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Re: (Semi-random) thoughts on device tree structure and devfs



On Mon, Mar 08, 2010 at 01:56:28AM +0100, Johnny Billquist wrote:
> Is it just me who find this whole ide ironic?

I'm not sure you grasp the whole thing here.

> Have everyone forgotten how to set up their own kernel? Is everyone
> now booting GENERIC? (Or just making a copy of GENERIC, with a few
> patches without understanding what they are editing?)

How exactly does hard-wiring a kernel helps with some of the issues
described here?  Say you have two USB drives, and plug them in a
different order in different ports (which defeats all config(5)
trickery).

> The whole point being that if you boot a kernel, in which you have
> configured the whole system to connect anything anywhere, you should
> not be surprised if the device enumeration might seem random.

Yes, it is random, and should be considered as such.  That doesn't
mean, however, that it is impossible to somehow locate device in a
constant way regardless of how they attached.  I know that poeple have
been using raidframe to do just that for a very long time.

> The asterisks and question marks means exactly that. If you want
> predictable matching that stays the same at every boot, no matter
> what hardware you put on the system, you write explicit lines in the
> config instead.

There is a lot to be gained from providing a useful binary distribution
of NetBSD.  That includes a kernel that people don't have to play with
in order to make it useful.

Grumpy old farts will always compile their own kernel and do their own
thing, but fortunately I don't think it is a goal for anybody in the
NetBSD community to be useful only to grumpy old farts.

[...]
> (Do I need to say that I agree with Quentin?)

Are you still positive about that?  I am certainly not advocating the
status quo.

-- 
Quentin Garnier - cube%cubidou.net@localhost - cube%NetBSD.org@localhost
"See the look on my face from staying too long in one place
[...] every time the morning breaks I know I'm closer to falling"
KT Tunstall, Saving My Face, Drastic Fantastic, 2007.

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