Re: built-in USB drivers

[Philippe Carriere]

>  
>  
>  > -------- Message transféré --------
>  > De: Dan Williams <dcbw(a)redhat.com&gt;
>  > Reply-to: Development discussions related to Fedora
>  > <fedora-devel-list(a)redhat.com&gt;
>  > À: Development discussions related to Fedora
>  > <fedora-devel-list(a)redhat.com&gt;
>  > Sujet: Re: built-in USB drivers
>  > Date: Mon, 09 Feb 2009 10:43:56 -0500
>  > 
>  > 
>  > On Sun, 2009-02-08 at 16:06 +0100, Philippe Carriere wrote:
>  > > Hi,
>  > > 
>  > > since Fedora 10, USB drivers (more precisely, ehci-hcd for which a
>  > > patch is required to be snd-ubs-us112l - alsa-1.0.18 - compatible) are
>  > > "built-in" in the official kernel package.
>  > > For previous releases (F9), USB drivers always were modules, with the
>  > > advantage that providing a patched module (using kmod rpmfusion
>  > > framework) just required, after installing the kmod rpms, to
>  > > disable/enable the module.
>  > > 
>  > > I do not know the motivation of Fedora developers for choosing
>  > > built-in rather than module in the pre-compilation configuration: is
>  > > it indeed unavoidable ? Or does it exist a fairly simple way (I found
>  > > nothing like this in documentations) to disable a built-in driver so
>  > > as to replace it by a module, avoiding lengthy kernel compilation for
>  > > just a few modified lines ?
>  > 
>  > Building modules in speeds up boot times.  Obviously you only want to
>  > build in modules that almost all of the machines of a certain
>  > architecture are likely to need.  The USB host controller drivers are
>  > probably the best candidate for this. 

I'm probably a too old man to understand that (a few seconds of boot)
time saving is preferable than (keeping some degrees of) freedom.
Anyway, almost all is not all and undoubtfully not all hardware-to-be.


>  > 
>  > My suggestion would be to encourage the upstream ALSA maintainers to
>  > accept the patch necessary for your hardware, and then that patch will
>  > find its way into the Fedora kernel when the ALSA folks push updates to
>  > Linus.
>  > 
>  > Dan
>  >  

Well, ehci-hcd is not Alsa maintainers dependent and as can be seen in
the attached emails, we do our best effort for having the patch
integrated in the next kernel release. However, such integration always
requires some times while we are also able, presently (ans since about 8
months), to propose a patched module for interested users, a fairly
better way than a full compiled kernel. And such a situation will be
probably encountered for other hardwares in a near future.

Phil.


________________________________________________________________________

philippe-f.carriere(a)wanadoo.fr

built-in USB drivers

[Dan Williams]

On Tue, 2009-02-10 at 21:43 +0100, Philippe Carriere wrote:
>  > 
>  > > -------- Message transféré --------
>  > > De: Dan Williams <dcbw(a)redhat.com&gt;
>  > > Reply-to: Development discussions related to Fedora
>  > > <fedora-devel-list(a)redhat.com&gt;
>  > > À: Development discussions related to Fedora
>  > > <fedora-devel-list(a)redhat.com&gt;
>  > > Sujet: Re: built-in USB drivers
>  > > Date: Mon, 09 Feb 2009 10:43:56 -0500
>  > > 
>  > > On Sun, 2009-02-08 at 16:06 +0100, Philippe Carriere wrote:
>  > > > Hi,
>  > > > 
>  > > > since Fedora 10, USB drivers (more precisely, ehci-hcd for which a
>  > > > patch is required to be snd-ubs-us112l - alsa-1.0.18 - compatible) are
>  > > > "built-in" in the official kernel package.
>  > > > For previous releases (F9), USB drivers always were modules, with the
>  > > > advantage that providing a patched module (using kmod rpmfusion
>  > > > framework) just required, after installing the kmod rpms, to
>  > > > disable/enable the module.
>  > > > 
>  > > > I do not know the motivation of Fedora developers for choosing
>  > > > built-in rather than module in the pre-compilation configuration: is
>  > > > it indeed unavoidable ? Or does it exist a fairly simple way (I found
>  > > > nothing like this in documentations) to disable a built-in driver so
>  > > > as to replace it by a module, avoiding lengthy kernel compilation for
>  > > > just a few modified lines ?
>  > > 
>  > > Building modules in speeds up boot times.  Obviously you only want to
>  > > build in modules that almost all of the machines of a certain
>  > > architecture are likely to need.  The USB host controller drivers are
>  > > probably the best candidate for this.
>  
>  I'm probably a too old man to understand that (a few seconds of boot)
>  time saving is preferable than (keeping some degrees of) freedom.
>  Anyway, almost all is not all and undoubtfully not all hardware-to-be.
>  
>  > > 
>  > > My suggestion would be to encourage the upstream ALSA maintainers to
>  > > accept the patch necessary for your hardware, and then that patch will
>  > > find its way into the Fedora kernel when the ALSA folks push updates to
>  > > Linus.
>  > > 
>  > > Dan
>  > > 
>  
>  Well, ehci-hcd is not Alsa maintainers dependent and as can be seen in the attached
> emails, we do our best effort for having the patch  
Ah right, not the sound module, but ehci-hcd needs the patch, so you're
correct.

Dan

built-in USB drivers

[Chuck Ebbert]

On Tue, 10 Feb 2009 21:43:15 +0100
Philippe Carriere <philippe-f.carriere(a)wanadoo.fr&gt; wrote:

>  Well, ehci-hcd is not Alsa maintainers dependent and as can be seen
> in
>  the attached emails, we do our best effort for having the patch
>  integrated in the next kernel release. However, such integration always
>  requires some times while we are also able, presently (ans since about 8
>  months), to propose a patched module for interested users, a fairly
>  better way than a full compiled kernel. And such a situation will be
>  probably encountered for other hardwares in a near future. 
That USB patch was submitted upstream yesterday by David Brownell.

http://article.gmane.org/gmane.linux.usb.general/14869

built-in USB drivers

[Philippe Carriere]

Le mardi 10 février 2009 à 17:17 -0500, Chuck Ebbert a écrit :

>  On Tue, 10 Feb 2009 21:43:15 +0100
>  Philippe Carriere <philippe-f.carriere(a)wanadoo.fr&gt; wrote:
>  
>  > Well, ehci-hcd is not Alsa maintainers dependent and as can be seen in
>  > the attached emails, we do our best effort for having the patch
>  > integrated in the next kernel release. However, such integration always
>  > requires some times while we are also able, presently (ans since about 8
>  > months), to propose a patched module for interested users, a fairly
>  > better way than a full compiled kernel. And such a situation will be
>  > probably encountered for other hardwares in a near future.
>  
>  That USB patch was submitted upstream yesterday by David Brownell.
>  
>  http://article.gmane.org/gmane.linux.usb.general/14869
>  
>   
That's a good news. Thanks for the info.


Phil.

________________________________________________________________________

philippe-f.carriere(a)wanadoo.fr