Subject: Re: IrDA (was: Nokia GSM phones and pkgsrc? kernel?)
To: Roger Brooks <R.S.Brooks@liverpool.ac.uk>
From: Johan Danielsson <joda@pdc.kth.se>
List: current-users
Date: 03/29/2000 17:37:26
Roger Brooks <R.S.Brooks@liverpool.ac.uk> writes:

> It's about 40,000 lines of kernel and headers plus about 7,000 lines
> of userland stuff, so I'm not about to sit down and write a fresh
> implementation from scratch if some of the Linux code might be
> reusable.

I guess (but I haven't looked at the code) that most of the kernel
code consists of drivers for various irda hardware. You should be able
to get it working without much of this, since most (or all) irda
devices work like normal serial UARTs. For FIR (4Mbp/s) mode you need
to use DMA and that does require a separate driver.

Anyway this part should be easy, the bulk of any implementation should
be Ir{LAP,LMP,COMM,etc}. Curious question: is the PHY part implemented
in hardware, or do you need that too?

> Does the "No GPLed code in the kernel" rule mean that it can't be
> included in syssrc.tgz?

Yes, but you can put it in gnusrc.tgz (similar to the softdep code).

> Could a binary LKM be included in the distribution?

Theoretically yes. We do include other GPL:ed binaries, and I can't
see why a LKM would be different. This assumes that you can get it
included in the base distribution at all. It might be better/easier to
make it a package.

Anyway the packaging can be solved when you have something to
package. :-)

/Johan