Staging tree status for the .32 kernel merge
Belisko Marek
marek.belisko at gmail.com
Fri Sep 4 18:25:41 UTC 2009
Hi,
On Thu, Sep 3, 2009 at 6:14 AM, Greg KH<greg at kroah.com> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> Here's a summary of the state of the drivers/staging/ tree, basically
> what will be coming in the 2.6.32 merge, and what the status of the
> different drivers are so far.
>
> First off, drivers/staging/ is NOT a dumping ground for dead code. If
> no one steps up to maintain and work to get the code merged into the
> main portion of the kernel, the drivers will be removed.
>
> As proof of that, the EPL (Ethernet Power Link) driver will be removed
> in the .32 kernel, as no one is working on it, the upstream developers
> never respond to my emails, and no one seems to care about it.
>
> The pata_rdc driver is also going to be removed, as there is a "better"
> one being merged through the libata tree for this hardware.
>
> So, taking the drivers in chunks, here's some that have had active
> development on for the .32 release:
> - rt* wireless drivers. Bart has done amazing work merging all
> of these together into something much better than they
> originally were. And even better, they still work! Great
> job Bart!
>
> - rtl* wireless drivers. Again, Bart has been doing great work
> here.
>
> - wlan-ng driver: a bit of work here, but this seems to be
> dropping off, with the loss of a test platform for the driver.
> Hopefully someone has a device around and can help out here.
>
> - comedi drivers had only a bit of work done, lots more is
> needed here, let's not loose the fact that this is getting
> closer to a mergable shape.
>
> - Android drivers have had a bit of work done, but upstream
> seems to not care at all about what is going on here, as they
> are working to forward port their code to the 2.6.29! kernel.
> {sigh}. If this keeps up, the drivers will be dropped in the
> 2.6.32 kernel release.
> Note, Pavel has been adding some of the Dream hardware
> drivers, which are separate from the core Android drivers. I
> have no objection to those, but they should work to get merged
> to their "correct" places in the tree in another release or
> so.
>
> - w35und driver. It's slowly being worked on.
>
> - echo driver. This one is now in good enough shape to merge
> into the main kernel tree. I'll send out review patches soon
> for this.
>
> - eth131x driver. Alan Cox is working on fixing up the issues in
> this driver. Hopefully it will get into mergable shape soon.
>
> New drivers that will show up in the .32 kernel release:
> - vt66* wireless drivers. These VIA drivers are being actively
> worked on to get into a much better shape. Nice job.
>
> - new rt3090, and rtl8192e wireless drivers have been added and
> worked on cleaning up issues involved in them.
>
> - Microsoft Hyper-V drivers. Over 200 patches make up the
> massive cleanup effort needed to just get this code into a
> semi-sane kernel coding style (someone owes me a bit bottle of
> rum for that work!) Unfortunately the Microsoft developers
> seem to have disappeared, and no one is answering my emails.
> If they do not show back up to claim this driver soon, it will
> be removed in the 2.6.33 release. So sad...
>
> - quatech_usb2 driver. I don't know if it quite works, but
> someone is developing it, so I'm not complaining :)
>
> - VME bus drivers. Yeah! They are progressing nicely.
>
> - SEP and RAR drivers. Alan Cox has been working on cleaning
> these up a lot.
>
> - IIO (Industrial I/O), these are new drivers that are being
> actively worked on.
>
> - pohmelfs and dst. It seems that DST is dead, so I think I
> will remove it in .33. pohmelfs is under active development
> outside of the tree, and hopefully patches start moving in
> here to help out with keeping it up to date.
>
> - cowloop. Yes, another COW driver! :) Seriously, this does
> things that DM can't do, so it might be useful. The upstream
> developer is interested in getting this merged properly, and
> is working on cleaning it up.
>
> Drivers not being actively worked on:
> - otus. This is sitting here until a "real" wireless driver
> will be merged through the wireless tree. Hopefully that
> happens soon.
>
> - agnx wireless driver. No one seems to care about it. If no
> one steps up soon, it will be removed in .33.
>
> - altpciechdma. Upstream developers seem to have disappeared.
> Again, if no one steps up, it will be removed in .33
>
> - asus_oled. This only needs minor cleanups to get merged
> properly into the main tree. If someone wants an easy
> project, this would be it.
I'll work on this driver. I'll send patches soon.
>
> - at76_usb wireless driver. Again, no one working on it, it
> will be dropped in .33.
>
> - b3dfg. I really do not think anyone cares about this. again,
> will be dropped if this is true in .33.
>
> - cpc-usb. After the initial flurry of development, everyone
> seems to have run away. Was it the fact that I hadn't
> showered in a few days? Again, will be removed if no one
> comes back. And I am wearing deodorant now...
>
> - frontier. A nice driver, again, should not be hard to get
> merged into the main tree, if someone wants an easy project...
>
> - go7007. Ugh. Unless someone steps up now to take this over,
> it's going to be removed in .33. There is no hardware made
> with this anymore, and no specs around that I know of, and the
> code isn't the nicest in the world.
>
> - heci. A wonderful example of a company throwing code over the
> wall, watching it get rejected, and then running away as fast
> as possible, all the while yelling over their shoulder, "it's
> required on all new systems, you will love it!" We don't, it
> sucks, either fix it up, or I am removing it.
>
> - line6. Another nice driver that should be simple to get
> merged. Please, if you are looking for something to do, this
> is it.
>
> - me4000 and meilhaus. They work on the same hardware, and they
> duplicate the existing COMEDI drivers. Someone thinks that
> custom userspace interfaces are fun and required. Turns out
> that being special and unique is not what to do here, use the
> COMEDI drivers instead. These will be removed. Heck, I'll go
> remove them for .32, there is no reason these should still be
> around, except to watch the RT guys squirm as they try to
> figure out the byzantine locking and build logic here (which
> certainly does count for something, cheap entertainment is
> always good.)
>
> - mimio. Another driver that should be simple to get merged.
> Someone just step up to do this please, there are users of
> this hardware out there.
>
> - p9auth. While it seemed like a good idea, I don't think that
> anyone actually uses this. It will be removed in .33 unless
> someone comes forward.
>
> - panel. Another one that should be simple to merge. Anyone?
>
> - phison. What? I thought I asked for this to be merged a
> while ago, sorry about that, no reason it should still be in
> staging anymore, it's just so small it slipped through the
> cracks...
>
> - poch. A long-suffering company is enduring the slowest
> developers in the world here. Hopefully the code will be
> replaced with a UIO driver, but testing the userspace side
> seems to be difficult and slow. I have to give Redrapids
> major credit for being patient here, they are being amazing.
>
> - rspiusb. A weird, very expensive camera, from a company that
> does not want to release the specs, and wants custom userspace
> interfaces. The code hasn't built since the 2.6.20 days.
> I'll go delete it now from .32, it doesn't deserve to live as
> no one cares about it, least of all, the original authors of
> the code :(
>
> - slicoss and sxg. These are being developed by a consulting
> company for the main producer of the chips. Yet they seem to
> have disappeared half-way through the job. Odd. Hopefully
> they come back soon.
>
> - stlc45xx. Another wireless driver that no one seems to care
> about. So sad. I guess no one will miss it when it goes away
> in .33.
>
> - udlfb. Video over USB, it doesn't get anymore whacked than
> that. This is still being developed but the developer doesn't
> like to do incremental updates for some odd reason. Hopefully
> he pops up again with an update. But for now, it is quite
> workable for a number of developers.
>
> - usbip. USB over IP. I guess if you ran video over IP to your
> USB device, that would be more whacked than just video over
> USB. This did get one big update during the .32 development
> cycle, hopefully the developer can come back again when they
> get some free time to continue working on it. Rumor has it
> that some major distros are starting to rely on this code, so
> it would be nice to get their help to get it working better...
>
> That should cover all of the 600+ patches in the staging tree for the
> .32 kernel merge, and the existing drivers/staging/ tree. If I missed
> anything, please let me know.
>
> Any questions?
>
> thanks for making it this far,
>
> greg k-h
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>
Marek
--
as simple as primitive as possible
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Marek Belisko - OPEN-NANDRA
Ruska Nova Ves 219 | Presov, 08005 Slovak Republic
Tel: +421 915 052 184
skype: marekwhite
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web: http://open-nandra.com
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