Date: Mon, 3 Apr 2000 10:08:03 -0400 (EDT) From: "Matthew N. Dodd" <winter@jurai.net> To: Ted Spradley <tsprad@set.spradley.org> Cc: "Chad R. Larson" <chad@DCFinc.com>, stable@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: FIXED --> Thanks! Re: ep0 eeprom failed to come ready... Message-ID: <Pine.BSF.4.21.0004030959220.50194-100000@sasami.jurai.net> In-Reply-To: <200004030133.UAA77852@set.spradley.org>
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On Sun, 2 Apr 2000, Ted Spradley wrote: > > If the FreeBSD kernel -knows- about non-PnP resources then it will not > > 'remap' PnP hardware to conflict. > > But does it 'remap' PnP hardware to remove a conflict that already exists? PnP hardware has no config until the kernel gives it one. The PnP card has info that describes which resource ranges are valid; the kernel will pick configurations within the valid ranges and activate the card. If no resources are available in the range that the card can use then the card will not be enabled. > > [...] > > On Sun, 2 Apr 2000, Chad R. Larson wrote: > [...] > > > It's good you chose that example. I went through =exactly= that > > > exercise two weeks ago. A 3c509B which wouldn't do squat. Even the > > > 3Com MS-DOS configurator program claimed there were "no Etherlink > > > cards found" until I pulled out the Creative Labs Soundblaster that > > > was in there. > > Can FreeBSD deal with that? When the MS-DOS configurator from the > manufacturer can't? That would be wonderful. That seems to me to be > a very hard problem, a problem that was created by the (imperfect) > addition of Plug'n'Play on top of the already imperfect mechanism of > jumper-selected addresses and IRQs. PnP and 'softset' cards have nothing to do with eachother; it is possible to configure your system in such a way that the PnP boards have no resources available to them in the range that they require but FreeBSD shouldn't activate them on top of another fixed resource device. > And that was (to my understanding) Mr. Larson's original complaint: > that the evolution of address and IRQ (etc.) selection mechanisms over > the years (while it may or may not have made things easier for some > people, I don't know) has made it more difficult for some of us to > isolate, identify, and correct it when it doesn't work. Mr. Larson has no valid complaint; I'm not talking about taking 'control' away from the user. If the user wishes to alter the configuration of his legacy devices he may do so as he has always done; with jumpers or 'softset' programs. PnP boards are a totally different story and if the user wishes to control his PnP boards and their resource allocation then he has only 1 choice which is to remove them from his system. This is the nature of PnP and there is nothing FreeBSD can do about it. The good news is that the PnP support in 4.0/-CURRENt kicks ass and deals with PnP devices pretty well. The only situation that you will get into trouble with PnP devices is when you fail to inform the kernel of non-PnP ISA devices and the kernel hands out resources that are already in use. This is a problem that we're working on. -- | Matthew N. Dodd | '78 Datsun 280Z | '75 Volvo 164E | FreeBSD/NetBSD | | winter@jurai.net | 2 x '84 Volvo 245DL | ix86,sparc,pmax | | http://www.jurai.net/~winter | This Space For Rent | ISO8802.5 4ever | To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-stable" in the body of the message
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