I got the updated sk98lin (version 6.14) driver disk working, and
successfully used it along with a modified boot.iso CD to do a network
kickstart using the on-board ethernet chip. I'll be writing up what I did,
and posting the writeup and the driver disk files to the web soon. Thanks
again, Michael, for the pointer to Doug Ledford's driver disk kit.
I haven't contacted SysKonnect yet, but I'll be doing that, to urge them to
submit their driver for inclusion in the kernel, and to offer them the
driver disks I made, and the method for making them in the future.
I wanted to reply to a few of Dave Jones' comments:
Dave Jones wrote on Friday 08 August 2003 09:01:
(click the disk icon 8-)
http://www.syskonnect.com/syskonnect/support/driver/zip/linux/sk98lin_2.4...
Yeah, I know. :) The problem is, the previous version of the patch (for
kernel 2.4.20) didn't apply cleanly to the RH kernel, and I didn't feel
like struggling through the minutae of making it fit.
From a quick skim of the code, it seems largely made up of
gratuitous
whitespace changes, which makes it hard to see the real changes.
Lots of changing comments from..
/* foo */
to
/*
** foo
*/
Seems someone got a new text editor with macros for xmas..
Thanks for taking a look at the patch, but I beg to differ. :) There are a
fair number of whitespace changes, but there are (by my eye) lots more
logic changes, plus many added comments and a fair number of non-whitespace
reformats. I actually saw very few of the comment reformats of the type
you show above. Of course, this all matters little. :) I guess my point
is that it seems to me the patch is not trivial (which is what your comment
suggested to me). It weighs in at nearly 18000 lines and 1/2 MB, and I'd
guess around 1/4 of that is substantive.
Lots of hard coded values changed to #defines - a good thing.
Some new cards supported - also a good thing.
I didn't notice the hard-coded values changing, but yes, there are lots of
#defines added or changed. And the key thing to me, I think, is the new
card support.
That aside ISTR someone mentioning that this update backs out
some stuff that has been fixed in mainline since they last did a push,
so that needs fixing,
Huh, that could be, I don't know the mainline history of changes to this
driver (and didn't attempt to look them up). I see that there's one RH
patch in 2.4.21 (rawhide) that affects sk98lin slightly, in
linux-2.4.1-compilefailure.patch.
It'd be useful for someone who knows the history of sk98lin to give SK
feedback about what needs patching...
as do the memory leaks they introduce in their
ioctls. They may also be other problems, but thats all I picked up
from a quick 2 minute skim of the diff.
OK, I'll take your word for it. I'm way too inexperienced to judge that,
even in my 30-minute skim of the diff. :)
Fishing out the good bits of the patch is a worthwhile thing for
someone to do, but its not a 10 minute job.
I imagine so. What would be the most useful way for this to happen? Who
would best do this? The SK developers? (Then I guess they'd need to know
what was fixed in the mainline kernel version of sk98lin.) Or Alan or a
kernel net driver hacker?
David