On Tue, 21 Oct 1997, Bill Studenmund wrote:

> On Tue, 21 Oct 1997, David Maxwell wrote:
[snip]

>> One option, though, would be to re-arrange the tests (change order in
>> /sys/conf/files) so that the mcd doesn't get probed until after any ed2 or
>> ne1's get probed. That's what's fixed things for me and the lc0 driver. It
>> might also fix things for wt0 and mcd0. I'll check.

>Is there any way to get config to order device tests other than
>re-aranging the config files? 

``No''.

> Because if the ne2000, and probably the ed
>driver, could get included (and thus probed) before the mcd and wt drivers
>do, now that we have the bus-space allocation, we could probably turn them
>back on in the GENERIC configuration.

>The problem is that the ne2000 and ed drivers are defined in
>/sys/conf/files which is read after /sys/arch/i386/conf/files.i386 (which
>includes /sys/dev/isa/files.isa which has these two drivers in it).

Bill, this turns out not to be the case.

Check out mcd_find() around like 853.

Notice that the mcd driver wil seize ports and attach an mcd device if
there is _anything_ present at the ports that it probes.  That is so
broken it's braindamaged. If your machine has a network card at those
I/O addresses, the MCD driver has already grabbed those ports and
won't give them back.  (We have source: why not UTSL before making claims?)

Early this year (April, IIRC) I suggested to Perry that we change the
MCD driver so that, by default, mcd_find() only accepts cards that
return 'M' (M_itsui), 'F' (F_x001") or D (F_X001D), and add the fixed
mcd to the standard GENERIC config file.  I suggested this
specifically for people who might want to install 1.3 from CD and who
are stuck with an mcd cd.  I still think that's the `right' thing to
do -- (we could add debug code and add other codes for MCD-compatible
hardware as they become known) -- but that idea was rejected long
before the 1.3 release cycle started.

Putting the mcd probe after other probes cannot hurt, and would help
most configurations, but it's still a kludge for broken probe routine.
The right thing to do is to fix the mcd probe if we possibly can.
(Maybe we *cannot* do a good probe for this device; I honestly don't know.)
But it's almost without question too late to do either for 1.3.