt userfriendlyness, ie this is certainly not something I can explain
> to my mother in law who is using Fedora and still uses floppies.

Solutions have been proposed. Like most things, if it's something that 
itches you then feel free to scratch it.

-- 
Matthew Garrett | mjg59 at srcf.ucam.org