[parisc-linux] Re: E55 status - THE DRIVER !

[Ryan Bradetich]

Hello Christoph,

I have integrated your patch into my tree, and have been testing out the
patch on my C200+ and the K460.  With the PDC console patch, I do get to
the console on the K460 which is great news.  I am still going to work
on the driver for the actual hardware (in my case the Eole CAP/MUX, and
in your case the Sahp Baat Kiuh AP/MUX), but this is a nice work around
until that work is finished.

When integrating your patch into my tree, I made the following changes:

* Dropped the LCD support.
 	I do not understand this portion of the code very well, and it 	had
some uglyness that made me feel uneasy to commit to the tree.  	Someone
else should look at this and integrate it properly.

* Renamed the pdc_drv to pdc_console.
	Just seemed more accurate to me .. I am open for other opinions
	on this.

* Added the configure option and help text for the PDC software console.
* Inegerated CONFIG_PDC_CONSOLE into the drivers/char/Makefile.
* Integrated CONFIG_PDC_CONSOLE into arch/parisc/kernel/pdc_cons.c and
	performed some minor cleanups.

* probably other things I've forgotten :)


Overall I though the patch looked great, but I still have 1 concern left
and that is about the major number.

According to Documentation/devices.txt major number 30 is reserved for:
 30 char        iBCS-2 compatibility devices

I understand about --><-- much about how major numbers are handled and I
know this is a topic of debate among the main stream kernel developers. 
If we ever want to move this driver into the mainstream kernel this
issue will probably need to be resolved ... and I have no idea on how to
proceed.  Maybe others on this list will have an idea, or when the time
comes we will need to address this on the lkml.  Before I commit this
patch to the CVS repository, I'd like to get some concensus on this list
about what is right.  (ie for the debian installer to work with this
device, /dev/ttyB0 will need to be added to the MAKEDEV package, etc).

Anyways the patch is available for feedback at: 
ftp://ftp.parisc-linux.org/patches/pdc_console.diff

I am still working on testing this driver ... I would be very happy to
see install the K460 using the debian installer using this patch.  I am
currently working on making that happen.

Thanks,

- Ryan