----- Forwarded message from Sebastian Kuzminsky <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> -----
From: Sebastian Kuzminsky <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: Jeff Epler <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Re: 7i43 support in 2.2?
Date: Mon, 23 Jun 2008 09:46:43 -0600
X-Spambayes-Classification: ham; 0.00 (5)
On Mon June 23 2008 06:28:59 Jeff Epler wrote:
> On Sun, Jun 22, 2008 at 08:20:17PM -0600, Sebastian Kuzminsky wrote:
> > Let's see, I need to install the firmware files (like we talked about
> > in bug #1994738)
>
> Actually, I think we backtracked on this.
>
> At fest, one user had two mesa 5i20 cards in his box, but only the first
> card worked. At first it was misdiagnosed as not loading the firmware
> for the second board, and then side-tracked into it not being loadable
> with bfload either since the firmware image wasn't present. However, it
> was later discovered that the problem was simply that the functions
> weren't added to threads.
Which driver were you using at fest?
The Mesa driver support right now is a bit confusing. Here's what's in
our trees currently:
2.2:
driver: hal_m5i20
boards supported: 5i20
firmware source: eeprom or userspace utility run before driver load
firmware notes: old hostmot, various flavors
other notes: widely used
driver: hal_5i2x
boards supported: 5i20; 5i22 support planned?
firmware source: eeprom or userspace
firmware notes: not sure, a fork off the old hostmot code?
other notes: development stalled?
driver: m7i43_hm2
boards supported: 7i43
firmware source: compiled into driver, sent to board at insmod time
firmware notes: hostmot2, various flavors, supported by Mesa
other notes: in maintenance mode, new development continued in
mesa-hostmot2 in TRUNK (see below)
TRUNK:
TRUNK has all drivers in 2.2, plus these two:
driver: mesa7i43-gpio
boards supported: 7i43
firmware source: compiled into driver, sent to board at insmod time
firmware notes: 48 gpio
other notes: development ended
driver: mesa-hostmot2
boards supported: 7i43, 5i20
firmware source: eeprom or userspace
firmware notes: hostmot2, various flavors, supported by Mesa
other notes: actively developed with support from Mesa, all AnyIO
boards will be supported by end of summer
The drivers that *may* get the firmware from userspace are hal_m5i20,
hal_5i2x, and mesa-hostmot2.
I think the tool to write firmware to the eeprom (m5i20cfg) is not
widely used or as well maintained. I know it doesnt support the 7i43,
and I think it doesnt support the 5i22 or the other PCI cards.
The tool to send the firmware directly to the FPGA (bfload) is actively
maintained and developed.
> So I'd defer installing firmwares in the filesystem until the time when
> we are *never* doing it in the driver. but that's an incompatible
> change, so we can't do it during 2.2.
If we dont install the firware in the filesystem, there will be no
transition period from the old HM2 driver to the new. Here's what I
think we should do:
* Add the hostmot2 driver to 2.2.6.
* Install the hostmot2 firmwares in the filesystem, in both 2.2
and TRUNK.
* Deprecate hal_5i2x, m7i43_hm2, and mesa7i43-gpio in TRUNK. I think
none of these drivers is widely used. Remove them in 6 months or
a year or so.
* Deprecate hal_5i2x and m7i43_hm2 in 2.2. I think neither of these
drivers is widely used. They get to stay through the lifetime of
2.2, but they won't be in 2.3 or 3.0 or whatever comes next.
* Thus future supported drivers will be restricted to hal_m5i20
and mesa-hostmot2.
This lets peoples old configurations keep working until they switch to
TRUNK or the next major release, while still letting people experiment
with the up-and-coming driver right now if they want.
--
Sebastian Kuzminsky
"The brain is [a machine]. The fact that it's made out of meat is a
red herring." -- David Adler <http://www.spectrum.ieee.org/print/6268>
----- End forwarded message -----
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